What is Resilience

Resilience is the ability to cope with, adapt to, and overcome challenges. With resiliency training, children and families learn not just to meet challenges but also to become stronger in the face of challenges.

Developed by a UCLA-Harvard team, FOCUS teaches Military children and families to understand their emotional reactions, communicate more clearly, solve problems more effectively, and set and achieve their goals. Parents and children—from preschoolers to teens—learn to use tools that will aid in their everyday interactions and help them become a more complete and functional family.

Families are directly impacted by a parent’s military service, espeically if the parent returns with significant levels of combat operational stress. A parent might return home and encounter deployment reminders in their daily life, leading to changes in their mood and behavior. These changes can be upsetting to children and spouses, and affect parenting and marital relationships. FOCUS helps families understand how reactions to deployment reminders can influence relationships and teaches skills to deal with them.

How it works

FOCUS Programs
FOCUS and the Deployment Cycle
Top Questions for Service Members and Spouses/Partners

With FOCUS, military families not only learn to cope with the challenges they face but become stronger in the face of challenges. Tami Potton, FOCUS Resiliency Trainer and Marine Corps Spouse

 

I have a strength, and FOCUS made me see that. FOCUS gives you more confidence dealing with the family problems.