Goal

Research on resilience explores how people overcome hardships despite devastating losses, engage in life optimistically after bouncing back from challenges, sometimes even building back better.
Why and how does resilience vary across individuals and communities? How does resilience develop or erode over time? Can resilience be built with structured and sustained efforts? How does spiritual well-being improve buoyancy? Can resilience-building efforts be scaled across cultures?
Partially or exhaustively, these questions have been often answered in laboratory settings but there is scant empirical evidence whether resilience-building efforts in rural communities over a period can help in alleviating distress and make people vibrant.
The objective here is to promote human flourishing through a structured, capacity-building model and muster new advances in resilience-building by facilitating an interdisciplinary research. This can involve experts from psychology, human development, agriculture, extension education, mass media and languages to usher the rural communities in equilibrium and create resources that contribute in making the entire society holy, happy and healthy.
In a nutshell, this action research aims to discover the reasons for decline in resilience; develop strategies to reverse this phenomenon; expound scalable model and harness it globally to build human capital.

Opportunity

Research on resilience-building in rural communities through support volunteers in the community setting especially mothers and grandmothers is scarce.
Punjab, an Indian state, historically suffered heavily due to the attacks by invaders for 700 years. Yet, the people remained steadfast. However, today it is experiencing a spurt in suicides, farmer distress and decline in holistic well-being across rural landscape.
How did its centuries-old resilience decline? Is it sudden or gradual? What can be done to revivify precious human lives?
It will be a rare occurrence when experts with multiple inter-disciplinary linkages brainstorm and pave the way for human flourishing.

Roadblocks

There can be numerous roadblocks ranging from conceptual to operational.
Researchers have different standpoints on resilience-building that contradict or are divergent.
Older women in families, especially grandmothers have free time, rich experience, are a major force and can volunteer, yet youngsters may not listen to grandmothers due to the generation gap.
We plan to build a taskforce of community volunteers trained in resilience-building skills. However, mobilizing them for psycho-social intervention can be challenging. Not every potential volunteer may be intrinsically motivated by a larger cause or mission of building a flourishing society.

Breakthroughs Needed

For economic development to sustain, it must be supported by the parallel trajectory of social advancement. In this multi-disciplinary era, science ought to change its focus to explore practical role in the subjective well-being of masses. Effective policy solutions need to be recognized for examining a broad canvas of concerns including the social fabric that seem to be the single most valuable metric to gauge the community's blossoming potential.
Developing consensus on selective research perspectives on resilience-building is imperative. Resilience is partly innate but mostly a learned ability. Eliminating contradictory viewpoints and optimization of the adopted research perspective will help in strengthening the comprehension and expansion of resilience-building behavior.
Selection of women through multiple and rigorous training can help in finding spirited volunteers, who can thrive better in varied situations and can provide support to devastated persons in their vicinity. Regular interventions through tailored approach and carefully crafted resources can inspire women to volunteer for the project. To encourage and retain them, an appropriate incentive and reimbursement practice can be calibrated.
Despite the generation gap in the culture of Punjab, the village elders are still respected; people listen to them and seek their wisdom in the hours of crisis.

Key Indicators of Success

Year 1: Has a coherent framework developed that identifies the roots of decline and enrichment of resilience in a community? How many ventured, finally selected as support volunteers through multiple sessions?
Year 2: Have culturally sensitive modules developed after multiple rounds of revision? Identification of standard research inventory and method of survey keeping in view the data integrity and human subjects research protocols. What is the take-up rate among the elders in the community?
Year 3: Data collection from experimental and control groups. Data analysis and trend of results? Unique discoveries, rigorous training material and a spirited trained manpower.

Additional Information

Preventive resilience support interventions can improve psychosocial wellbeing and promote buoyancy. Yet, resilience and resilience-building efforts have been modestly investigated in relation to rural communities.
Related theories in resilience-building and community development literature provide insight into the community and individual resilience through participatory action research studies within rural communities.
Change in resilience mediates the relation between positive emotions and increased life satisfaction. It suggests that happy people become more satisfied not simply because they feel better but because they develop resources for living well.
(https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/a0015952)
In the process of building resilience components like social networks, support; positive outlook; learning; early experiences; environment and lifestyle; sense of purpose; embracing differences; beliefs; and leadership necessitate interactions in the community. (https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.20409)
Social ties and recognition of the importance of place have demonstrated resilience outcomes. Accordingly, developing networks, fostering connections and promoting collaboration can all contribute to resilience pre- and post-disaster. The need to respond rapidly to realize opportunities must be balanced with the community-centric approach, with greater recognition given to the contested nature of the decisions to be made. (https://doi.org/10.3390/su10061952)
Positive emotions experienced by resilient grandparents function as protective factor to reduce the magnitude of adversity and assist to cope well.
(https://www.researchgate.net/deref/http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1177%2F0898264314551333)
As very few studies have evaluated the effectiveness of resilience-building interventions in rural communities, building a taskforce of mothers and grandmothers as support volunteers trained in resilience-building skills, aims to address this gap. The research will:
1. Discover the causes that point towards the collapse of resilience in a community. It will further brainstorm and suggest ways to avert the tide and identify volunteers through outreach efforts, snowball and customized research inventory.
2. Develop the scientifically tested modules for training through rigorous, regular improvements. Standardized research tools will be applied in the experimental group.
3. Conduct randomized control trials in baseline survey, apply the intervention in the sample population, collect data, carry an end line survey and analyze the results for a positive transformation of the human race.
The action research aims to expound a scalable model and harness it globally to build human capital. It will yield robust and actionable insights into resilience-building and promotion, promising to bring the implementation of culturally sensitive modules as well as the creation of spirited trained manpower.
Collaboration with researchers of multiple disciplines at other institutes of eminence in the state like Punjabi University, Patiala; Panjab University, Chandigarh; Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar and Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai in other states will help this project to gain a fuller understanding of the concept. By pinpointing culturally valued skills for enhancing resilience, the project will serve as a roadmap for cultivating resilience among people around the world. Collaborations with local NGOs like Youthreach, Sukriet can also benefit.