AboutHopeConnect™

Our Story

It all began with a prayer. One week after Christmas, alone in the 4KIDS office, Joel Ceballos looked up at the words Hope, Homes, Healing on the wall and asked God, “How can we bring hope to children who have experienced trauma?”

The next morning, God gave him a global vision: to help families find real, lasting hope through His Word—and to equip them to walk with their children through the trauma they had experienced.

A month later, God confirmed that vision by stirring the heart of Kevin Enders, then president of 4KIDS. After a time of prayer at his team’s retreat, Kevin shared Joel’s conviction: children in crisis needed God’s Word planted in their hearts.

Knowing this vision could only be fulfilled together with others, Joel reached out to Rob Hoskins, President of OneHope—co-creators of the Bible App for Kids on YouVersion. OneHope generously shared their ministry design process, and Mat John, 4KIDS Chief Operating Officer, and Shelley Baker, Vice President of Growth, joined Joel in strategy sessions with their team.

Soon, we formed a strategic alliance with Buckner, CAFO, FaithBridge, and Olive Crest—leading foster care and family support ministries—to join the mission. Drawing on four years of focus groups with parents served by these ministries, we began developing a collection of short, fun activities called Everyday Moments™. Parents from Maui, Hawaii, to Bangor, Maine, tested and validated these intentional, trauma-informed experiences.

Today, HopeConnect™ also partners with Both Hands, Focus on the Family, Lifesong for Orphans, and OneHope, and YouVersion to extend its reach to parents across the United States and throughout the Spanish-speaking countries of the Caribbean and Latin America.

We’re also excited to offer Thrive™— our biblically-based and trauma-informed collection of weekly for parents of trauma-exposed children along with monthly special features articles on Foster Parenting and Single Parenting written by our psychologist and licensed therapists on the 4KIDS EPIC Clinical Services team. We also offer additional resources created by our parenting experts that include eBooks, Tip Sheets, Video Series. Each of our resources are available at no cost and are designed help parents bring healing and hope to their children.

And now, under the leadership of 4KIDS President Andrew Holmes, the vision continues as we scale HopeConnect resources to include Parenting Conferences across Latin America and soon across the United States.

Join the mission today by emailing us at: info@hopeconnect.org