My journey with A Child’s Light began with a harsh lesson: while I excel at navigating the emotional complexities of trauma, I am hilariously inept at navigating app updates.
As part of my series about “individuals and organizations making an important social impact”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Leslie Holt.
Leslie Holt is a Certified Trauma Professional and the Founder and Executive Director of A Child’s Light, a non-profit she established after serving as a dedicated crime victims’ advocate for five years. Driven by a mission to circumvent systemic delays in youth mental health care, she built a rapid-response model that connects traumatized children with a network of over 100 private therapists. Under her leadership, the organization has funded more than 3,000 professional therapy sessions, ensuring vulnerable youth receive immediate, fully funded specialized care in as little as five days.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
I spent five years as a Victims Advocate, and in that role I saw firsthand how many children who had lived through horrendous experiences had little to no access to the mental health care they needed to heal. But my professional life was running parallel to something happening in my own home. My daughter, Lana, was raped when she was 14. She never fully recovered from that. That single act of violence became the beginning of a long struggle; she turned to self-medicating to numb the psychological pain she carried, and eventually, that pain took her from me. Lana is not the only little girl this has happened to. Watching her fight for years, and watching so many other children go through similar horrors with nowhere to turn, I knew I couldn’t just witness it anymore. I had to build something. That’s the genesis of A Child’s Light.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company or organization?
One of the most powerful stories I’ve encountered is Sarah’s ( To protect the privacy and safety of the children and families we serve, names used in this story are representative.). Her experience highlights the devastating hurdles caregivers face when trying to access pro-bono trauma therapy for uninsured, vulnerable children. Nine-year-old Sarah was dealing with severe, compounding trauma. Her father was incarcerated, and her mother, struggling with substance use disorder, would often leave for weeks at a time, taking Sarah along to meet other men. Terrified for her granddaughter’s safety, the grandmother pushed for intervention and eventually gained temporary custody. But then, she faced a maze of systemic barriers in her search for care.
The grandmother faced a maze of systemic barriers. She was handed a list of five providers by the county, but none resulted in care; some were overbooked, one lacked a child therapist, one never called back, and another had moved. Desperate, she reached out to over 50 therapists listed on a popular therapist network seeking pro-bono support, but not a single one returned her call. She was at a breaking point with no options left when she finally went to her local police department to beg for help. Recognizing the severity of the situation, the officers handed her a brochure for A Child’s Light.
Thanks to A Child’s Light, Sarah’s critical mental health supports were fully funded, with absolutely no financial fee placed on her grandmother. While she has had to navigate a difficult family situation, the stability and professional care have completely transformed her life. Today, she is growing stronger, more resilient, and thriving in school and free to just be a child again. Moments like Sarah’s remind me exactly why this organization exists: so many families are quietly fighting these battles with nowhere to turn until someone finally hands them a door.
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
My journey with A Child’s Light began with a harsh lesson: while I excel at navigating the emotional complexities of trauma, I am hilariously inept at navigating app updates. I vividly remember trying to loop a board member into a messaging group to coordinate an update. I spent several minutes typing out detailed instructions and asking a specific question, fully convinced I was speaking to them. I sat there waiting for an eternity for a response, only to eventually realize I hadn’t actually added them to the group at all; I had been talking to myself the entire time! I am incredibly lucky to have a team of tech-savvy professionals who graciously help me manage these tools. That experience taught me the importance of relying on their expertise for the ‘how’ so I can stay relentlessly focused on the ‘why’ of our mission.
That said, if we are speaking of the most significant mistake I made early on, it was a miscalculation of vulnerability. When you are a founder, whether you are running a nonprofit or a for-profit business, your “why” is your greatest asset. If you are not transparent about your motivations, you cannot expect your community to truly invest in your mission. I held back from sharing our own family’s story publicly. I worried it would make people too uncomfortable, that it was too heavy to put out into the world. What I learned was the opposite; this is happening in millions of households across the country, and while some people don’t want to acknowledge it, most people want to know how they can help someone they love. I underestimated people’s compassion, their hunger to help, and the lengths nearly every parent will go to protect not just their own child, but children in their community. Once I started telling our story honestly, people didn’t turn away; they leaned in.
