Understanding the Role of Supports and Buffers in Community Resilience

In the Community Resilience framework, we talk about supports and buffers as an inter-woven complex system of formal and informal policies, programs, practices, services and relationships — the leaves and the branches of the community. This system works together to help heal individuals from trauma and adversity and propel individuals and communities forward in the absence of adversity, threat and oppression. For forward progress to occur, the structures that support resilience are pro-actively working to minimize the threat of adversity and oppression — prevention that disrupts the cycle of inequity.

Let’s make the distinction between supports and buffers. Buffers are those things that are personally accessible and commonly associated with social determinants of health, such as safe and affordable housing, access to quality education, economic and social mobility and supportive relationships within a community. Supports speak to an infrastructure (systems) that provides programs or services to promote equitable access to buffers while also working to reduce the experience of adversity and sources of trauma and inequity, such as poverty, violence, and racism. We intentionally use these terms in our Community Resilience work because a ‘resilient’ community actively provides buffers needed to help individuals heal (‘bounce back’) while also addressing the sources of inequity and trauma, reducing exposure to threats and breaking down systemic barriers (such as structural racism) so that all individuals can succeed (‘bounce forward’).

Applying these concepts to the Pair of ACEs tree — community resilience means that buffers are applied to the leaves and branches, fundamentally decreasing the frequency of adverse childhood experiences. Supports are changing the soil — adding those nutrients that help communities thrive.

Learn more: www.ccr.publichealth.gwu.edu and watch our 2020 Vision for a Resilient Nation