Fund the Gap Nobody's Filling

Support evidence-based, trauma-informed community healing that operates between emergency relief and long-term clinical care—where most survivors need help but few organizations work.

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The Problem: A Critical Gap in Disaster Recovery

In the immediate aftermath of disaster, the response is clear: search and rescue, emergency medical care, shelter, food. Within weeks, clinical mental health services deploy for those with acute trauma symptoms.

But the majority of survivors—those with subclinical distress that doesn't meet diagnostic thresholds—fall through the cracks.

Social Isolation Drives Long-Term Harm

Survivors who remain socially isolated experience PTSD symptoms at rates 3x higher than those who maintain community connections. Yet most interventions focus on individual treatment, not community rebuilding.

Loss of Agency Compounds Trauma

Disasters strip survivors of control. This powerlessness is a core mechanism in developing trauma symptoms, yet few services actively restore choice and agency during recovery.

Verbal Processing Isn't Universal

Trauma lives in the body. For many survivors, cognitive-verbal approaches feel overwhelming or inaccessible. Non-verbal processing activates healing pathways that talk therapy cannot reach.

This is where The Holding Frames operates: in the space between emergency response and long-term clinical care, providing accessible, community-based, non-clinical support that breaks isolation, restores agency, and activates neurobiological healing.

The Solution: An Evidence-Based Framework

The Holding Frames deploys The Holding Space Framework, a trauma-informed approach built on decades of research in neuroscience, trauma psychology, and community resilience. At its core is The FRAME Method—Finding Resilience After Major Events.

1

PRESENCE

The Body Frame

Art-making activates bilateral brain processing, shifting the autonomic nervous system from dysregulation toward safety and social engagement. Research shows 25% reduction in cortisol levels after 45-minute creative sessions.

2

PROXIMITY

The Circle Frame

Creating art "side-by-side" rather than "face-to-face" activates co-regulation and mirror neurons without requiring verbal disclosure. Perceived social support is the strongest predictor of post-traumatic growth.

3

POWER

The Choice Frame

Radical choice at every level—whether to attend, what to create, how to engage—directly counters the helplessness trauma creates. Active coping predicts 40% faster return to baseline functioning.

4

PURPOSE

The Chain Frame

Survivors create messages for other communities facing crisis, activating the "helper's high" and meaning-making. Altruistic behavior after trauma predicts lower PTSD and depression rates.

This isn't art therapy. This isn't group counseling. This is a structured, evidence-informed framework that fills the gap between relief and recovery with scalable, community-based interventions.

Why The Holding Frames, Why Now

Field-Tested Approach

Our co-founder has deployed trauma-informed art interventions in 280+ communities across 34 countries over 15+ years. The Holding Frames now codifies and scales this proven methodology through the FRAME Method.

Scalable Infrastructure

We're building systems to train facilitators, certify partner organizations, and deploy healing gatherings rapidly when crisis strikes—transforming one person's expertise into sustainable field-wide capacity.

Community Empowerment Model

Rather than creating dependency, we walk alongside communities, building local capacity and empowering leaders. Our goal is to make ourselves unnecessary while remaining available for as long as communities want support.

Research Partnership Ready

We welcome evaluation partnerships and are building outcomes measurement into all programming. Your investment can advance both practice and knowledge in trauma-informed community healing.

Current Funding Priorities

The Holding Frames is in a critical growth phase. Your investment will help us move from founder-led delivery to scalable infrastructure that serves communities nationwide and globally.

Program Expansion

Deploy Holding Frames gatherings to disaster-affected communities across the U.S., with priority given to underserved populations and areas lacking mental health infrastructure.

  • Rapid response capacity for emerging crises
  • Long-term programming for communities in years 2-5 of recovery
  • Materials, facilitator stipends, mental health professional presence
  • Travel and logistics for remote/rural deployments

Training & Certification

Build national network of FRAME-trained facilitators and partner organizations who can deploy The Holding Space Framework in their own communities.

  • Curriculum development and training materials
  • In-person and virtual facilitator trainings
  • Certification program with ongoing support
  • Quality assurance and fidelity monitoring

Organizational Capacity

Strengthen operational infrastructure to support sustainable growth and impact measurement.

  • Staffing: Program Director, Operations Manager, Development lead
  • Technology systems for program management and evaluation
  • Financial systems and compliance infrastructure
  • Board development and governance strengthening

Research & Evaluation

Document outcomes, contribute to field knowledge, and continuously improve the FRAME Method through rigorous evaluation.

  • Partnership with university research teams
  • Pre/post assessment tools development
  • Longitudinal outcome tracking
  • Publication and field dissemination

How We Measure Impact

The Holding Frames tracks outcomes across all four FRAME pathways, moving beyond simple output metrics to measure actual shifts in wellbeing and community resilience.

Presence (Body Frame)

  • Pre/post nervous system regulation assessments
  • Body awareness and present-moment focus measures
  • Participants' subjective reports of grounding and safety

Proximity (Circle Frame)

  • Social connection and perceived support scales
  • Community cohesion indicators
  • Reduction in isolation and loneliness measures

Power (Choice Frame)

  • Self-efficacy assessments
  • Locus of control measures
  • Agency and empowerment indicators

Purpose (Chain Frame)

  • Meaning-making inventories
  • Post-traumatic growth scales
  • Altruistic behavior tracking

We also track: Communities served, participants reached, frames created and delivered, facilitators trained, partner organizations engaged, and long-term community follow-up at 6, 12, and 24 months post-intervention.

Partner With Us

Whether you're interested in program support, capacity building, research partnership, or general operating funding, we'd love to explore alignment.

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Request a full proposal prospectus, program budget, or Theory of Change document during our conversation.