Our Mission

We help children and adults adapt, grow, and thrive—even when they face challenging or less-than-ideal circumstances—by building resilience through increasing positive emotions.

Our Organization

Handful of Hope is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that promotes resilience among one of the most vulnerable groups of our society—children in foster care. While helping these children is our primary focus, we also seek to increase resilience in all children through partnering with parents.

Our Team

Cinda Morgan, LCSW
Founder and Manager of Handful of Hope (HofH)
Owner and Clinical Director of Wellspring Children and Family Counseling Center. An experienced clinician of 23 years and with 13 years of management experience, Ms. Morgan has a passion for helping children with severe difficulties and those who have experienced trauma or serious losses.

Stephen Sahlin
Director of HofH Board of Trustees &
Regional Manager of Surgical Implants
Mr. Sahlin has expertise in managing, sales, fund-raising, and marketing. He has successfully marketed and promoted new products and programs. Mr Sahlin is an active volunteer and is dedicated to helping others. He also has expertise in resilience.

Trudy Johnson
HofH Board of Trustees Member &
Business Owner
Ms. Johnson brings her experience of creating and maintaining a small business with her devotion to helping children. Her professional experience includes working directly with children needing special services. She is also an advocate for children with special needs.

Stephanie Steele
HofH Board of Trustees Member &
Business Owner
Ms. Steele has spent her career helping children, first as a child therapist, and then as a director of a non-profit for grieving children. Ms. Steele also helped children across the state of Utah as a member of a quality improvement committee for the Division of Child and Family Services.

Tim Johnson
HofH Board of Trustees Member &
Business Owner
Mr. Johnson has done just about everything in Information Technology, from system analyst to software programmer to global program manager. Currently, he runs his own insurance company. Mr. Johnson has been a volunteer for youth for more than 10 years.

Katrina Mills
HofH Board of Trustees Member &
Business Manager
Ms. Mills has experience in public relations, event coordination, and administered workshops for a non-profit education program. Ms. Mills is also the manager of a family counseling facility and teaches piano lessons to children.

Our Community Partners

We are grateful for the expertise and enthusiasm of our community advisory board members.

  • Dr. Mark Hiatt
  • Amanda Dickson
  • Doug Wright
  • Chris Redgrave
  • Mark Polson
  • Liz Hale
  • Dawni Antczak
  • Brian Farr
  • Sharon Goodrich
  • Jana Scott
  • Sara Egbert
  • Sue Buehner
  • Kate Jensen
  • Jim Taliaferro
  • Don Johnson
  • David Bennett
  • Jim Bromley
  • Gary Klien
  • Gina Roper

Our Research Advisory Team

Camilla Hodge
Ph.D, Assistant Professor, Health-Kinesiology-Recreation
University of Utah
 Dr. Hodge is a family scholar who specializes in understanding and researching how positive shared experiences affect the development, health, and well-being of individuals and families. Through her research, Dr. Hodge is shedding light on why some shared experiences lead to positive outcomes and others do not. She seeks to empower families and practitioners to effectively design and use family experiences to promote well-being.

Karen Melton
Ph.D., Assistant Professor in Family and Consumer Sciences
Baylor University 
Dr. Melton is engaged in research that focuses on family experiences. Dr. Melton is guided by an idea that creating and maintaining healthy family contexts will encourage healthy child and adolescent development. She strives to understand strategies and maintenance patterns related to family experiences that promote healthy family cultures. These strategies can be applied to prevention and interventions to reduce the mental and physical health disparities of children, adolescents, and their parents.

Our Volunteers

Special thanks to those who have donated their expertise and time.

  • Amanda Dickson
  • Dale Tolley
  • Nancy Reiser
  • Sue Buehner
  • Kristen Paul
  • Merlyn Doney
  • Ted Stagg
  • Nicholas Siebers
  • Travis Morgan
  • Spencer Waldron
  • Arthur Schoenfeld
  • Tazia Schoenfeld
  • Chris Urinko
  • Liz Rivera
  • Lindsay Turner
  • John Dye