RECLAIMED HOPE INITIATIVE

Camp Hope provides a safe, inclusive, and enriching summer camp experience for foster, adoptive, and children with disabilities ages 4-12. We serve children who are otherwise unable to participate in camp due to intensive behavioral needs, mental health diagnoses, intellectual disability, and significant trauma. In 2025, we served 78 campers, and held camp 5 days/week over 7 weeks. RHI uses input from campers, families, and staff to inform our program strategies. We distribute pre- and post-camp surveys to assess each campers social and behavioral development, child and parent satisfaction, and safety of camp programs. In addition to surveys, we also use face-to-face interviews, informal conversations, and onsite reviews from local professionals and program leaders to gauge the quality and effectiveness of camp activities. During the Camp Hope season, RHI uses two methods of surveys to accurately capture our outcomes from a variety of lenses. Our first method of evaluation is from lead camp staff who rate individual campers on these four skill areas: (1) emotional regulation, (2)coping skills, (3) communication, and (4) participation. This allows us to gauge how each child progresses. At the end of each day, Camp staff will report on a scale of (0-4), how much each camper demonstrated these four skills. Our baseline goal for measured improvement is 75%. RHI will also survey parents on their experience with camp to assess how well we are supporting their needs and reducing their stress levels. In addition, we use the Child & Youth Resilience Measure-Revised, which is a self-report measure of social-ecological resilience suitable for use with individuals aged 5-23. The CYRM-R is a 2- subscale, 17-item Rasch-validated measure of resilience with robust psychometric properties. This revised measure is recommended for researchers and practitioners who are interested in measuring resilience across diverse cultures and contexts. This is completed by each child on their first day of Camp Hope and their last day of Camp Hope to gauge how well our programming increases the level of child resilience. In 2025, we saw over 80% of campers show neutral or positive change across all age groups and subsets. RHI maintains active relationships with the foster, adoptive, and disability community through our delivery of direct services to families. We engage families not only in the work we do but as participants in our program development. An example of this was when parents in our other programming requested their children with more complex medical needs be able to attend Camp Hope. With this in mind, our staff met with parents to better understand the current limitations and what would be needed to meet the needs of these children. After this evaluation, we were able to accommodate children who are wheelchair users by installing a metal ramp to create access in the camp environment, as well as hiring a full-time nurse on staff to be able to manage more complex needs such as seizure disorders, g-tube feedings, and emergency medication management. As we continue to grow our staff and organizational capacity, RHI will refine and assess data collection tools as needed to measure impact from a holistic perspective.

Through the Thrive program, Reclaimed Hope Initiative (RHI) ensures parents and caregivers of foster, adoptive, and children with disabilities have support and respite so they can better care for themselves and their families. RHI hosts six monthly parent and caregiver support groups, four of those with on-site childcare provided by professionals qualified to care for children with complex care needs. RHI also provides skilled in-home respite care to Thrive families experiencing hardship, such as illness, job loss, or other crisis, so they can retain skilled, reliable, trusted care for their children with complex care needs. In addition to parents reporting that Thrive helped them better take care of their own needs, as well as that of their children, the lasting impact of Thrive is helping families stay together through hardship. As one family described the benefits of attending Thrive, There are so many I could name here, but for me the most siginificant are feeling like Im not alone in walking this road and having a space where I can vent about the circumstances of our situation without feeling like people are going to pity me. In the regular world there are not many people who I feel like I can share things with without that reaction, and so that means I usually wind up just not sharing much, which makes the isolation feel even worse. The challenges we face are often so specific, and having this space to feel like there are people who get it is invaluable. In 2025, we served nearly 300 individuals navigating foster, adoptive, and children with disabilities through the Thrive program, which provides six monthly parent and caregiver support groups, in-home respite care, monthly respite nights for children, and referral services. RHI surveys Thrive participants annually. Among parents and caregivers who attended at least half of support groups held in 2025, at least 80% of them reported: -Decreased feelings of isolation in parents. -Decreased feelings of stress in parents. -Increased self-esteem and self-confidence. -Increased personal coping skills to decrease mental health crisis. -Increased parent ability to manage the needs of their child without consistent overwhelm. -Decreased family separation with preventative care strategies (either parent separation or child separation). The lasting impact of Thrive is helping families stay together through hardship. One family shared that Thrive provides connection to other foster, adoptive, and special needs families who understand our reality...it isnt all sad, hard stuff; often we need a place where people understand the unique joys and victories our family has as well. Thrive has been great for us to connect to parents who get it, a place where we can be real and have our stories witnessed in a community, as well as give our child safe access to a fun space with peers who have some shared experiences; a place where she isnt the odd one out.