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FREE, online resilience training
GRIT is a free, online training to help strengthen your resiliency muscles and spread a little grit in your community. Consider GRIT your strength-building CrossFit class—without the bench press.
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“Tough” gets you through today.
GRIT gets you through tomorrow.
By now, we’re all feeling the pressures caused by COVID-19, on ourselves and those around us. Some days, it feels easy to stay strong. Muscle through. Grin and bear it. But it’s also hard not to give into fear, overwhelm, and even a little hopelessness, sometimes. On those days, there’s a hidden strength you can tap into—resilience.
GRIT—Greater Resilience Information Toolkit— was created at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs to help you tap into your own personal strength and resilience—equipping you with the tools to overcome whatever challenges today (or tomorrow) throws your way.
Donor Care Manager,
Springs Rescue Mission
Chief Operating Officer,
Care and Share Food Bank
Owner, Quar Notary
Director of Counseling Services,
Fountain Valley School
Everyday grit.
Grit is one of those fuzzy words that means something a little different to everyone. Some call it resilience. Others refer to it as chutzpah. And cowboys simply say, “Get back on the horse.” Whatever you call it, there are three key characteristics of anyone who has grit:
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Perseverance:
You see the long road ahead and have the willingness to continue on. -
Courage:
You're willing to look fear and uncertainty straight in the face. -
Resilience:
You bounce back when life throws you a curve ball.
Bouncing back
Your community needs your grit.
COVID-19 has put a spotlight on the importance of community. And make no mistake: community isn’t a buzzword or a quaint idea. It only happens because of individuals, like you, who are willing to invest in it. Whatever community looks like for you—a neighborhood running club or a close-knit group of coworkers—your grit is contagious.
53% of Coloradans
1 in 3
people have reported difficulty sleeping due to COVID-19 worry and stress
13.3%
of Americans have reported beginning or increasing substance use to cope with COVID-related stress
10 years
The long-term psychological consequences of collective traumas can last a decade or more
You’ve got grit.
Now it’s time to tap into it.
GRIT Coaching wasn’t designed for clinical psychologists, mental health experts, therapists or that one friend who took a psychology class in college. This program was designed for people just like you—people who are looking for a little extra grit to press on.
There’s a GRIT training for everyone:
GRIT for Community Members
GRIT will help you develop strength and resilience within your community.
GRIT for Educators
GRIT will help you develop strength and resilience with a focus on education.
GRIT for Leaders & Small Business Owners
GRIT will help you develop strength and resilience with a focus on business
GRIT for Healthcare Workers
GRIT will help you develop strength and resilience with a focus on healtcare
GRIT for Military and Emergency Responders
GRIT will help you develop strength and resilience with a focus on military and emergency responders.
What to expect from the training:
- Gain a basic understanding of resilience, common stress responses in disasters, and stress-related problems
- Develop tools to help build strength and resilience within your friends and family—and throughout your community
- Learn how to support and listen to someone who is struggling with the pandemic or another hardship
- Strengthen your coping skills, self-efficacy, and resilience while helping others around you do the same
- Know the signs for when a formal mental health counselor might be needed, and how and where to refer your friends and loved ones
- Gain access to valuable, community resources, and learn how to guide individuals to more resources when needed
What do you mean by ”coach”?
Coach can have a lot of unspoken meaning. It can elicit memories of your middle school softball coach, or your business coach, or your friend from high school who calls himself a “life coach.”
As a GRIT Coach, your responsibility is easy—but important: empower and lift up the relationships you already maintain in your everyday life. Your greatest impact is on your own sphere of influence—where you can exponentially spread resilience and grit throughout your community.
GRIT coaches DO:
- Build their own resilience through the training before supporting others
- Act as a champion within a network of other GRIT Coaches, sharing their resiliency tools with those they come in contact with
- Reach out to their friends, family, colleagues and neighbors to be supportive and encouraging in times of need
- Rely on their connections with local resources such as Diversus Health and NAMI Colorado Springs when a mental health counselor may be needed
GRIT coaches DON'T:
- Host support groups
- Reach outside their own community and sphere of influence. The program is most effective when you use your resiliency tools within conversations and relationships you already have
- Act as a mental health care provider
Built for busy people.
GRIT is a self-paced, 5-hour online training. Watch anywhere you have wifi and on any device. GRIT was built for people just like you.
Watch at your own pace
Watch 10 minutes here or 30 minutes there—these self-paced modules are designed around your busy schedule.
Tips you can use today
We'll give you actionable tips and tools you can use right away—even before you've completed the training.
Share GRIT with others
You don't have to be a mental health provider to share a little resilience with your friends and family.
GRIT on it.
Now is the time. You have what it takes to tap into your own grit—and we’ll help you strengthen those resiliency muscles along the way.
Pledge now. Enroll later.
If you don’t have time to take the training now—that’s okay! Simply pledge to take it when you can. And, in the meantime, we’ll periodically send you tips and tools to build your grit.
Grit the word out
The link below contains easy-to-use resources that you can use to share GRIT with your peers, friends, & anyone who would benefit from the training
When you need a little extra help
Diversus Health Resources
Diversus Health provides behavioral health care to our community, one patient at a time, including mental health and substance abuse service.
For free and confidential support and short-term counseling during COVID-19 recovery, please reach out to the Colorado Spirit Crisis Counseling Program:
AspenPointe’s Crisis Walk-in Center is available 24/7, regardless of an individual’s ability to pay or at no charge for the individual. No appointment is necessary.
In person:
115 S. Parkside Drive, Colorado Springs
Virtual crisis telehealth options:
719.635.7000
NAMI Colorado Springs Resources
NAMI Colorado Springs helps individuals and families navigate mental health conditions, often via no-cost programs and groups led by people with “lived experience.”
NAMI Colorado Springs is open to calls and drop-ins between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., weekdays. Staff and trained volunteers can help with connecting to community partners, additional mental health supports and resources in a free on-site lending library:
1615 S. Murray Blvd., Colorado Springs
719.473.8477
Multi-week education programs and weekly support groups are available for individuals living with mental illness and for family members of people living with mental illness. During COVID-19, services are available via Zoom, with in-person options as circumstances allow.
Colorado Crisis Services phone/text line
Text or call the Colorado Crisis Services Hotline for free and confidential support, 24/7:
(844) 493-TALK (8255) or text TALK to 38255
