Viva’s Cutting Edge: Scaling Cutting Edge Hope and Hope Groups
“Indifference has to be replaced with empathy and love and compassion and action.” - Dr Susan Hillis
Cutting-Edge Hope and Hope Groups Summary
Dr Susan Hillis emphasised the urgency of addressing the polycrisis era—marked by climate change, conflict, and contagion—through “cutting-edge hope.” She identified indifference as the greatest threat to children and called for faith-based, collaborative, empathy-driven action. She presented a framework which included three doors: internal (spiritual renewal), external (collaborative, evidence-based solutions), and heavenly (faith in God’s ultimate reign). She mentioned one useful intervention, Hope Groups, which was later expounded upon in a separate session. Hope Groups were developed to bring psychosocial, spiritual and emotional support to families in crisis due to the war in Ukraine, which has spread to 17 countries, with measurable improvements seen in mental well-being, family communication, and non-violent behaviour.
Cutting Edge Hope in the Polycrisis Era (Speaker presentation)
Dr Susan believes “cutting-edge hope” is the best response to the indifference that categorises the polycrisis era in which the world currently finds itself. She illustrated the dominance of indifference by sharing a picture of an art piece found in Russia, in which multiple statues of children around 2.5 metres tall encircle a central one, titled ‘indifference’, which towers over the others at 3 metres tall: “the larger statue of a man between the children has closed eyes, closed ears, and so he's just not seeing any of the evil that is around him that's threatening children.” She noted that indifference is not just personal but also evident nationally and internationally; globally, many wealthier countries are dramatically reducing their benevolent giving and diverting funds to military applications. Although the challenge is great, there is also an opportunity for the church worldwide: “the main solution is ours as people of faith to take, because that indifference has to be replaced with empathy and love and compassion and action.” With reference to the Biblical book of Revelation, she presented three ‘doors’ for participants to reflect on.
Internal Door – Our inner spiritual wellbeing
Dr Susan shared that Jesus declared himself to be the light of the world, standing at the door of people’s hearts, knocking, and promising to enter if invited in. Referring to a pictorial representation of this image that is found in Oxford University, she noted, “What is fascinating about this door is that there is no handle on the outside because it requires you and me to open it from the inside so we can hear his voice.” She encouraged the participants to set aside time for spiritual reflection and prayer, to allow Christ to guide and strengthen them: “drink daily to live bravely.”
External Door - Collaboration and technology
The external door relates to how different sectors can work together for children. Danger can be visualised as a rushing river in a great abyss of things that threaten children, and “at times, we're standing on the side of one of the cliffs trying to call people to collaborate and make the bridge stronger across this great abyss that we see before us.” The government, church and academia are three spheres that can help build such a bridge, working together to address polycrises such as extreme climate events, extreme contagion/diseases, and escalating conflict, which all greatly threaten children.
Susan noted that even though each crisis is different, the family risk pathways are very similar – caregiver death and illness, poverty and food insecurity, migration, disruption in services – which all increase risks of violence and sexual abuse, early pregnancy and marriage, HIV, mental health problems, loss of family to orphanages, and educational loss. Interventions are needed to interrupt these risk pathways to prevent adverse outcomes in children, and, notably, “No one organisation is going to adequately bring all three of these in every crisis, and that is why we must work together.” Here, she mentioned Hope Groups, a collaborative effort that is helping address trauma among those affected by conflict (see more below).
Heavenly Door - God’s Kingdom on earth and in heaven
In Revelation 11, loud voices in heaven are saying that the kingdom of this world has come. Keeping our eyes on His heavenly realm and His Kingdom helps us be cutting edge as we think about the kingdom of God, a reign that will last forever and ever. People of faith believe in the Biblical truth that heaven is inevitable for those who believe in God, yet that God is still reigning on earth today. Susan ended with a reminder that having our eyes on His heavenly realm and His Kingdom helps us take cutting-edge hope to the world’s vulnerable children.
