His Heart Foundation

His Heart Foundation’s mission is serving the local church in the area of mental wellness, through prevention, intervention and restoration. Our staff and volunteers do this through counseling referrals and mental health education in our mental health department, through mentoring elementary ages students in our MentorSuccess™ program, and through restoration facilitated by our Oasis Retreat Center in Vancouver, Washington. All three departments will create stronger bonds with God and with one another, allowing individuals to reach out to their church and community in times of need. These connections will build positive relationships between caring adults and children, rebuilding hope for their future, healing relationships between the church, the counselor, and individuals in crisis, and restoring relationships in a safe and restful retreat center.

Mentoring services are provided to elementary-age students struggling with negative behavior or social skills, utilizing volunteer mentors from local churches. We are currently in two public school districts and one private school in Clark/Cowlitz Counties in SW Washington. Our research based mentoring focuses on building positive character traits and success skills, helping students to perform better in the classroom and prepare for their life ahead. Our focus is an intensive, one-on-one setting, carefully customized to the student’s emotional and academic needs; classroom help is also offered. We have served over 250 students and have seen remarkable results.

Partnering with churches, we provide counseling referrals and mental health education. We vet licensed mental health counselors who are Christians, research insurance and financial options and match clients with a counselor who specializes in their area of need. Our mental health education is focused on breaking the stigma of mental illness among Christians through online education and encouragement. In 2020 we served clients through referrals, over 30,000 individuals through our online resources, partnered with 121 Christian counselors and formed a coalition of 44 churches. As of June 2021 we’ve served over 2200 clients through referrals, over 35000 individuals through our online resources, partnered with 144 vetted counselors and formed a coalition of 50 churches. We have also partnered with the counseling department of Multnomah University.

The Foundation operates the Oasis Retreat Center, dedicated to creating a place of peace and restoration in the middle of our hectic world. A luxurious but comfortable home, in a forested setting with a tennis court and indoor swimming pool, offers a place where people can learn and build more productive, healthier relationships. The center is located in Vancouver, WA and is available for church retreats/meetings, group counseling, mental health seminars. since 2017 we served over 1100 individuals.

His Heart Foundation’s overall strategy is to make vital partnerships with churches, schools, local universities and individuals.

• Churches—support local churches by connecting them with licensed and vetted counselors who are Christians. Provided mental health education through blogs, YouTube videos, mental health academy courses as well as counselors providing in person training in the local church. The churches join our coalition and are offered the opportunity to partner with us financially.
• Schools—we connect churches with local public and private schools with volunteers by providing training for mentors in a structured, customized and focused program called MentorSuccessTM This provides caring relationships for the students. These mentors are trained through a school approved process. We are developing a data base to manage this that will also be a part of the sustainability of this program.
• Local Universities—HHF has and is establishing vital partnerships and relationship with universities to promote healthy education and opportunities for mental health providers to be aware of the programs that HHF provides.
• Individuals—HHF shares our mission with individuals to connect with their passion to help people in the area of mental health. This provides us with volunteers and donors to further the cause.

We have demonstrated our capacity to do this over the first five years of His Heart Foundation by engaging staff and volunteers that are passionate and skilled in the fulfillment of our mission. Our master plan includes the expansion of our donor and church base which have increased each year. We have engaged in fundraising that has demonstrated effectiveness and are involved in seeking grants for certain growth aspects. We have just added staff giving us 4 full-time and 2 part-time. We have increase our volunteers from nine to 36, our schools from our pilot program to four, our counselors from 44 to 146, our churches from 23 to 50 clearly demonstrating our capacity to grow. Some of our assets include the Oasis Retreat Center (Valued at 800K) and the US Digital office space, meeting rooms, media assistance estimated at a value of 35-40 thousand a year provided free of charge. Our staff and key volunteers have many proficiencies and our board has years of entrepreneurial business and leadership capacities.

His Heart Foundation has accomplished the following in just two and a half years.
• Grown our counselor base to 146 with over 160 specialties
• Assisted church and individuals by connecting over 2200 clients to licensed counselor who are Christian
• Provided mental health education to over 36000 people through our online tools (blogs, videos
• Created the three mental health courses on trauma and depression with a mini course on anxiety available through the mentalhealth.academy website. These have been purchased and used by counselors, churches and individuals to help them understand these mental health issues. We will continue to produce more courses yearly.
• Our church coalition has grown to 50 churches with several others who have used our resources. We believe we will be at 60 churches in the coalition by the end of the year (2021)
• We have identified over 400 award winning books to help students in their reading level and specific interests. They are also coded according specific leadership success skills and success traits.
• We are involved in public and private schools with the mentoring program and are seeing excellent results. In one school, all 26 of the students according to the social worker who oversees this aspect in the school, demonstrated growth in educational and social skills. Another school there was significant improvement in 92% of the students involved in our MentorSuccessTM program. The studies show that those who have mentors are far less likely to face depression in the future and that fits the mission of His Heart Foundation.
• We are expanding into more schools every year and our goal is 10 schools within two more years.
• The Oasis Retreat Center continues to improve and, although COVID slowed the use down in 2020 in comparison with 2019, we are starting to an increase in 2021.