What gives a family the resilience to work through a crisis? Why is it that some families fall apart when faced with adversities, while others thrive and become stronger? What are the qualities of these resilient families? And how do these families establish and maintain these strengths? The answers to these questions have intrigued a broad range of people, from policy makers to community workers. The federal government instituted the Stronger Families and Communities Strategy with the purpose of building stronger family and community relationships. In 1999 the Family Action Centre at the University of Newcastle initiated the first Australian Family Strengths Research Project as part of the Strategy. The aim of this project was to determine which qualities Australian families perceived as family strengths, and the language families used to describe these qualities. In this article, the author provides an overview of the project.