What is the sound of a child’s laugher worth? Can you stare at a smiling toddler and not feel an ember of happiness deep inside your heart? Who hasn’t heard truth in the words: “Children are our future?” In fact, children give us so much from the moment they are born. They give us humor, unconditional love, honesty, and hope. At Children’s Hope Residential Services, we recognize the priceless gifts come with childhood and we strive to preserve those gifts so they can flourish and grow.

We focus our efforts on protecting those children that have had the roughest paths through life, the children that have suffered horrible abuses and neglect. In childhood, when they are just learning about life and the world, we want them to know that their harshest experiences do not encompass their reality. We want them to experience the beauty that it to be had in life, to be able to be children and defy their first impressions of the world.

So how do you change the worldview of a child that has had their natural inclinations to play, laugh, love, and honestly revel in life crushed out of them? At Children’s Hope Residential Services, it starts with consciously acknowledging the horrible events that have happened in a child’s life. Then we start the lengthy process of showing the child a different way. We start by modeling healthy relationship styles. We teach appropriate boundaries and logical and natural consequences. We show children that they can expect consistency, safety, and care from adults. We teach them to trust again and we give them hope for the future.

Children’s Hope provides all of the above benefits to the children in our care using evidence-based therapeutic interventions, such as Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Anger Replacement Therapy. Rather than avoiding or covering up their pain, we face it with them head on, allowing them to grieve, experience closure and move on with their lives. At Children’s Hope, we triumph in every giggle and grin, and in each hopeful exuberance that our children express.