Alliance for HOPE International is one of the leading systems and social change organizations in the country focused on creating innovative, collaborative, trauma-informed, hope-centered approaches to meeting the needs of survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse, elder abuse, and human trafficking. Alliance for HOPE International and its allied Family Justice Centers serve more than 150,000 survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault and their children each year in the United States. The Alliance supports Family Justice/Multi-Agency Centers through our Family Justice Center Alliance in 40 states and 25 countries and trains more than 10,000 multi-disciplinary professionals every year. In our work with survivors and strangulation and suffocation assaults in our Training Institute on Strangulation Prevention, we focus on direct support for survivors and training for doctors, nurses, police officers, prosecutors, advocates, and other professionals handling near and non-fatal strangulation cases. We also run the largest camping and mentoring program in the country for children impacted by domestic violence – Camp HOPE America.
The mission of Alliance for HOPE International is to create pathways to hope for women, children, and men who are victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse, elder abuse, and human trafficking through collaborative, integrated multi-disciplinary centers, teams, and initiatives in order to break the generational cycle of violence and abuse in families across the United States and around the world.
Our Vision A future where:
- All the needs of victims are met
- Children are protected
- Batterers are held accountable
- Violence fades
- Economic justice increases
- Families heal and thrive,
- Hope is realized, and
- We ALL work together
The What and The Why
Alliance for HOPE International helps children and adult survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse, elder abuse, and human trafficking find pathways to hope and healing. All of our programs focus on increasing Hope, Resiliency, Safety, and Wellbeing in the lives of children and adults. Hope is a science and it is measurable. Sadly, many social service programs do not measure their results and cannot prove to donors the direct impact of their work. Through a partnership with the University of Oklahoma’s Hope Research Center, the leading research center in the country focused on the power of Hope, Alliance for HOPE International measures Hope, Resiliency, Strength of Character, and a host of other outcomes from our programs and allied Centers across the United States. Why does Hope matter more than anything else? Why are we so focused on increasing Hope in the lives of those impacted by violence and abuse?
Hope is the single most important predictor of long-term outcomes in the lives of survivors. Alliance President Casey Gwinn and Dr. Chan Hellman recently published a new book, Hope Rising: How the Science of HOPE Can Change Your Life (2018). In their new book, they document outcomes from more than 2,000 published studies on hope and conclude: “In every published study of hope, every single one, hope is the single best predictor of well-being compared to any other measures of trauma recovery. This finding is consistently corroborated with other published studies from top universities showing that hope is the best predictor for a life well-lived.” People with higher hope in their lives navigate their way through trauma better than people with lower hope in their lives. Using a validated Hope Scale, we measure Hope before and after we work with children and adult survivors of violence and abuse. Our latest research is available in our Online Resource Library and is focused on the work of our Camp HOPE America program and the work of our Family Justice Center Alliance program has found statistically significant increases in Hope Scores from our work. The research has been published in the Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal and cited in a host of other peer-reviewed, academic publications.
The Problem
Children exposed to domestic violence and related child abuse suffer profound trauma. Unmitigated trauma can create lifelong impacts in the lives of children, teens, and adults. Most of those arrested and incarcerated in this country for ALL crimes grew up in homes with some mix of child abuse, domestic violence, drugs, and alcohol. Children and teens growing up in violent and abusive homes often repeat the cycle into the next generation as both victims and perpetrators – costing society and taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars – leaving a trail of pain, brokenness, and heartbreak. The trauma of unmitigated childhood trauma then plays itself out in the lives of victims and their children and continues on into the next generation. You can help us break this vicious generational cycle in our work with both adult and child survivors of trauma and abuse. You can be a Hopegiver! To donate to our lifesaving work, click here.
The Solution
Children exposed to the trauma of domestic violence, sexual assault, and other forms of child abuse need cheerleaders in their lives and pathways to hope and healing. The Alliance provides trauma-exposed children with mentors, peer counselors, and specialized camping and mentoring activities that produce hope and healing. The University of Oklahoma’s Hope Research Center team, under the leadership of Dr. Chan Hellman, has called the Alliance’s work a “pathway of hope” for children and teens. Our research with adult survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault has found the same impacts. When we increase Hope Scores in the lives of domestic and sexual violence survivors, we help them find pathways to hope and healing. Support for the Alliance’s Camp HOPE America and other specialized programs, including our Family Justice Centers and other types of multi-agency collaboratives across the United States, helps break the vicious generational cycle of domestic violence and child abuse. When we can increase Hope Scores in the lives of children and adult survivors, we can change their destinies. If you would like to even check your own Hope Score, you can go to our Hope Score website and measure and track Hope in your own life.
