Helping Hand Home for Children


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For 117 years, Helping Hand Home for Children has provided a place to heal for abused, neglected and abandoned children. The Home provides residential treatment services, foster care, adoption services, and a charter school for emotionally disturbed children and advocates for greater public support of early prevention, intervention, and treatment. Helping Hand Home is a private, non-profit 501(c)(3) organization located in Austin, Texas licensed by the State of Texas and governed by the membership of the Helping Hand Society.

The Home is the oldest continuously operating residential childcare agency in Travis County, a priceless resource kept strong and viable through community support.

Our mission is to maintain a therapeutic home for children and to restore each child to a healthy family setting.

Our goal is for the children to take responsibility for their own actions, leave with a sense of worth, improve their academic skills and gain an increased sense of trust.

Residential Treatment Program
The Home's residential treatment component has been designed specifically for forty-one children between the ages of four and thirteen who have experienced severe physical, sexual, and emotional trauma. One of only a few treatment centers in the United States dedicated to serving young children; our therapeutic milieu has been crafted to provide a safe and nurturing environment for children who have experienced the darker side of childhood.
Click here to learn more.

Pearson Therapeutic Foster Care and Adoption
The Pearson Therapeutic Foster Care Program was founded in 1995 on the belief that a loving home can save a child. Our foster care program serves children from birth to eighteen years old, some of whom need treatment services but can function successfully in a foster home with specially trained and supported foster parents. HHH is also licensed to perform adoptions. Click here to learn more.

Helping Hand Home/UT Charter School
For many years, HHH board and staff dreamed of opening an on-campus school to enhance the treatment plans of the children for their academic and behavior needs. This past August, that dream became a reality when the HHH/University of Texas Charter School opened for the first day of school at our residential treatment center. The school helps our most socially and academically challenged children by equipping them with the skills they will need to succeed in the public school system.

Executive Director
Ted Keyser

Human Resources Director
Kelli Bernal, PHR

Director of Clinical Services
Ann Brestrup, LCSW

Director of Child Placement Services
Kristi Duck, LMSW

Director of Residential Services
Chris Janawicz, LCCA

Controller
Cathy Winkelman

Development Coordinator
Taylor Laughlin

Board of Directors
Jeanne Little, President
Kay Enoch, President Elect
Kathy Petet, Past President
Patti Wilhite, Treasurer
Christie Nalle, Recording Secretary
Emily Baker
Linda Dryden
Jane Flieller
Jenny Gaston
Anne Jarvis
Francie Little
Colleen Lockwood
Nancy McAllister
Susan Prickett
Cynthia Shaw

Community Advisory Board
Gaylord Armstrong
Ben Bentzin
Melissa R. Bunner, Ph.D.
Paul Bury
Thomas B. Dawson, M.D.
Manny Flores
Ron Franklin
Colleen Gardner
Galt Graydon
Melissa Jackson
Al Matthews
Rep. Elliott Naishtat
Curtis Osmond
Rhonda Paver
Jim Rado
Betty Ray
Pat H. Robertson
R. Clint Smith
Wallace M. Smith
Lanette Smith
Berry D. Spears
Jim Spencer
Jim Susman
Mark Thannisch
Jeff Trigger
Susan Vincent
Michael J. Vollman
Sam A. Wilson
Neel White

View our Audited Combined Financial Statments:

2009