World Relief Launches New Global Initiative to Offer Hope to Families Facing Crisis & Displacement

Contact: wr@pinkston.co

(Baltimore, MD) August 5, 2025 – Over two billion people live in countries torn by conflict or violence, and global displacement has reached record levels. Nearly half of those forced to flee are children. The longer a crisis lasts, the deeper its toll on children and caregivers, threatening the stability of families, communities and nations. Supporting parents’ mental health is critical to helping them navigate trauma and protect and nurture their children amid crises.

In the midst of these global challenges, World Relief is launching a new initiative to support families’ mental and physical wellbeing. The Global Hope Groups Collaborative – launched together with World Without Orphans, the University of Oxford, Imperial College London, VIVA Together for Children, the Global Reference Group for Children Affected by Crisis and local organizations worldwide – will bring the best of emergency crisis response technical programming in health, shelter and food, guided by the best of emerging science around how best to strengthen families and children in crisis.

At the heart of this initiative is the evidence-based Hope Groups model. Hope Groups are a 12-session program that offers psychosocial and mental health support and positive parenting skills. An evaluation by the University of Oxford, Imperial College London, World Without Orphans and several Ukrainian partner organizations found that Hope Groups:

•  improved parental mental health by 57%
• boosted hope and resilience by 65%
• reduced violence against children by 54%, and
• cut child behavioral issues by 56%.

The study also showed that both trained community leaders and mental health professionals can successfully lead the groups, making them easy to replicate in crisis settings.

“World Relief is thrilled to provide an institutional home to the world class Hope Groups model. Psychosocial impacts from trauma can have devastating impacts for generations. It is an honor to combine our lifesaving humanitarian assistance programming with this state-of-the-art model that supports families in crisis,” said World Relief’s Senior Vice President of International Programs, Lanre Williams-Ayedun.

According to Dr. Susan Hillis, Co‑Chair of the Global Reference Group for Children in Crisis and co‑lead for development and evaluation of the Hope Groups model, “Our findings show that Hope Groups achieve remarkable results, greater than similar programs. I believe this effectiveness comes from listening to crisis-affected caregivers, connecting them with global experts, and adapting the 12 sessions to each community’s unique context.”

Plans for the initiative are ambitious. Hope Groups training materials are already available in six languages and have been deployed across 19 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. The Initiative has also partnered with Oxford University’s Parenting for Lifelong Health to create the world’s first digital humanitarian chatbot, delivering parenting support directly to families in crisis zones with severe access limitations, like Gaza. With sustained support and funding, Hope Groups can scale widely to bring healing, stability and lasting change to families on the frontlines of the world’s worst crises.

For partnership inquiries, please contact Lauren Allgood at LAllgood@wr.org and Madeline Grasso at MGrasso@wr.org.