Working together to change the conversation about mental health

Welcome to CORESZON, the Community Resilience Network. We seek to both learn and teach about what helps communities navigate challenging events and transitions throughout life by asking ourselves, and each other: What gives you hope and strength in difficult times? And what are you already doing that is working well? By working together to develop a common understanding and language for talking about stress and wellbeing in our everyday lives, we hope to change the conversation about mental health.

On our website, you will find information about what we do, and why we do it. If you have any questions, we would love to hear from you.

Connecting people to grow resilience

What if practical knowledge and skills to take care of mental health were just routine as brushing our teeth or combing our hair? We believe that it could have a significant, positive impact on individual and community wellbeing – especially if this knowledge is produced in a conversation that includes as many voices as possible. CORESZON is a community-based mental health education & research project that collects, develops and shares simple knowledge and tools.

What is resilience?

Resilience describes our ability to navigate challenging life events and situations, or: what we do to maintain health and wellbeing in the face of extreme or chronic adversity. A wide range of factors can shape how resilient we are as individuals. However, community is key: social support is one of the strongest factors that protects our health. CORESZON gathers, develops and shares common knowledge about individual and community resilience by asking questions: What do you do to take care of your physical and mental health? What examples do you see in people around you who manage to get through challenging times without falling ill? And, as communities, what helps us work together resiliently in difficult times?

What we do

CORESZON builds community-based mental health capacity by providing a multi-level training program for individuals, groups and organizations that utilizes existing structures and assets. The Garden Method is designed to complement people’s existing abilities to cope with the daily stresses of life. This is why our workshops begin with a simple question: What is already working well? The Garden Method raises awareness for resilience while equipping people with simple tools and knowledge to foster well-being both in themselves, and in relationships with the people around them.

The Garden Method

Much like taking care of a garden, looking after our mental wellbeing requires attention, work and resources. The Garden Method is a simple set of educational “biology basics” and self-care tools that can be used to protect one’s health from the negative impact of stress and grow resilience. It is based on biological givens that all humans have in common: a nervous system that responds similarly to stress and wellbeing, independent of culture, status or gender. This common ground makes it easier to talk about mental health and work together for better wellbeing.

Interested in becoming a partner?

Do you live or work in an area where our program might be helpful? CORESZON is always on the lookout for partners with whom we can build the Community Resilience Network. If you are interested in cooperating with CORESZON, or a research or funding partnership, we welcome the opportunity to share our work, and look forward to hearing from you!

mail@coreszon.com