Our Story
The idea for Cumberland Hope came from Amanda Alexander, Deanna and Patrick Hall in 2023 as their own families struggled to get appropriate services for their adopted children. Matt McUmber, a licensed therapist and longtime mental health provider, joined them in listening and believing that we could be a change to mental health care for families and children. Subsequently other families, doctors, special education advocates like Virginia Piper and Latisha Toney and mental health professionals have joined Cumberland Hope as they have experienced this same great lack of treatment options for children with severe trauma, developmental disabilities and behavioral issues. Each Board member has a passion and often personal experience working with and wanting to see children and families receive the help and support that is needed when caring for deeply struggling children. Each Board member also felt a deep need to be able to provide the true reason for the hope for healing which comes from Jesus who powerfully demonstrated His deep care for those suffering in body, mind and spirit. We believe our faith makes our care for others richer, deeper and
Through hard work and perseverance, the Cumberland Hope Board of Directors helped Cumberland Hope Inc. become an official faith-based 501c3 non-profit in 2024. We are dedicated to fulfilling these hard to care for needs as we provide Caregiver Support Groups to help families facing special needs of all sorts, trauma, or behavioral issues with a deeply understanding, safe, healing community to be a part of.
While doing the initial research and contacting mental health professionals around the nation about our desire to open a residential treatment center, a chorus of "this is so needed" echoed from mental health practitioners across the country. Options for out-of-home care for children is at a crisis point around us. The sad reality is that the United States children's mental health system is severely inadequate to meet the needs of children experiencing mental health crisis. Many treatment facilities will not admit children they are supposed to care for with severe behavioral issues and developmental disabilities. Many facilities are corporately owned in the United States and are not meeting the true needs of families and children in need. We want to be a change in care. We want to help the hardest kids and their families remain together and find a healing path forward. Many families are forced to endure extremely unsafe homes or unwillingly having to surrender their child to foster care just to have a safe place for their child to go. This does not in any way help either child or family and causes untold trauma for all. This happens because there are not enough residential treatment centers, longterm placement options and places that will accept children needing the highest levels of care. Join us in rewriting this narrative for of mental health and trauma care around us!
