Victim Services Providers and Vicarious Resilience

Project Description:

It is likely that you have overcome an obstacle, adversity or hardship and afterwards thought to yourself, “Wow, I cannot believe I overcame that.” You might reflect on the impact the event had on your life and realize the different ways you’ve grown. This is a normal occurrence, in fact, the ability for us to be able to “bounce back” from adverse situations is called resilience. Has this experience extended to a situation where you witnessed a friend, co-worker, family member, or acquaintance overcome adversity? Have you drawn strength, wisdom, or humility from seeing others overcome hardship? This concept is vicarious resilience.

Victim service providers are individuals who work with clients to navigate the impacts of traumatic events. Day after day, victim service providers are exposed to some of the most horrific acts humans can inflict on others. You might think that this work leads to becoming pessimistic, jaded, or hopeless, and wonder, “Where is the silver lining in this field of work?” Through the study of vicarious resilience, researchers found that witnessing the strength, perseverance, and determination of victims and survivors allows service providers to harness their own capacity for overcoming adversity.

Our study aims to further explore vicarious resilience by employing the valuable perspective of victim service providers across Canada. We will use this opportunity to explore what vicarious resilience means to service providers, how their organization helps them navigate their well-being, and the systemic barriers that may exist in their line of work. Our wonderful team of research assistants at the Victimology Research Centre are collaborating with partners to create an in-depth survey that will be disseminated nationally, as well as an interview and focus group protocol to collect additional insight. We are in the initial stages of our research; however, we are working diligently to hold a national conference later this year for service providers across Canada. We will use this opportunity to facilitate focus groups and gather information about common themes related to vicarious resilience that victim service providers encounter. Participants will have the chance to follow-up with an individual interview to tease out nuances and gain perspective on their personal well-being. With this information, we will create a ‘vicarious resilience toolkit’ that will help service providers navigate trauma work.

Most recently, we have been refining our survey by consulting with our research partners and incorporating their recommendations. Our team has had to navigate the use of SurveyMonkey, and we continue to educate ourselves on the use of research software, such as ATLAS.ti, to analyze qualitative data. We have collaborated as a team to create the focus group and interview questions and have gained a lot from each other’s unique perspectives. Our individual strengths allow each of us to contribute valuable insight to our research. We effectively communicate any concerns we have, and we help each other out where possible. By conducting this research, we have not only learned about the study itself, but have grown together and increased our personal capacities for resilience.

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