Named after a donor and billionaire, the Lyda Hill Institute for Human Resilience was created two years ago to help people recover from the repercussions of trauma by building resilience.  

Housed on the fourth floor of the Hybl Sports Medicine and Performance Center, the institute advances resiliency via interdisciplinary research, community training and empowerment, and healing therapies. 

The institute is headed by Executive Director Chip Benight. Benight said the institute was launched in March of 2020 with an $8 million matching grant from American philanthropist Lyda Hill, who is known for donating to various Colorado Springs organizations and causes, including UCCS and the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. The institute has since grown and currently has 50 research affiliates across the United States.  

During the pandemic, the institute launched the Greater Resilience Information Toolkit (GRIT), a free, two-hour long online course that teaches participants how to be a resilience coach. The program equips participants with the skills necessary to identify when a friend is struggling and offer support.  

The program also teaches participants about other resources they can provide their friends with when they cannot provide any further help. Students can learn more and take the course here.  

Similar to GRIT, the Lyda Hill institute offers the UCCS First Priority Peer Support Program, a program for staff and faculty members at UCCS. This program is meant to teach them how to identify people who struggle with asking for help and ways to help them. It takes 20 hours to complete with 12 hours online and eight in-person. 

Upon completion, participants become certified peer-support specialists, meaning conversations they have are confidential. It is important to note this is not the same as a mental health professional.  

According to their website, the Lyda Hill Institute opened the Milestones Resilience Care clinic to help those dealing with trauma, stress or burnout. The clinic works to heal and treat the patients’ entire bodies with services like acupuncture, psychotherapy, art therapy and yoga.  

According to Benight, the institute offers a doctoral and master’s program in clinical psychology with a trauma focus. Students in these programs gain research experience, and, in their second year, they gain clinical experience working in the Lyda Hill Institute’s Veteran Health and Trauma clinic.  

The institute is recruiting undergraduate research assistants to work on a grant from the National Science Foundation. If students are interested in participating or learning about other opportunities at the Lyda Hill Institute, advanced undergraduate students can contact Benight through his assistant, Eva Perez, at [email protected].  

The Lyda Hill Institute offices are on the fourth floor of the Lane Center. Photo courtesy of Communique.