Resilience Builder Program^®-Universal (RBP^®-U)

Program Format

RBP^®-U is a teacher-implemented intervention to teach skills in the classroom to help children thrive and overcome daily challenges

12 total topics, consisting of 25 15-minute mini-lessons

Each topic focuses on a different resilience-building skill

Each of the 12 skills have been supported by decades of research and were hand-picked by teachers who helped pilot the program.

Program Materials

The following materials are all provided:

Step-by-step teacher guides (including scripts)

Brief, engaging instructional videos

Classroom activities

Handouts and worksheets

Family newsletters

All you will need is your classroom, and occasionally other small items (sticky notes, posterboard, chart paper, and/or a whiteboard).

What to Expect

All aspects of RBP^®-U have been designed keeping your interests in mind.

Minimal amount of prep-work required.

Teaching resilience skills can help to increase your students’ classroom engagement overall, allowing you to do what you do best – teach!

Learn More

For more information on how to implement RBP^®-U at your school, click below!

History and Research

RBP^®-U is a school-based intervention adapted from the original Resilience Builder Program^®(RBP^®).

The RBP^® is a manualized group therapy program focused on enhancing resilience skills using a cognitive behavioral framework.

Groups for youth from kindergarten through high school have been conducted since 1992 at Alvord, Baker & Associates, LLC (ABA), a private psychotherapy practice directed by the creator of the RBP^®, Dr. Mary Alvord.

In 2009, ABA began its collaboration with the Catholic University of America to examine the effectiveness of the RBP^® in the private practice setting.

In more than 10 years of research, development, and implementation, we found that youth who participated in the RBP^® intervention had improvements in a number of positive outcomes (Aduen et al., 2014; Alvord, Rich, & Berghorst, 2014; Senior et al., 2020; Watson et al., 2013)

Starting in January 2015, the RBP® has been implemented by clinicians in schools from economically marginalized communities, with students from primarily underrepresented ethnic/racial groups.

We randomized 169 students (4^th-6^th grade) from 5 elementary schools who were nominated for the RBP^® to participate in the RBP^® immediately, or after a one-semester delay.

Compared to students who had not yet participated in the intervention, students who participated in the RBP^® demonstrated increases and decreases in the following areas after the intervention (Rich et al., 2019; Rich et al., 2022):

Based on the success of the RBP® in the school setting as demonstrated by our research, we set out to adapt the program in such a way that would expand access to the intervention. As such, RBP-U™ was born.

On May 23, 2018, we were featured on NPR’s “All Things Considered”: To Teach Kids to Handle Tough Emotions, Some Schools Take Time Out for Group Therapy. To learn more, please click here.

Resilience Across Borders, Inc. is a nonprofit organization dedicated to expanding access to mental health resources to all children and adolescents. The organization’s present initiative is the development and dissemination of the Resilience Builder Program^®-Universal to schools in underserved communities at no cost to participants.

Learn more about Resilience Across Borders, Inc. here: https://resilienceacrossborders.org/

Resilience Builder Program®-Universal (RBP®-U)