The resilience literature is increasingly drawing attention to formal service provision as a
means for social ecologies to support children's and youths' positive adjustment to
challenging life circumstances. This article interrogates the universality and simplicity of this
argument. Using a secondary data analysis of the life stories of 16 resilient, Black South
African students from impoverished families, we show that education services predominated
students' childhood and youth experience of formal support and that there was scant …