Protective Factors
Protective factors are strengths, supports, and resources that help people cope with stress, reduce the impact of risk factors, and lower the likelihood of mental health challenges. They work at the individual, family, and community levels to build resilience and help people handle life’s ups and downs more effectively.
Our Protective Factors
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Hope
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Connection
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Sense of responsibility
Risk Factors
What are risk factors? Risk factors are conditions, experiences, or pressures that increase the likelihood of mental health challenges. They can come from our thoughts, relationships, or the environments we’re in like school, home, or social media. Risk factors don’t decide someone’s future, but when several are present, they can make coping feel harder and increase emotional stress.
Our Risk Factor
Our main risk factor is hopelessness
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The feeling that things won’t improve or that there’s no clear way forward
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Hopelessness can make individuals feel stuck, unmotivated, or disconnected, especially during times of isolation, or uncertainty
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Hopelessness lowers motivation, increases stress, and make coping with daily challenges harder. Especially when support feels limited.
Hopelessness influence both individuals and our community by making it harder to prioritize mental well-being. Things like bullying, social pressure, academic stress, discrimination, or feeling constantly judged can wear a person down over time. People begin to feel stuck or believe that things won’t get better. When hope is low, motivation drops, self-care feels overwhelming, and people may withdraw from support. Over time, this can increase vulnerability to depression and other serious mental health challenges. Building protective factors such as hope, strong connections, and access to support helps reduce the impact of these risks by restoring confidence and a sense of hope.