Before using the assessment, take a few minutes to build a shared understanding of what resilience actually is and why it matters to your students personally. This is the foundation everything else rests on.

What is Resilience? (Classroom Introduction): Resilience is not toughness. It's not pretending hard things don't hurt or pushing through pain without support. Resilience is a process, the ability to adapt positively when life gets difficult. And here's the part that matters most for the classroom: resilience can be built. Every young person has the capacity to develop it, and the everyday activities they engage in are the primary way that development happens. Research shows that young people who regularly engage in activities that connect them to others, help them reset, move their bodies, notice the good, solve problems, and express themselves, are more likely to feel hopeful about the future. And that hope is what buffers against anxiety, depression, and the weight of hard experiences. Resilience doesn't mean hard things won't happen. It means your students will have more to draw on when they do. This is why CREATE with HARRY matters in a classroom. Not as an add-on to academics, but as a foundation underneath them. A student who knows how to connect, renew, and think their way through a problem is a student who can show up and learn, even on hard days.

Opening framing (share with students): "Before we start, I want to talk about something called resilience. Resilience doesn't mean you never struggle. It means you have things in your life that help you get back up. Scientists have actually studied what those things look like and they found six categories of everyday activity that make a real difference. We're going to learn about those today, figure out which ones you're already doing, and think about whether there are any gaps we could fill."

Boys Town Education Model Tip — Clear Expectations: Students should understand the purpose of the activity before starting. Frame HARRY as a strength-finder, not a problem-identifier. This reduces defensiveness and increases honest engagement.

Have students complete the HARRY-SF individually. The 14-item printable version takes about 5–10 minutes.

Notes for educators:

• Read items aloud for students who benefit from verbal support.
• Emphasize there are no right or wrong answers.
• Results are personal, students should not be required to share their scores publicly.
• Use aggregate classroom trends (if students consent to share) for discussion about which CREATE areas the class is doing well in and which might be gaps.

After the assessment, facilitate a brief class discussion using these talking points. Go through each of the CREATE areas and discuss why they are important in building resilience. As a class, discuss other activities that might fit within each area.

• "When you consistently connect with people, you feel less alone during hard times."
  • Question to the class: “What are activities you can participate in that would help you connect with people?”
• "Physical activity literally changes your brain chemistry. It reduces anxiety and improves focus, which helps you learn."
  • Question to the class: “What are some physical activities you enjoy participating in?”
• "Having ways to renew and reset means you don't stay stuck in bad moods."
  • Question to the class: “Give me some ideas for activities you can do to help you reset?”
• "Practicing thinking skills, like problem-solving, means when a hard situation comes up, your brain is ready."
  • Question to the class: “How do you think through problems now? What strategies do you use?”
  • Boys Town Education Model Tip: Introduce the SODAS method for problem solving.
• "Expressing yourself creatively is a form of emotional processing. It helps you understand your own feelings."
  • Question to the class: “What are some creative activities you enjoy doing or might like to start?”
• "Appreciating the good things in your life and where you come from changes how your brain perceives challenges."
  • Question to the class: “Would anyone like to share an activity they do that helps them appreciate the good things in life and where they come from? Maybe an example that talks about how you celebrate your heritage?”
  • You can utilize the journaling and positive thinking tools from Boys Town available on yourlifeyourvoice.org.

Have each student choose 1–2 activities from each CREATE category that genuinely appeals to them. These become their personal CREATE with HARRY plan, a menu of activities they can turn to when they need to cope, reset, or recharge.

Classroom application: Meet with students or discuss as an entire class the personalized CREATE with HARRY plans. Allow for goal-setting check-ins and revisit/revise the plans at the start of each semester or after a school break.

Build an all-class CREATE with HARRY plan full of short, classroom friendly activities. Place the plan on a bulletin board and work in CREATE with HARRY classroom breaks throughout the week. You don't need additional class time. Below are some natural opportunities to activate CREATE with HARRY within what you already do:

• CONNECT: Structured partner or small group work. Class circles. Peer mentoring.
• RENEW: Brief mindfulness moments at the start of class. Outdoor activities. Quiet reading time.
• EXERCISE: Movement breaks. Walking discussions. PE integration.
• APPRECIATE: Weekly gratitude shares. Celebrating peer accomplishments. Positive notes.
• THINK: Problem-solving tasks. SODAS debriefs after conflicts or challenges. Project-based learning.
• EXPRESS: Art, writing, music, maker activities. Student choice in how they demonstrate learning.

Boys Town Education Model Tip: SODAS Connection: When classroom conflicts arise, use the SODAS problem-solving framework to guide student thinking through the situation. This activates the THINK dimension of CREATE and directly builds the problem-solving skills HARRY targets.

When you observe a student engaging in a CREATE behavior, even outside a structured HARRY activity, name it specifically.

Examples:

• "Marcus, I noticed you helped your classmate work through that problem. That's thinking, and it's exactly the kind of skill that makes you more resilient."
• "The way you expressed your idea in that drawing, that's the express part of CREATE. That kind of creative thinking is genuinely valuable."
• "I saw you take a walk around the building to calm down instead of escalating. That's renewing, and it shows real self-awareness."

Boys Town Education Model Tip — Specific Praise: Labeling the skill being used, not just the outcome, helps students internalize the framework. Over time, they begin to self-identify their CREATE with HARRY behaviors independently.

Recommend reassessing at the start of each semester, after winter break, or at any time a student is going through a significant change. Transitions are when the CREATE with HARRY balance most commonly breaks down, and when the framework is most needed.