Written by Joe Le Roy, LICSW, President & CEO, HopeSparks Family Services.
We are writing to share a significant milestone at HopeSparks. After years of deep consideration, thorough reflection, careful analysis, and evaluating both our impact and community needs, we’re embarking on a strategic shift in our service delivery that will shape the next phase of HopeSparks as an organization. This strategic shift enables us to realign our efforts and resources with the needs of our community, those we serve, and to fill critical service gaps where they exist.
What’s Changing?
Our Board of Directors and leadership have made the decision to re-imagine our outpatient Behavioral Health Program. The program will shift its focus from serving clients who are up to 21- years-old, to focusing solely on the birth-to-six year old population. The program will become a part of our ongoing efforts to expand services to the infant and early childhood population, and will deeply strengthen our Infant & Early Childhood Mental Health (IECMH) service offering to children and their families.
This change will only impact our outpatient services, all other HopeSparks mental health programs will remain unchanged. This includes our Hip Hop Therapy school based program, and our Pediatric Healthcare Integration Program, which is positioned to grow over the next several years, and will continue to provide mental health services across the pediatric continuum up to 21-years-old.
Doubling Down on Prevention
By focusing our efforts, we strengthen our value to the community. For more than a decade, HopeSparks has been building high quality behavioral health programming across our entire organization to include clinic, home, and community based services. We have focused on prevention, early intervention, getting up stream as far as possible to make an impact, and changing lifelong trajectories. We will double down on those efforts. HopeSparks has struggled to meet mental health service gaps for children up to six-years-old, and we are also poised and best positioned to help fill this gap for our community.
Why is this Important?
Investments in prevention and early intervention have the greatest impact. By focusing on the well-being and mental health needs of our youngest citizens, we can change life-long trajectories for children and their families. Infant & Early Childhood Mental Health sets the foundation for healthy social, emotional, and cognitive development. Early and secure relationships and supportive environments can help children and their families get the best start in life possible.
Navigating the Transition Together
We are excited to share that change brings opportunities for growth, innovation, and renewal. While transitions can be challenging, they ultimately strengthen our community. As an organization, we have successfully navigated change before and are confident that we will emerge from this transition stronger and more resilient. With the support of our dedicated community partners and collaborators, we will continue building a coordinated system of care for children in Pierce County.
Your Role in Shaping Our Future
You will be seeing some changes to our website and program descriptions over the coming months as this transition evolves. Your thoughts and ideas are really important to us as we make these changes together. Please share any thoughts, worries, questions, or suggestions you may have. Your feedback is valued. I would also be happy to set up a time to meet with you individually to discuss this change. Thank you for your support!
