The Healing Home Foundation
Keeping kids from bouncing home to home by strengthening the families who care for them.
About The Healing Home Foundation
About Us
The Healing Home Foundation is a 501c3 nonprofit organization
which exists for one purpose:
to help children in foster care experience stability, healing, and lasting connection by strengthening the families caring for them.
Every year, thousands of children enter foster care carrying the weight of trauma, loss, and disrupted attachment. At the same time, the families who step forward to care for them are often asked to meet complex emotional and behavioral needs with little preparation and limited ongoing support.
This is where breakdowns happen.
Not because families don’t care, but because they are not equipped for what they are facing.
And when families burn out, children lose again.
We believe that changing outcomes for children starts with supporting the adults in their lives.
Help The Healing Home Foundation make a difference
Why Your Support Matters: The Crisis of Placement Disruptions, and How You Can Change the Story
Every placement that breaks down is not just a statistic; it is a child who must start over.
Your support provides stability, training, and relief for families so children can stay in homes where healing can finally happen.
30-50% of foster parents quit within their first year
This constant turnover directly contributes to placement instability for children. Research proves that foster parents who receive adequate support, trauma training, and are valued as partners have significantly higher retention rates
26% of foster care placements break down
Over 1 in 4 placements fail, yet research proves that families with adequate support and resources maintain stable homes. Your donation directly prevents these disruptions.
The national adoption disruption rate is 10-12%
States with robust family support programs achieve disruption rates less than half the national average—proof that support works.
Over 66,000+ adoptions failed in 12 years
Each failed placement represents a preventable trauma. Studies show that families receiving trauma training, respite care, and ongoing support maintain placements that would otherwise disrupt.
100 children spent 300+ nights without placement, nearly double the previous year
This crisis is accelerating. Every dollar invested in preventing caregiver burnout keeps children in stable homes instead of cycling through the system.
Click HERE for citations
Our Programs
Our Approach
The Healing Home Foundation is built on a simple but often overlooked truth:
Children don’t heal through systems alone.
They heal through relationships that are stable enough to stay.
We focus on equipping foster and adoptive families with practical, trauma-informed tools they can use in real time, especially in the hardest moments.
Our work includes:
- Funding therapy and mental health services for children and families
- Providing caregiver training and education grounded in brain science, attachment, and trauma
- Creating practical tools and resources for managing real-life behaviors
- Supporting families in moments of crisis to prevent placement disruption
- Expanding access to ongoing, responsive support
This is not abstract support.
It is tangible, actionable, and designed for everyday life inside a home.
Why This Matters
Placement instability is one of the most damaging experiences a child in foster care can face. Each move reinforces a painful message:
People don’t stay, so I must not be worth it.
But stability changes everything.
When a family is supported well enough to remain consistent, even through difficulty, children have the opportunity to:
- Build trust
- Develop emotional regulation
- Experience safe attachment
- Begin to heal
A child can survive instability.
But they heal through someone who stays.
Our Story
The Healing Home Foundation was founded by Courtney Snyder Elhardt, M.S., M.A., LPC. She is a clinical mental health therapist, child development specialist, and foster/adoptive parent of eight children from the foster care system, many with significant trauma histories.
With over 20 years of experience in child development, education, and mental health, Courtney has worked with children and families across clinical, educational, and community settings.
But the foundation was not built solely on professional experience.
It was built inside a home.
A home that navigated intense behaviors, complex trauma, and the daily reality of what foster and adoptive families face, and discovered firsthand what actually helps families remain stable.
That combination of clinical expertise and lived experience shapes everything we do.
What Your Support Makes Possible
Trauma-Informed Training for Caregivers
Trauma-Informed Training for Caregivers
Trauma-Informed Training for Caregivers
Workshops and practical classes that help caregivers understand behavior and respond in ways that create safety and connection.
Healing Home Toolkits
Trauma-Informed Training for Caregivers
Trauma-Informed Training for Caregivers
Resources and hands-on tools that support regulation, communication, and everyday healing moments.
Family Scholarships
Community Partnerships
Community Partnerships
Financial support so families can access trainings, toolkits, and trauma-informed guidance without cost barriers.
Community Partnerships
Community Partnerships
Community Partnerships
Training and support for agencies, schools, and churches who serve children from hard places.
How Your Gift Helps
Even modest gifts make a meaningful impact.
• $25 – Supports a “Calm in Crisis” resource kit for a family
• $50 – Provides a one-on-one session with a trauma-trained resource specialist
• $100 – Offsets tuition for a caregiver training
• $250+ – Helps sponsor a community workshop or partner training