From Virtual Class to Open-Source Learning: GRIT Program Adapts to Growing Demand

Nicole Weis, LPC, LAC & amp; Carrie Yeager, Ph.D., Director of Marketing, University of Colorado Colorado Springs

In March 2020, as the world shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Lyda Hill Institute for Human Resilience at UCCS sought to promote social support as a coping strategy for the ensuing stress and community trauma. Social support is known to be one of the most impactful coping mechanisms during difficult times, but the impact of social distancing prevented this for many. To combat this, the Greater Resilience Information Toolkit (GRIT) program was born.

The GRIT program aimed to promote connections and provide free training to enable anyone to offer direct support to their loved ones, neighbors, and friends. The program educates participants on stress, disasters, and support, while teaching five simple steps to make meaningful connections and provide resources to those in need. The training was designed by experts in the fields of trauma and resilience, Dr. Charles Benight, Dr. Josef Ruzek, and Nicole Weis, and has proven successful, resulting in GRIT “Coaches” in 21 countries and all 50 U.S. states.

The GRIT training has expanded significantly over the past three years, after beginning as a virtual class in April 2020. In the beginning, there was uncertainty as to the level of interest and potential for participation in the program. As interest grew, the program was recorded and shared on a website. By May 2020, the training expanded to include awareness of stress and trauma in education and included training tracks for various groups including leaders, small business owners, healthcare workers, military members, and emergency responders. The training continued to expand, creating a more formal sign-up process, adapting the healthcare track into Spanish, creating a tracking system for GRIT contacts, and expanding the available resources.

“The ultimate goal of GRIT is to train as many people as possible to create a network of GRIT Coaches around the U.S. and the world, so when community disasters strike, resilience-trained populations are ready to support one another”

As the U.S. began to move “away” from the pandemic and focus on other national stressors and trauma, the program was adapted again. The videos were re-recorded, and the content updated to include awareness for all types of community disasters, such as hurricanes, flooding, wildfires, and community violence. As program participation continued to grow in the U.S. and around the world, it soon became clear that the on-line training system had to be upgraded to address the influx of individuals seeking training through the GRIT program. As a result, the Institute’s Technology team began migrating the GRIT trainings to an open-source learning management system called Moodle, which allowed for more accommodation and flexibility of learning styles, including visual, auditory, and combination learning.

The migration process was a success, but wasn’t without a few unique challenges such as securing a dedicated server, overseeing the development effort, and learning how to work with the Moodle platform, including a significant design effort. The move has ultimately been a positive one for the program. GRIT remains free and now anyone in the world can sign up and take the training by going to grit.uccs.edu. Once signed up, participants receive an enrollment key to sign into the GRIT class, where they can access all the training tracks, materials, and resources.

In addition to training GRIT Coaches to promote connection within their community, the Technology team is in the process of developing a mobile application. GRIT-e will be designed to support and connect GRIT Coaches from around the country, offering important tools such as quick reminders of important skills, easy ways to monitor and follow up with contacts, and encouragement and success stories from other coaches. GRIT-e also provides critical local and national resources and opportunities to get involved in other community disasters.

The ultimate goal of GRIT is to train as many people as possible to create a network of GRIT Coaches around the U.S. and the world, so when community disasters strike, resilience-trained populations are ready to support one another. By providing a free, accessible program, and developing tools to support and connect coaches, GRIT offers a solution for promoting resilience through social support during difficult times.