Last month, Resilience Consultant Jean Hamilton had the honor of giving the keynote address at Mentor Tutor Connection’s Oktoberfest Community Celebration. After a festive evening of giant pretzels, beautiful pumpkins and inspiring stories from mentors and students, Jean shared insights and learnings from her 22 years of work at Acknowledge Alliance:

“The key piece for our work as resilience consultants has been the understanding that if a young person has at least one human being who they can tell cares about them, has high expectations for them, offers them opportunities to be and show themselves and what they can accomplish or master—these protective factors build and strengthen resilience and reduce risk. It’s through relationships that resilience grows.”

Jean’s overall message was clear - as mentors, tutors, resilience consultants and therapists, we all play a significant role in the lives of young people through the work we do building trusted relationships with them, and it is through that work that we can also challenge oppressive and divisive attitudes or beliefs that serve to separate us from each other. These caring human relationships with young people strengthen their resilience and support their growth into becoming resilient adults who like themselves, who trust others, and who are deeply connected. Thank you for inspiring us all, Jean!

View the full recording of Jean’s talk here.