Experience & Results
Family Experience
What New Hope Offered Our Family
“I am a Mom of two daughters adopted from the Foster Care System. They have been through many things in their short lives including sexual abuse, rape, exposure in-utero to street drugs, prescription drugs, and alcohol, neglect, and verbal abuse. Each of these is trauma. Trauma rewires the brain. Both of my girls attend New Hope. They had previously attended a public school and no matter how hard we tried from putting in place IEP plans, to 504 plans, to Safety Plans, public school was not going to provide my girl’s what they needed to learn. We also contacted private schools, but no one wanted to work with the issues my girls have. New Hope offered what my girls need; safety, predictability, a high level of supervision, tailored learning plans, staff that understood trauma and the effects of it. It also offers small class sizes, and the unique spirit of calm my girls need.” -S.L. from Oregon
We Saw Results!
“It took my husband and I a long time to be on the same page, and 100% committed to do what was BEST for our son, instead of what was normal, convenient, or giving into pressures around us. We kind of parented our son half how he needed and half how we wanted/was normal or convenient. We first brought him to New Hope, 6 summers ago, but we chose not to stay at that time. However, last October was when we got serious about really working hard to help our son heal. We put his needs at the top of our priority list and started doing things that were hard to do, like missing lots of family events, splitting up so our other kids could live a normal life, leaving our son home when we traveled (with a responsible adult), having weekly calls with Kasey, and following her and LauraLee’s advice to a “T.” And the hard work PAYED OFF!!! We took our son to my Grandpa’s funeral this past weekend, which was MORE than he has done in an entire year!! He did INCREDIBLE! Outings a year ago meant meltdowns, raging, violence, screaming, threatening, to his siblings, me, and to my husband. However, this past weekend was peaceful, no fighting, no arguing, no difficulty with him. He transitioned beautifully when we got home, and attended the ENTIRE day’s events with no issues!
The days and weeks and months seem SO long in this journey and I think we questioned it the most when our son was struggling. We could see the positive changes but when he would go backwards, we would start to question that we were really doing what he needed to begin healing.
But I am here to tell you, that hard work and consistency pays off!! Working with Kasey and LauraLee consistently and following directions, no matter how hard they were to do, has paid off tenfold! That ONE event was a miracle compared to where we were a year ago! We are so thankful to have seen the hard work SHOW like that!
We are committed to continue being consistent, to continue with our calls and making sure we are following directions, no matter how hard it is! Kasey Harmer and LauraLee Norton know their stuff! They are brilliant and SO in tune with these kids! They have an incredible gift and I feel so so lucky to have met them and been a part of New Hope!! We are thankful for everything they and for every sacrifice they make for us! We are also so grateful for respite on Saturday’s with some of the other New Hope staff! It is such a blessing for our family to allow our other children to heal from the trauma of living with an older brother who has the struggles and trauma our son causes! While it has been a hard year for us, it has also been one of the most AMAZING years!!!” -T.B. Utah
Finding Peace at Home
“We started our son at NH due to panic attacks and learning delays. He spent half his time at school and church curled up in a ball rocking, facing walls, hiding under chairs, covering ears and hiding from life. NH walked us through the process of educational evaluation and tracking behaviors and triggers. Kasey and LauraLee coached me and my husband and helped us find strategies to help our son find peace at home in family life. This increase of peace and contentment at home has improved our relationship as a couple, our son and even with our other children. We have seen tremendous progress in our son’s ability to tolerate sensory input while remaining in a positive mindset. While he still has hard days, they are much more rare and he has the tools he needs to get back to a calm place.” E.M. Utah
We Have Been Given Hope In RAD
“We adopted our daughter as an infant. She was almost two weeks old at her placing with us. We didn’t know all the emotional damage that was already done at the time because of alcohol, drugs, and a very violent atmosphere while she was in the womb . We felt confident our love was going to be enough to give this precious girl a chance at a good and happy life. She wasn’t a hard baby, but she showed very little emotion and as she grew we knew pretty early on that something wasn’t right. She was unnaturally mean to me and her older sister and lied about seemingly everything. She was never scared of strangers and seemed to like everyone more than me. I, for a very long time, thought I just wasn’t cut out to be a mom and felt a lot of pain and guilt from it. We went to several therapists who all felt something was wrong, but