Balancing the Scales: Resilience and Child Protection Week 2025

Each year, Queensland Child Protection Week reminds us of a vital truth: protecting children is everybody’s business. It’s a call to action for families, schools, communities, and organisations to work together in creating safer environments where children can thrive.

In 2025 (7–13 September), the spotlight is on the Resilience Scale - a simple yet powerful visual tool that helps us understand how experiences shape a child’s ability to adapt, recover, and grow.

The History of the Resilience Scale

The concept of resilience has been extensively studied in fields such as psychology, education, and neuroscience. One of the most widely adopted metaphors for explaining resilience, the scale balanced on a fulcrum, was popularised by the Harvard Center on the Developing Child.

The Thriving Queensland Kids Partnership (TQKP), alongside organisations like NAPCAN and the Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth (ARACY), has adapted this idea into a community-friendly resource for Child Protection Week. By using a clear visual, the Resilience Scale makes complex science accessible to families, practitioners, and community members alike.

It reminds us that resilience isn’t an abstract concept or an individual character trait. It’s a dynamic process shaped by both risks and supports. One that we can influence together!

(Sourced from https://tqkp.org.au/resources/resilience-scale-poster/)

What the Resilience Scale Shows Us

At its core, the Resilience Scale works like this:

Adversity (red blocks)

These are the negative experiences that weigh heavily on a child’s development. They include abuse, neglect, toxic stress, parental mental illness, family breakdown, and systemic disadvantages such as poverty or racism.

Positive Supports (green blocks)

These are the protective factors that counterbalance adversity. Safe, stable, and nurturing relationships; supportive schools and communities; mentors; and access to healthcare and resources. All these factors add weight to this side of the scale.

Skills and Abilities (the fulcrum)

The position of the fulcrum, the pivot point, represents a child’s internal strengths and adaptive skills. Emotional regulation, problem-solving abilities, self-confidence, and coping strategies can all shift the fulcrum to make resilience easier to achieve.

The beauty of this metaphor is in its clarity: if adversity outweighs supports, outcomes tilt toward risk. If supports outweigh adversity, children are more likely to thrive.

Why Resilience Matters for Child Protection

Child protection is often understood as removing immediate risks of harm. While this is essential, the Resilience Scale reminds us that protection is only part of the story. Proper safeguarding comes not just from preventing harm, but from actively strengthening the supports and skills that allow children to flourish.

This shift in perspective alters the way we perceive community responsibility. Resilience is built in the home, classrooms, sporting teams, arts programs, peer networks, and community organisations.

It also draws attention to systemic issues. Children facing intergenerational trauma, discrimination, or chronic disadvantage carry extra “red blocks” on their scale. That makes it even more important for society to step in with “green blocks” — supportive environments, inclusive policies, and opportunities to learn and grow.

How We Can Tip the Scale

The Resilience Scale is a guide for action. Everyone has a role to play in tipping the balance toward positive outcomes:

Individuals

Listen to children. Offer consistent care. Be a safe adult they can trust.

Families

Create secure, nurturing home environments. Encourage open communication and environments that build stability.

Communities

Invest in safe spaces where children can connect and grow. Support local programs and initiatives. Advocate for child-safe practices in schools, clubs, and organisations.

Organisations

Provide opportunities to build skills and confidence. At Fierce Females, for example, our children’s workshops help kids build confidence, skills, and strength in a safe and supportive space.

Every Child Thrives

The Resilience Scale helps us see resilience as something practical, actionable, and collective. It’s not about a child’s individual toughness. It’s about the balance between risks and supports, and how communities can shift that balance toward thriving.

This Child Protection Week, let’s use the Resilience Scale as a common language. Let’s talk openly about adversity, invest in supports, and build the skills that help children and families not just survive, but grow stronger.

📲 Download the resource here: https://tqkp.org.au/resources/resilience-scale-poster/