Fostering Hope and Enhancing Resilience through Character Strengths Interventions

This paper provides a review of the theory and application for how to integrate positive psychology, specifically VIA character strength interventions, into the programming at The Food Project (TFP). TFP is an impactful community based non-profit organization in Southwest Baltimore that provides cooking, farming, and restaurant skills, job opportunities, sustainable food sources, and mentorship to the underserved youth in the area. All programs are facilitated at TFP’s community center. TFP is looking for ways to continue to build hope and resilience among its youth participants. Upon reviewing the positive psychology literature, we determined five specific evidence-based interventions that integrate VIA character strengths into the existing programming at TFP. Each intervention is intended to build resilience and cultivate hope for the youth participants and includes a measurement plan to evaluate the effectiveness of the new initiative.