The need to heal young minds has never been more urgent. Our kids are taking their lives at alarming rates, but current treatment methodologies are outdated and there’s a significant lack of clinical providers to address the increasing demand for services.
Help us face this unprecedented explosion of need.
The Foundation of Hope is committed to supporting the growth of the Foundation of Hope Child and Adolescent Anxiety and Mood Disorders Program (CHAAMP). To date, you – our generous supporters – have helped us raise more than $1.4 million to launch this impactful research program, but we’re not stopping there.
CHAAMP’s bigger plan is to address the needs of children and teens over the entire developmental lifespan – from infancy and early childhood to middle childhood, adolescence, and emerging adulthood.
CHAAMP research is an investment in our children that can save lives for generations to come.
We’re facing a terrifying global health crisis – a daily deterioration in the mental health of our kids and teens. Families are living with the terrifying consequences of mental illness each day: 1 in 5 youth ages 6-17 is currently experiencing anxiety or depressive symptoms, and suicide rates have increased 57% since 2000. And moving out of the recent pandemic, those numbers are accelerating dramatically.
We must find solutions to address the root causes of mental illness. We believe that we do this through research – we can do this through CHAAMP.
CHAAMP, the first of its kind in North Carolina, will propel children’s research into the future and save generations to come.
The Plan for Real Change
To build a world-class research program, you need a brilliant team to change the trajectory of children’s lives. Our new CHAAMP Scholar, renowned psychologist Dr. Danielle Roubinov, will lead the way and recruit other established researchers whose expertise covers the entire developmental lifespan – expanding from infancy and early childhood to middle childhood, adolescence, and emerging adulthood.
CHAAMP will conduct basic research (understanding risk factors, causes and consequences of mental illness), clinical & translational research (developing and testing evidence-based treatments across all stages of development), and community-based & implementation research (implementing, evaluating, and scaling treatments in real-world settings where children live, learn, and grow).
Your generous dollars will directly support CHAAMP to advance science and create effective, long-lasting prevention and intervention programs that meet the needs of kids and teens who are struggling with mental illnesses. This is where we move the needle to heal young minds. Importantly, our fundraising efforts for CHAAMP are in addition to ongoing annual seed research grant funding.
CHAAMP will train the next generation of clinician-scientists in this state-of-the art research program to redefine and deepen our understanding of the child and adolescent brain and create novel treatment protocols. By catalyzing innovation for children and families, Dr. Roubinov and her future team will set the stage for exponential development of critical new research and researchers in this field.
CHAAMP has a bright future. Because of our donors’ unwavering support over the past year, CHAAMP officially welcomed Dr. Danielle Roubinov, PhD, to take the helm as the leader and Scholar in October. She’ll work alongside Dr. Samantha Meltzer-Brody, Chair of the UNC Department of Psychiatry, to lead the way on the path to progress.
Danielle Roubinov, PhD
Associate Professor & CHAAMP Scholar
Dr. Roubinov is transforming mental health research.
Dr. Roubinov previously was with UCSF, where she founded the Childhood Adversity and Resilience Lab. She led basic and translational studies to understand the processes through which early adversity affects children’s mental health and developed interventions that help at-risk children and families develop resilience.
“It’s exciting to see the extent that research can change people’s lives. I am deeply committed to transforming the mental health care we provide for children and families in order to reshape trajectories of risk to pathways of resilience.”
She’s passionate, dedicated, and brilliant, earning multiple early-career research awards from the Association for Psychological Science, the American Psychosomatic Society, and was recently named an Azrieli Global Scholar in Child and Brain Development by the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. She believes that all children deserve a lifetime of health, positive development, and achievement, and we’re thrilled to have her as the CHAAMP Scholar.
Samantha Meltzer-Brody, MD, MPH
Distinguished Professor & UNC Psychiatry Chair
Dr. Meltzer-Brody envisions a brighter future with CHAAMP.
“The mental health infrastructure has been overwhelmed and ignored for far too long, and the pandemic broke the dam. We need research that is going to be transformative to help us create a much brighter future. I have no doubt that under Dr. Roubinov’s leadership, CHAAMP is going to make a huge impact on how North Carolina and our country prevent and treat anxiety and mood disorders.”
Luke’s story
A family tragedy.
The Barber family understands the complexities that grieving families face after losing a child. Their world came crashing down on December 11, 2021, when Luke didn’t wake up. Things had seemed to be turning around for Luke after years of an endless cycle of relapses. At 5:15 am, Luke texted his mom to say, “I’m going to learn to love myself again.” But by 2:00pm – it was too late.
From an early age, Luke wrestled with ADHD, anxiety and later, Bipolar Disorder, and daily felt engulfed in darkness. He had so much to offer the world with his charisma and wit, but masked his illness so his mom and siblings couldn’t see the depth of his battles. To honor Luke’s life, the Barber family is bravely sharing their story in support of CHAAMP.
“He would have been the best Dad, the cool uncle.”
Losing a child – or a sibling – to mental health illness is unthinkable and paralyzing. And too many other families will bear this tragedy if we don’t act now.
Hear from the Barber family in their own words:
Terry
mom“I will never be the same. To not find answers when you have a child you think you’re losing is terrifying. We did everything we could to help him get better, but there’s not much out there to get him better.”
Jesse
brother“Luke kept his mental illnesses closeted because he was terrified of appearing weak, unmanly. I wish he would have talked more openly with me, but I always tried to show that I loved him.”
Lily
sister“I tried to be a friend, a sister, a distraction. I wanted to the be person that was ‘normal’ for him because everyone only talked about or focused on his illness.”
Ella
sister“It was a lot, being the young age I was. I was mainly focused on helping Luke, and just making sure he would live another day and come home safe.”
The time is now. The need is unprecedented.
Now that we’ve launched the program, it’s time to grow it. To catapult it forward as a national model for lifesaving research. Our bold vision is to create a world-class research program that will impact the future for the 1 in 5 vulnerable children battling mental illness.
This transformative Program is designed to advance child and adolescent mental illness research to create a new frontier of care for our kids and teens.
The $5 million campaign for breakthroughs in children’s mental illness research