Leadership Council
These organizations comprise the Haiti Family Care Network Leadership Council. Each organization has years of experience in Haiti, and between them, they represent almost the full spectrum of support needed for the shift to family based care: family strengthening, trauma-informed care, child trafficking prevention, short-term residential care, family tracing, economic empowerment, education, and family reunification.
Rapha International exists to combat the trafficking and sexual exploitation of children. Rapha operates aftercare and prevention programs in Cambodia, Thailand and Haiti. Rapha has been operating in Haiti since 2013, providing aftercare services to survivors of human trafficking and sexual exploitation, and collaborating with the government and other partners in child protection and trafficking prevention efforts.
Espere Community Counseling Center works to improve global access to mental health education and support services. Since 2014, Espere’s team of local psychologists and mental health workers have been providing mental health awareness, advocacy and counseling services to families and communities throughout Haiti. One of Espere’s primary focuses is to help children and families build healthy attachments and develop trauma-informed tools and practices that allow them to thrive.
Founded in Gressier, Haiti in 2011, Respire Haiti’s school has over 540 students with teachers trained in Trust Based Relational Intervention techniques and safe classroom management techniques. The Respire medical clinic offers general medical services, occupational and physical therapy, as well as mental health counseling. Additionally, Respire provides family counseling, individual counseling, and other counseling services to orphanages and other schools in the community with an aim towards ensuring families stay together.
Hope Community Project (formerly Haiti Orphan Project) has been serving in Gonaives, Haiti since 2011. Hope Community Project started as an orphanage and transitioned to an orphan prevention organization after realizing the benefits of family based care. HCP is active stateside by educating the Church and helping move donor funds from institutional care to prevention. In Haiti, Hope Community Project protects children, preserves families, promotes economic independence, and provides school scholarships and affordable health care.
Little Footprints Big Steps (LFBS) has worked to protect vulnerable children in Haiti’s South Department and Grand Anse since 2011 by reuniting families and empowering them with resources to build a self-sufficient future. By reinforcing the family unit, they strive to foster the health, self-worth, and social reintegration of children who have been mistreated. LFBS works alongside Haitian authorities and community leaders to reunite children with their families and to empower families through income generating opportunities, education and vocational training support, community reinforcement programming, and advocacy.
Child Hope International has worked in Haiti since 2004 helping vulnerable children. Through Christ-centered care, training, and social work, Child Hope works to get children out of orphanages and back into loving families. Since 2020, Child Hope has been training social workers and consulting orphanages on how to do family-based care.
Holistic Haitian Alliance began as an orphanage in 2008 and has since grown into a multi-dimensional organization focusing on a holistic approach to child protection as well as family and community preservation. In partnership with the IBESR, HHA has created and implemented a family-strengthening program in Dekle, Haiti to empower families through trauma care training, economic development, and attachment theory workshops. HHA also reinforces families and communities through their primary and secondary school, vocational training, sustainable agriculture programs, and community development initiatives.