Hope Groups (Workshop)
Hope Groups: Peer-led, locally developed, evidence-based (Nicole Baldonado)
In a follow-up workshop session, Nicole Baldonado from World Without Orphans gave an overview of the Hope Groups programme, which brings psychological and spiritual support to families facing crises such as war, poverty, and disaster. It was co-created during the war in Ukraine to support caregivers and children healing from trauma through 12-session group programmes focused on mental health, resilience, parenting, and non-violence. The model is peer-led, culturally adaptable, and built on evidence-based tools from Parenting for Lifelong Health and World Health Organization frameworks like INSPIRE, which gives seven proven strategies to reduce violence against children. Nicole noted that “we recognise that, especially in crisis scenarios, it's very important to support the wellbeing of parents so that they, in turn, can support their children.” She explained that an important aspect of the Hope Groups' effectiveness is their dedication to co-creation and co-evaluation, working with local leadership to ensure the programme is as homegrown and culturally contextualised as possible. It empowers communities without relying on professional therapists; instead, it trains peer facilitators. The model has enabled 3,500 conflict-affected Ukrainians to be positively impacted in 13 countries. She noted that the philosophy of Hope Groups is that when “we are meeting these very practical needs of people, including children, we are doing so as unto Christ and as a form of sharing God's love with the people around us.”
A safe space in Ukraine (Lyudmila Bryn)
Lyudmila Bryn, from Ukraine and working with Children Mission, noted that, according to United Nations data, there are 3.7 million internally displaced people in Ukraine, with almost 7 million refugees from Ukraine in other countries, and almost 13 million people in Ukraine needing humanitarian assistance, including nearly 2 million children. She shared that she herself became internally displaced, and “even though I had been doing trauma care training for 10 years before the start of this war, I still felt that I was very, very lost and didn't know what to do. So, I realised that to keep myself on and to keep my team on, we need to talk a lot about what is happening.” Soon after, she met with Susan Hillis and became part of the birth of Hope Groups, which “is a safe space for educating these participants about trauma … people need very practical coping strategies. And actually, the strong point is that in a group and the group discussion, the person feels I'm not alone. So, it reduces isolation, promotes community, and people can support each other, not only inside the group setting, but also outside of these meetings.”
She explained that in Ukraine, more than 100 facilitators have been trained; “it grew into a whole movement. Because for us, hope is not just an abstract notion, but hope is very practical. When a person starts to understand his or her emotions, when a person starts to make sense of what is happening, and also when a person, gets hold of his or her life back, takes practical steps in applying all these coping strategies - that's when the hope is restored in the hearts of people.” She explained that churches which use this tool can become resilient centres, providing mental health care to the community.
Hope Groups around the world: Colombia, India and Jordan (Dr Andres Villaveces, Pastor Letlal Haokip and Sydney Tucker)
Adaptations have spread, and as shared by Andres Villaveces from the Global Reference Group on Children Affected by Crisis, Colombia was the first country to adopt the material for its context of internal conflict and socioeconomic crisis. The material was adapted into eight Spanish sessions, focusing on resilience and communication within families, and an initial pilot was conducted with 150 families across four municipalities. The programme has reduced depression, violence, and behavioural problems, demonstrating measurable improvements in mental wellbeing, family communication, and non-violent behaviour.
Pastor Letlal Haokip shared how Hope Groups have been used in Manipur, India, to help people deal with the trauma faced due to internal conflict experienced since May 2023, in which 70,000 people have been displaced, with churches and places of worship targeted. He explained that 20 people have been trained to provide hope and emotional support to those affected by trauma.
In the absence of the programme director, Sydney Tucker shared about how the Hope Groups have helped people living in Jerash Camp, helping Palestinian refugees, with research stating that 85% of parents said they felt depressed, and 82% of children faced emotional abuse. Evidence showed that Hope Group reduced depression and anxiety by 40% and increased hope by 45%. Explorations are ongoing to determine how Chatbots could be used to deliver the material digitally to a wider audience.
Sydney closed the session by explaining that, though the crisis in families is huge, the church worldwide can respond, and free, open-source Hope Group materials are available on the World Without Orphans website, which also offers expert training of trainers, implementation consulting, and the option to adapt to each local context. Collaboration between agencies, including Viva, World Relief, and local partners, is one of the reasons why this programme has been so successful.
Trauma-informed care is covered in another session.
These sessions were from a Cutting Edge conference in July 2025, organised by Viva, an international charity that inspires, equips and connects networks of churches and community-based organisations to work together to make a bigger, better and longer-lasting impact in the lives of children. For more information about Viva or Cutting Edge, please visit viva.org.