they just didn’t know what. Once our daughter was 5 she told me she wanted to kill me, at that point we knew we really needed to find the right kind of help, so that is all I prayed about, it was all I researched for several months. Our daughter, by the age of six, had caused so much chaos in our home, that our other children were suffering as well. I consider finding our current therapist and New Hope a true miracle. Our therapist helped us understand what was happening: that our daughter had Reactive Attachment Disorder and that I wasn’t really going crazy, because that is exactly how I felt for six years. We then were introduced to New Hope, at first I was skeptical, as the school was unlike any school I had ever seen. But we felt such peace about it and decided to enroll our daughter into New Hope. And to say that Kasey and LauraLee have saved my life, our marriage, and our family, is an understatement. Getting our daughter into New Hope was one of the best decisions we have ever made. They have not only given us a safe school for our daughter to attend where we know her specific needs are being met, but they have helped us create a safe environment at home for our daughter and our other children. We now have the tools to help our home-life be as amazing as it possibly can. My other three children aren’t afraid anymore and our daughter with RAD has so many more calm days at home now that we have the right tools to help her and for her to help herself! My husband and I follow Kasey and LauraLee’s and our therapists rules and therapy tools the very best we can, and it is making a difference for all of us. New Hope has changed our lives and we believe the beginning to our daughter’s healing. New Hope lives up to it’s name and truly has given us NEW HOPE!” -N.M. Utah
New Hope Is Like Family
“We came to New Hope because it sounded too good to be true. I was grasping at anything/anyone that knew what Reactive Attachment Disorder was and where to go from the first year of trying the normal way of parenting. New Hope is more than a school, its a family, a great support group, and a place for learning. ITS SAFE for learning/failing and helps teach how to keep trying and it offers a way to keep going as a parent… it gives us HOPE!” -A.C. Utah
We Now Have the Support We Needed
“How do I sum up what New Hope has done for our family? We feel so immensely blessed that we found Kasey and LauraLee. They have been true angels, giving us hope, peace of mind, more peace at home, time while our daughter is at school to foster our relationship with our son, who hasn’t come out of this unscathed. They care about our daughter, they try to understand her and her needs. We work together to give our daughter the best chance she has at being successful at life. We feel like we have a support system with them whereas before we were confused and anxious and beyond tired! They have truly restored harmony in our life and home (as much as there can be with a RAD child). Their dedication is inspiring and a blessing to all of us who are lucky enough to be apart of this New Hope family.” K.B. Utah
We Found Hope
“We were led to New Hope miraculously when our son was 7 years old. His school only saw this charming beautiful boy while at home we were doing everything we could to keep him from raging. Our family lived in constant fear and anxiety. From the first day and everyday since we have been loved by New Hope. They have supported us as well and educated us in all aspects of his attachment disorder. While at school, where they help him stay regulated and safe, we were home healing and hopeful for our son to have the best life he could have. Hope is exactly what they gave back to us and we pray everyday to bless this school and the ones who operate it. These kids deserve a better, happier life and New Hope gives us and our son the ability to do just that. Our son is now being taught the right tools he needs to thrive.” K.S. Utah
Creating Peace in Our Home
“We are a recently adoptive family of a 10yr old boy who has suffered trauma through this life from an abusive biological family and being passed from family to family and multiple foster homes. We knew going into the adoption that he had severe trauma, PTSD and other behavioral issues, but we felt strongly that he is the missing part to our family. We started therapy immediately knowing it would be a long road, but soon, after starting public school, he was getting into fights, destroying school property, and became defiant with his teachers and peers. Rather than wait until school spent months doing their research and coming up with a plan, I wanted to get him into New Hope Academy, giving him a better chance of working through his trauma and setting him on the road to success and healing. We started New Hope Academy in November of 2016 and our family has felt a huge difference already. Our son no longer comes home from school distressed. He doesn’t fight with his brother as much and he is able to go places and do things with the family without it being a big stressor for him. I have also benefited from New Hope Academy. I have learned so much from working there one day a week. I actually look foreword to it as a highlight in my week. I feel that I am learning how to be consistent with my son and create peace in our home.”
-K.S.