Graduating into resilience with CRS

Many communities around the world struggle to overcome daily challenges caused by chronic poverty, lack of food, health emergencies, conflict or extreme weather. Preparing people to face these obstacles means building their capacities, assets and social capital. To do so, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) uses a Graduation Model to boost families' ability to withstand crises and to strengthen the local and national systems that will ultimately help them become more resilient. This brief outlines CRS’ Graduation Model approach and cites examples where Graduation programming improved people’s resilience, self-reliance, and well-being.