“If positive psychology teaches us anything, it is that all of us are a mixture of strengths and weaknesses.
No one has it all, no one lacks it all.”
— Christopher Peterson —
For Your Family
Strengths Share Out
- Plan a dinner or family meeting to focus on everyone sharing their VIA Character Strengths’ results. Remember — there is a guide for helping individuals with developmental disabilities and autism access the VIA, as well as a version for youth under age 18. If the survey is still too challenging for one or more of your family members, that’s ok — as a family, discuss what you believe their strengths to be and why. Option to use the Character Strength Flashcards to help guide your conversations and dive into each of the 24 strengths.
Strengths Outing
- Now that you know everyone’s strengths, decide on a fun outing you can take as a family. Think amusement park, beach day, trip to a local park or nature preserve — an outing that’s a bit bigger than your daily errands or dinner outing. NOW, consider each person’s unique strengths, and spend time planning for the outing. Be on the lookout for the overuse of Signature Strengths and be sure to Shout Out when someone uses their strengths sweet spot! Carry this through your actual outing — and have fun digging into your strengths.
For Your School
Caught in the Act of Character
- Create a schoolwide bulletin board where each of the 24 strengths are named and defined. When someone displays a strength, fill out a recognition card and give it to them to post on the board.
Strengths in Focus
- For each of the first 24 weeks of the school year, spotlight one strength. Showcase books about that strength in the library. Send home a newsletter encouraging families to talk about and highlight that strength. Start each day with a quote, song, historical figure /influencer or scientific fact about the strength in focus.
For Your Community
Strengths Across Your Community
- Create a space in your community center to highlight the strengths of community members. You might include pictures of community members with their Signature Strengths listed nearby. This could be on a bulletin board, website, social media page, etc.
Strengths Community Storytelling
- Set up a community storytelling opportunity where community members can share personal stories of how they’ve used their strengths to overcome a challenge or make a difference. This could be a live event, a blog post, social media posts, community newsletter … the options are endless!