Resilience Across the Lifespan

Discover how resilience develops across the lifespan and how the Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent de Paul Community Impact Fund supports systems-level change in KFL&A.

What Is Resilience

Resilience is the capacity to stay well in the face of significant stress or hardship. It is influenced by our genes, relationships with others, life experiences, and environments.

Better Together

Resilience isn't something we develop alone.

Resilience develops through positive interactions, protective factors, and by mitigating toxic stress. Reducing sources of stress, enhancing skills, and creating supportive environments can further strengthen resilience, especially for those with past adversities.

While resilience can be strengthened at any age, the best time to build the basis of resilience is at a young age.

A Brief History

How we got into this work

The Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent de Paul made a significant gift in 2021 to establish the Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent de Paul Community Impact Fund. The goal of the Fund is to provide grants to achieve transformative, sustainable, systems-level change in two issue areas:

ACEs & Resilience Stream

Help prevent Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), mitigate the impacts of ACEs, and build resiliency generally in children, youth, families, and our community at large;

Older Adults Connecting & Belonging (OACB) Stream

Reduce older adult’s social isolation and foster connection and belonging for older adults generally.

Create Change

Systems-level change involves improving structures, policies, and practices to better meet the needs of children, youth, families, and older adults in the KFL&A region.

Program Update

As of August 1, 2025, ten (10) collaborative initiatives have received funding through the Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent de Paul Community Impact Fund and several applications are in progress. We are therefore not currently inviting new Letters of Intent for either stream of this Fund.

We are always interested in hearing about new collaborative approaches to systems-level change in these two issue areas and may be able to point you to others who are engaging in similar work or notify you should additional funding become available. Please reach out to our staff to see how we may be able to assist. Older Adults Connecting & Belonging (OACB) Project Manager: OACB@cfka.org; ACEs & Resilience Coalition of KLF&A (ARC) Project Manager: arcpm@cfka.org

Land Acknowledgment

The Community Foundation for Kingston & Area is situated on Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee and Huron-Wendat territory. We acknowledge the significance of this land and all that is within it for the Indigenous Peoples who lived and continue to live here and who are sustained by this land.

It is our understanding that this territory is part of the Dish with One Spoon Treaty between the Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee to share and protect this land. In the spirit of peace, friendship and respect, all subsequent Indigenous Nations and newcomers were invited into this living treaty to care for this land and its resources.

We affirm our commitment to continuously listen, learn, and honour Indigenous histories and perspectives as we work towards building a more resilient and welcoming community. We affirm our commitment to be a space for reconciliation in action.