Design Thinking as the Basis for a Strength-based Bullying Prevention Model
A strength-based intervention model refers to policies, practice methods, and strategies that identify and draw upon the strengths or perceived strengths of individuals, families or the community as a whole. Many of the findings on strength-based intervention approaches related to social work and psychology and is based on using the principles of resilience theory as a guide. Resilience theory suggests that strengthening protective factors helps to counter-balance the adverse effects of risk, and helps individuals overcome adversity (Wang, Zhang, & Zimmerman, 2015). Werner and Smith (1992) defined resilience as the individual’s ability to recover from or adjust rapidly to misfortune or change. Masten (2001) suggests a more dynamic definition of resilience stating, “The capacity of a dynamic system to withstand or recover from significant challenges that threaten its stability, viability, or development” (p. 494).
Design thinking is a methodology that emphasizes reasoning and decision-making as part of the problem-solving process. It is a structured framework for identifying challenges, gathering information, generating potential solutions, refining ideas, and testing solutions. The Design Thinking scholar searches for solutions to complex problems, redefining the way they are interpreted, and consequently, how they are solved (CAULLIRAUX et al., 2013). It is recurrent in the literature the attempt to categorize the basic premises of the area, among which are: holistic view – the whole system must be considered; and, user-centered – focused in the real needs of the user. The quality of the design is closely related to its ability to connect and create relationships with its users. In other words, the main objective is to understand the cultural issues of humanization, which allows the construction of this relationship.
IINII uses a unique Design Thinking process to empathy map your organization in order to clarify values that are the basis for a customized bullying prevention model guaranteed to reduce the prevalence of bullying and increase school connectedness for students and parents. School connectedness has been significantly researched and identified as a protective factor for helping adolescents overcome stressful situations. Contact IINII.org today to learn more about our customized bullying prevention models.
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