Waves of Healing is a post-adoption support program designed to help families sustain healing over time. By offering financial assistance, Waves of Healing responds to what families, clinicians, and national research consistently show: adoptive families benefit from access to ongoing, adoption-competent mental health support long after permanency is finalized.
Why Post-Adoption Support Matters
Adoption offers love and legal permanency, but it does not erase the effects of trauma. For many children who enter foster care, early life has already included significant adversity — sometimes beginning before birth and continuing through separation, loss, and involvement with the child welfare system itself.
As these children grow, the impacts of early trauma can show up in emotional, behavioral, and mental health challenges that shape daily family life. Caregivers often carry this alongside them, navigating high levels of stress, isolation, and the challenge of finding support that truly understands adoption, trauma, and attachment.
How Waves of Healing Responds
Waves of Healing was intentionally designed to respond to these realities.
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The program focuses on reducing financial barriers to high-quality, adoption-competent mental health care. Grounded in lived experience and documented need, Waves of Healing reflects what research consistently shows is essential: adopted children require access to care that supports healing, protects against additional harm, and strengthens healthy attachment within family relationships.
What Families Receive
Families are selected through an application process reviewed by trusted community members who are invested in post-adoption care. Selected families receive financial support in the form of a grant to help reduce barriers to accessing adoption-competent mental health services.
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Participation is voluntary, collaborative, and grounded in respect for family autonomy and dignity.
Who the Program is For
Waves of Healing is designed for families who have adopted children from foster care and are navigating the ongoing emotional and relational work of post-adoption life.
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To be eligible, families must meet the following criteria:
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The child was adopted from foster care, including kinship adoption and permanent guardianship. Permanency may have been finalized outside of the state of Florida.
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The family resides in one of the six (6) counties served by The Hands and Feet: Palm Beach, Broward, Indian River, Martin, St. Lucie, or Okeechobee County.
Program Updates & Future Opportunities
Waves of Healing is currently supporting families through an active program year.
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Application screeners will open again toward the end of 2026.
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Announcements about future program opportunities will be shared as funding allows.
Families and community members are encouraged to check back for updates.
Questions About the Program?
For questions about Waves of Healing, application timing, or program details, Makayla, the Program Director, is available to help. Email: makayla@handsandfeet.org
Waves of Healing exists because families, professionals, and community members believe post-adoption support should be accessible.
Community support makes Waves of Healing possible. Financial contributions help remove barriers to adoption-competent care and sustain access to mental health services for adoptive families.
This program is informed by national research from the Center for Adoption Support and Education (CASE), Families Rising, Florida Policy Institute, the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, and peer-reviewed studies on adoption, trauma, and caregiver-centered intervention.