2025 in Review: A Year of Hope, Heartbreak, and Healing

Dec 18, 2025 | by Emily Anthony

2025 marked 160 years since The Salvation Army was first founded, and 34 years since Children's Services began doing foster care and adoption work in Southeastern Pennsylvania. With our special goal for the year of Hope in Every Home, 2025 was certainly a special year - filled with hope, heartbreak, and healing.

A year of HOPE

There were so many hopeful moments of 2025! From families successfully finding and moving into safe and stable housing, to parents overcoming cycles of addiction and poverty to reunite with their children, to children finding their forever families through adoption, our work is full of hope!

Some highlights of 2025 included:

• 14 children left our care to go home to their parents or transition into the homes of biological relatives. This is the best possible outcome in foster care, and seeing a family be restored in a safe and healthy way is always a highlight and a reminder of why we do what we do.
• 10 children achieved permanency through adoption or SPLC (Subsidized Permanent Legal Custodianship). Sometimes, sadly, going home is not a safe or viable option and for these children, it is vital that they find a forever family. Our children adopted in 2025 ranged from 2-16 years old and included 3 teenagers! This is especially wonderful because statistically, older children are far less likely to be adopted than little ones, but still need families just as much.
• 14 new foster or adoptive families were certified by The Salvation Army Children's Services. With our region facing a critical shortage of foster homes, this number represents an amazing opportunity to find safe and loving homes for more children in need. We are so thankful to each of the families who has stepped up for kids this year!
• We hosted many special events including our annual Rock N Run 4 Kids, Taphouse Talks: A Foster Care and Adoption Journey, Foster Share parties, and Family Christmas Party. We also spent time in the community at various events spreading the word about the need for foster and adoptive families.
• We launched our brand new Short-Term Foster Care program to address the ongoing foster care crisis. We are now open and accepting applications from families willing to make a difference by caring for kids for short stays of up to 30 days!

Links - More Hope from 2025:

• What is a CASA? {Atiya's Story} - an inspiring read
• Uncomfortable Questions About Foster Care That You're Afraid to Ask Out Loud - our most popular story
• Looking Back: Our Most Hope-Filled Moments of 2025 - our staff's reflections

A year of HEARTBREAK

Sadly, woven throughout the many moments of hope this year was some incredible heartbreak. Perhaps the most devastating was the loss of our beloved Robyn Hubbard, whose loving and compassionate work touched so many in our community over many years. While we still mourn this deep loss, we are reminded that the ripple effects of Robyn's influence on the foster and adoption community will continue far into the future. We will never forget her.

Some other heartbreaking moments of 2025 included:

• The 835 children in need of foster homes who we were unable to place. As a small, connection-oriented program, we know that we will not be able to place them all but it is still devastating each time we have to turn a child away, especially when we know the county does not have other options for them. This year we once again heard stories of children sleeping in government offices, shelters, group homes, or even hotels because no foster homes were available to take them. We will never stop working towards the day when every child has a safe place to lay their head.
• Every time a family couldn't be reunified. While adoption is a big part of our work, we fully acknowledge that adoption always starts with the heartbreak of a child losing their family. When a parent's rights are terminated, we hold space and grieve for that deep loss.
• Saying good-bye to children we love. Our families have bravely opened their arms to hand beloved children back to their parents - and while that is a celebration of success, it can also bring very real heartbreak to the family and everyone who has grown to love the child. Sometimes, a family has had to say good-bye to a child because they came to the very difficult realization that they were not able to continue meeting the child's needs, or were not in a position to adopt them. This year, we had some of both of these situations.
• The increasing needs and problems facing our community. We are seeing families struggling deeply with the housing crisis, undocumented youth in foster care, children with increasing levels of physical and mental health needs, and this fall, we walked beside many families as they lost their SNAP benefits and struggled to put food on their tables.

A year of HEALING

It is impossible to talk about heartbreak without following up with the power of healing and growth. We have witnessed so much of that this year!

• Our HALO program expanded to a third location (Bucks County), allowing families from the Lehigh Valley, Montgomery County, Bucks County, and surrounding areas to find healing through connection, play, and trauma-based parent education. In 2025, 10 families were able to participate in this program. We also welcomed students from Souderton Area High School's Interact Club who were able to serve as volunteer buddies to give them hands-on experience that will be invaluable in their future careers in the helping professions.
• We hosted a Foster and Adoptive Mom's Retreat in July, where a group of women in various stages of their journey found connection, relaxation, and fun.
• We were able to host several rounds of the Making Sense of Your Worth program for at-risk parents through a partnership with Lehigh County Children and Youth.
• Our Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI) training program continued to grow this year, with great opportunities to train not only our own foster and adoptive parents, but resource families and staff from other agencies as well. We were also able to continue providing in-home TBRI services to help give families strategies to build connection and manage challenging behaviors in children they are caring for.

Links - More Healing in 2025:

• How to Get Started with Foster Care or Adoption - be part of helping a child heal
• TBRI Tips - helpful strategies for healing
• Tips for Biological Children of Resource Parents - helpful advice from a former bio kid in a foster home (now our Placement Services Director)

What will 2026 bring? We can't wait to find out! If you want to follow along, be sure to sign up for our email newsletter to receive monthly updates.