Program Overview

Introduction to the Heart & Hope Program

The Heart & Hope program is designed to provide resources and skills to victims of domestic violence who have left the perpetrator and are building a new life for themselves and their family.

Purpose

The program aims to help parent victims gain parenting skills and confidence, build resilience for themselves and their children, avoid becoming victims in future relationships, strengthen family relationships, and envision hope for the future. Workshops also help children build social and emotional skills and prevent them from becoming perpetrators or victims in the future.

Program Structure

• The program offers a spring and fall session each year, with September and February start dates.
• Each session includes nine weekly meetings, each ninety minutes long.
• To protect participants' privacy, staff share the day, time, and location of workshops to participants during the registration process.
• Participants may enjoy family meals before workshops begin, which are prepared by restaurants and sponsored by local program champions.

Participant Learning

During workshops, adults, youth, and children join their peers in breakout groups with program facilitators trained in child, youth, and family development. They complete developmentally appropriate activities and then come together as a large group to complete family-based activities, practicing skills learned in their breakout groups.

Eligibility Criteria

• The program serves victims of past domestic violence, primarily parents and their children.
• Men and women may be eligible to participate.
• Parents and children attend the workshops together.
• If children have to miss a workshop, parents are encouraged to attend; however, children may not attend workshops without a parent.
• Other adults may qualify, including:
  • Caregivers of children exposed to domestic violence.
  • Adults exposed to domestic violence as children.
  • Adults exposed to historical, institutional maltreatment.

Ineligibility Criteria

Adults are not eligible when:

• Children cannot attend program workshops.
• They have been the perpetrator of domestic violence.
• They are still in an intimate relationship and/or living with the perpetrator.
• The program is not designed for couples who wish to reunify after episodes of domestic violence or for couples in healthy relationships who want to attend the program together.

Program Topics

Parent Topics

The program helps parents learn to help their children solve problems related to the trauma their children may have experienced by exposure to domestic violence, including:

1. Teambuilding
2. Communication
3. Child development
4. Parenting Styles
5. Positive Guidance
6. Emotion Regulation
7. Problem-solving
8. Healthy Relationships
9. Strengthening Families

Children, Youth, and Teen Topics

The program helps children, youth, and teens build social and emotional skills and prevents them from becoming perpetrators or victims in the future, including:

1. Self-awareness
2. Self-management
3. Social Awareness
4. Relationship Skills
5. Responsible Decision-making As youth get older, meeting topics expand to include discussions on finding one's spark, identifying strengths, setting goals, and fostering healthy dating relationships.

Family Learning

Parents and children learn healthy ways of engaging with each other to promote overall well-being and resilience among family members. Weekly family activities include:

1. Family Fun Jars
2. Family Show and Tell
3. Emoji-Thon
4. Family Meeting Whiteboards
5. Family Routines
6. Family Rules
7. Yoga
8. Compliment Catch
9. Family Celebration

Program Champions

The success of Heart & Hope is made possible by the support of public and private stakeholders, including businesses, churches, government and human service agencies, individual donors, non-profit organizations, and local restaurants. These champions promote and refer families, provide meeting space, donate meals, sponsor program families during Thanksgiving and Christmas, and invest in the program through financial contributions.