Strategic Resilience

What is Strategic Resilience?

The Centre for Strategic Resilience was created to help individuals, organizations, and communities understand stress and trauma – and learn how to mitigate their effects.Our focus is the health and well-being of each person, with the understanding that when one person becomes more resilient, the benefits ripple out to families, co-workers, and communities.

Strategic Resilience weaves together:

  •  Ancient wisdom traditions – practices for presence, compassion, and meaning.
  •  Evidence-based science – practical tools from psychology, neuroscience, and stress research.
  •  Everyday application – protocols that can be used on shift, at home, and in everyday life.

Resilience, is the ability to adapt and recover after acute stress, adversity, or trauma – and to savour the good moments along the way.

It’s not only about surviving worst-case scenarios. It’s about the micro-strategies and daily “Being Present” practices that turn ordinary days into better days and soften the impact of the hard ones.

Strategic Resilience 

HISTORY OF SRFR

SRFR is an evidence-based psychoeducational program designed to help first responders build resilience in the face of daily operational stress and exposure to life-and-death situations.

  • Brought to Nova Scotia in 2017 by Dr. Ruth Lamb during the height of the fentanyl crisis.
  • Co-facilitated in partnership with Nova Scotia Community College from 2017–2020.
  • In 2020, after Dr. Lamb’s retirement, the program found new life and continued growth thanks to the unwavering support and passion of Vicki McKinnon, the Academic Chair at NSCC Truro. With Vicki McKinnon’s dedication and the years of research Ed Wohlmuth had invested, the program was fully reviewed, streamlined, and strengthened with direct feedback from police, fire, paramedics, and corrections partners.
  • In 2024, SRFR was developed into a formal microcredential, offering both retreat-style and one- and two-day course formats for individuals and agencies across the province through the Nova Scotia Community College.

SRFR is now part of a growing suite of programs offered through the Centre for Strategic Resilience and the Nova Scotia Community College.