Most commonly, the term resilience has come to mean an individual’s ability to overcome adversity and continue his or her normal development. However, the Resilience Research Centre uses a more ecological and culturally sensitive definition. Dr. Michael Ungar, founder and Director of the RRC, has suggested that resilience is better understood as follows:
“In the context of exposure to significant adversity, resilience is both the capacity of individuals to navigate their way to the psychological, social, cultural, and physical resources that sustain their well-being, and their capacity individually and collectively to negotiate for these resources to be provided in culturally meaningful ways.”