Low-resource environments call for evidence-based knowledge on resilience strategies. When the stressed contexts associated with low resources also include cumulative and chronic risk (such as HIV & AIDS, high unemployment levels, low household incomes and low literacy levels), demands on varied services are strained even more drastically - compelling empirical understandings of how systems can cushion the impact of stressors. Partnering for resilience is a pioneering book offering insights (spanning eight years) from longitudinal, participatory research based on a strengths-based intervention with teachers in varied schools (primary and secondary; urban and rural) in three South African provinces. Partnering for resilience presents new knowledge pertaining particularly to how existing resources can be managed to both implement and sustain resilience tactics to mediate the effects of ongoing adversity. An evidence-based intervention model (STAR: Supportive Teachers, Assets and Resilience), with validated fidelity of intervention across cases, is presented. STAR demonstrates how varied groups of teachers, who took ownership of the challenges their school communities faced, were able to formulate solutions and reach identified goals in order to create and sustain caring and supportive schools. The methodological nuances of integrating Participatory Reflection and Action (PRA) for collaborative knowledge production are unpacked with case-by-case examples. In addition, the book argues for inventive knowledge production where research integrates community engagement processes with research capacity development of postgraduate students and partners.

In this edition of the publication, the authors explore practices of proven worth and challenging contexts for interventions. On the theoretical side, the title examines how life skills and assets are widely used in current discourses in psychology and education. Links with positive psychology, resiliency theory, inclusive education policies and practices, and indigenous knowledge systems, are explored. On a practical level, it illustrates the application of the life skills programme in group interventions with diverse participants. It also presents examples of the asset-based approach in research and practice. Contextually, the challenges of identifying, accessing and mobilising strengths and assets in a milieu characterised by vulnerable children, HIV and Aids, poverty, unemployment and illiteracy are described.