In spite of the most adverse circumstances, some children manage to survive and even thrive, academically and socially, into adulthood. A complex array of individual, family, and community factors has been identified that best explains resilience and lays the foundation for programs and interventions targeted at fostering the development and maintenance of resilience in at-risk youth. The literature is reviewed to identify and explain those factors, discuss their mutual interaction, and explain their implications for the creation of programs designed to support resilience in school-aged children.