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About

Positive experiences can ease toxic stress and help children and youth grow into more resilient, healthier adults. HOPE identifies ways that our communities and systems of care can better ensure that all children have more positive experiences and that all families have support to nurture and celebrate their strengths.

The Four Building Blocks of HOPE are composed of key positive childhood experiences (PCEs). The sources of those experiences and opportunities are the foundation for healthy childhood development.

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History

HOPE combines a public health approach to preventing child abuse with a broader understanding of how children grow to become strong, healthy, and resilient adults.

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Team

The HOPE National Resource Center, led by Dr. Robert Sege, is based out of Tufts Medical Center in Boston with staff all over the country!

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Networks

The HOPE Innovation Network (HIN) consists of organizations across sectors who are implementing the HOPE framework.

Our Mission

HOPE, grounded in science that demonstrates the formative role of positive experiences in human development, seeks to inspire a HOPE-informed movement that fundamentally transforms how we advance health and well-being for our children, families, and communities.

Our Vision

We see a world that honors and promotes positive experiences as being fundamental to everyone’s health and well-being.

Our Theory of Change

AS HOPE IMPLEMENTS our strategic actions, we build a collective understanding of the importance of positive experiences. All of our work is done in collaboration with partners who seek to develop HOPE-informed approaches to supporting children and families. We’re creating a paradigm shift in systems of care, communities, and policies to value and actively bolster positive experiences. This shift builds on our understanding of the power of relationships within families and communities and between those who provide and receive supportive services. Our goal is to improve empathy, drive respect for human dignity, and promote trust among families.

Our Guiding Principles

  • WE HONOR the hope, goodness, and strength that exists inside every single one of us.
  • WE BELIEVE in the goodness embodied by the deep loving relationships between parents and their children.
  • WE SEEK TO CREATE equitable conditions for health and well-being so that all families and children have the opportunity to thrive.
  • WE CELEBRATE our differences as our collective strength and speak out against racism and stereotypes for the harm they inflict.
  • WE JOIN with others to advance the evidence of positive experiences to support health and well-being for all children and families.
  • WE ACT with humility, respect, and gratitude for others in everything we say and do.

Equity statement

All children need positive childhood experiences (PCEs). PCEs promote physical and mental health and well-being. PCEs can mitigate the effects of trauma through resilience and healing. The HOPE National Resource Center is dedicated to ensuring that every child in each community has access to the key types of PCEs that we call the Four Building Blocks of HOPE. These Four Building Blocks of HOPE consist of: safe and supportive relationships; safe, stable, equitable environments to live, learn, and play; opportunities for social and civic engagement to develop a sense of belonging; and opportunities for emotional growth.

We understand that achieving equitable access to PCEs requires acknowledging and addressing systemic barriers that countless children and families face. Many of these barriers result from centuries of bias and require sustained intentionality to identify and dismantle. The HOPE National Resource Center works with local and national partners to create more responsive systems so that every child has the resources and experiences they need to grow into thriving adults.   

The HOPE National Resource Center works to create equitable access to Positive Childhood Experiences. 

  • The HOPE framework is flexible. To ensure cultural relevance, individuals and communities determine what each of the Four Building Blocks of HOPE means to them.  
  • We train individuals to be aware of unconscious biases and approach all families with curiosity and through a strengths-based lens to minimize individual experiences of bias and discrimination and maximize experiences of feeling seen, included, valued, and validated. 
  • The HOPE National Resource Center offers technical assistance to organizations hoping to create more equitable outcomes for the community. This includes reviewing organizational policies with the goal of promoting equitable access to PCEs. 
  • We incorporate community engagement and feedback into all of the training and organizational support that we provide so that the families are front and center in program and policy change.  
  • We encourage organizations to use data to understand who is accessing their services and benefiting. If there are disparities in that data, the HOPE National Resource Center offers technical assistance to engage the affected communities, remove barriers, and enhance access for everyone.  

We at the HOPE National Resource Center are always learning. We are committed to recognizing the essential human dignity of each child and each family. We take this work very seriously, and we invite everyone we reach to join us in the journey towards equity and justice. 

Past work on equity

To maintain our commitment to equity, we have conducted annual reports that assessed our progress toward previous goals and identifies new goals for the upcoming year:

2022 HOPE Anti-racism Progress Report
2023 Anti-racism Goals

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