Suddenly – War. Intervention Program for Enhancing Teachers and Children’s Resilience Following War
Suddenly – War. Intervention Program for Enhancing Teachers and Children’s Resilience Following War

Summary/Abstract: The Israeli population has been coping with terror acts and war, where residents - adults and children, are under missile attacks and terror which endanger their lives. In order to enhance coping resources in this harsh reality, the “Mashabim” Community Stress Prevention Center in Israel devised special programs for teachers and children at schools. The programs are based upon the “Basic Ph” Model of Coping and Resiliency developed in Israel (Lahad, 1997; Lahad, Shacham and Ayalon, 2013). This article describes a case study of one elementary school whose teachers and pupils were under massive fire during the Second Lebanon War. Immediately upon cease-fire, an intervention program was implemented within the school. The program included special workshops for teachers for enhancing resilience following war. The program also offered verbal and nonverbal activities for pupils, to enable them to express their experiences, emotions and thoughts through painting, sculpting, movement, physical activity, talking and storytelling. The article discusses the program’s theoretical basis and its implementation in school. Furthermore, the findings emerging from in-depth interviews with the teachers are presented, indicating the contribution of the intervention program to teachers with reference to four aspects: enhancing the teachers’ coping resources, effective preparation for activities with the pupils in class, development of the team as a significant support group and the need for indepth trauma and resilience related training.

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