Hope for the Holler: The Battle to Reform Foster Care in the Heart of Appalachia

"Not everyone can change the world. But you can change it for someone."

In Hope for the Holler, a seasoned foster parent, Appalachia advocate, and social services professional takes readers on a no-nonsense, insider's journey through the foster care crisis in West Virginia.

This is a book born of heartbreak, honesty, and hope. From funeral homes and pharmacies to family courtrooms and kitchen tables, the realities of the foster care system come to life here-messy, broken, and urgent. What sets this book apart is its raw authenticity and unflinching voice: equal parts social commentary, investigative journalism, and policy proposal.

You'll read about:

• The painful realities of abuse, addiction, and system failure in rural communities

• Why child placing agencies (CPAs) consistently outperform the state-and how they can lead the way forward

• How innovative tools like AI, trauma-informed intentional communities, and paid professional foster parenting could radically change outcomes

• What it really means to show up for kids in crisis-emotionally, legally, and politically

Part memoir. Part manual. Part Appalachian survival guide.

Whether you're a policymaker, foster parent, caseworker, social worker, educator, pastor, judge, or voter-this book is for anyone who cares about children caught in the cracks.

It's time to honor the past but embrace the future. The current system is overburdened, under-designed, and held together with duct tape. But we don't have to keep doing it this way.

Hope for the Holler offers a roadmap rooted in experience, compassion, and grit. It's not utopian. It's not partisan. It's not written from an ivory tower. It's written from the trenches.