Our Family is Creative! Collaborative Problem Solving

Welcome to Our Family is Creative! Collaborative Problem Solving. This collection offers activities to help family members of all ages build and share skills related to problem solving together. Creative brainstorming, as a key part of collaborative problem solving, helps all families get through tough times. This collection includes ideas to help parents and/or caregivers, children, youth, young adults, and older adults to enhance problem solving skills together. All of these activities were chosen to easily fit into everyday routines — sometimes even to make them run smoother — and all are backed by good science. We hope you find the ideas to be useful. You may wish to learn more about an effective problem-solving model provided by our partners at FOCUS.

In the video below, Shelley MacDermid Wadsworth, Families Together founder, speaks with Froma Walsh, one of the world’s leading scientific experts on family resilience, about collaborative problem solving. Walsh explains that every day the pandemic brings families big and little problems to solve. Collaborative problem solving among family members helps build skills in shared decision-making, meeting in the middle on differences, and a feeling that everyone’s input is valued. We hope you will find the ideas for learning and practicing collaborative problem solving helpful to your family!

Wellness Wednesday

What are the health benefits of healthy eating? Does eating healthy reduce stress and anxiety during challenging times? View this collections’ Wellness Wednesday for tips on healthy eating and share your thoughts with us on the Families Together Facebook group.