Can you describe how you or your organization is making a significant social impact?
A Child’s Light funds a range of mental health treatment modalities for children who’ve experienced severe trauma, including art therapy, play therapy, music therapy, somatic therapy, and equine therapy. We have developed a unique model by partnering with private, licensed, trauma-informed therapists who agree to accept a reduced fee to treat children referred by us. This eliminates the two biggest barriers families face: long wait times and an inability to pay. So, children who have experienced the worst horrors imaginable can start healing faster, not months or years later.
Serving the Chester County community, A Child’s Light provides children and adolescents ages 2–18 who have experienced severe trauma with immediate, no-cost access to specialized, trauma-informed mental health care. Through a network of more than 100 private therapists, we can connect a child with professional help in as little as five days and fund the first 12 therapy sessions, effectively eliminating financial barriers and lengthy waiting lists.
The need for these services is urgent. According to RAINN (the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network), a child in the United States is sexually assaulted every nine minutes. Furthermore, only approximately 12% of children disclose their abuse within the first year, meaning many children suffer silently and may not receive help when it can make the greatest difference.
Early intervention is transformative: it helps children heal, strengthens families, improves educational outcomes, and reduces the likelihood that untreated trauma will contribute to substance use, violence, homelessness, or involvement with the criminal justice system. Considering that incarcerating one adult can cost taxpayers approximately $55,000–$60,000 each year, addressing childhood trauma before it develops into lifelong behavioral and social problems represents both a compassionate investment in Chester County’s children and a cost-effective investment in our community’s future.
Can you tell us a story about a particular individual who was impacted or helped by your cause?
One story that comes to mind, and is so illustrative of what A Child’s Light does, is the story of Olivia. We were first introduced to Olivia by her mother, who heard about ACL through a school guidance counselor. At the time, Olivia was struggling with self-harm, suicidal ideation, truancy, and defiance. Her mother called us, crying and begging for help; she had no insurance and was working two to three jobs just to pay rent.
Olivia’s mother had no idea that when her daughter was 14, she had been trafficked by her “boyfriend.” This 18-year-old boy told Olivia that if she wanted to keep being his girlfriend, she had to have sexual relations with his friends. Olivia didn’t realize she was being trafficked; she just wanted to keep her boyfriend. When she finally found the courage to stop, he abandoned her. Devastated and consumed by shame and guilt, she felt entirely alone. She began a downward spiral, self-harming, isolating herself from family, lashing out, and losing hope.
A Child’s Light connected Olivia with a nurturing, non-judgmental, trauma-informed therapist. It was a critical turning point. As she healed from the abuse and began to envision her future, she and her therapist worked together on college applications. The realization that the abuse was not her fault gave her the confidence to pursue her dreams. With that new, albeit tenuous, confidence, she applied to schools and was accepted to two.
Olivia’s dream of college became a reality, and she began studying Criminal Justice in pursuit of a career with the FBI or CIA, focusing on human trafficking. With a relatively small investment from A Child’s Light, Olivia realized her dream and is now on a path to help other young victims instead of becoming a statistic herself. Without our intervention, Olivia could have easily fallen into the judicial system, a cycle that is extremely difficult to exit, especially for someone facing education gaps, petty arrests, and mental health challenges. Because of A Child’s Light’s belief in her, as we do with every child, we gave Olivia hope, and she flourished.
Are there three things the community/society/politicians can do to help you address the root of the problem you are trying to solve?
- Fund mental health treatment at a much greater level. Studies show that 98 percent of U.S. citizens believe more tax dollars should go toward mental health care and want Congress to invest more than it currently does; the public support is already there.
- Create a faster licensing path for mental health practitioners, so the pipeline of trauma-informed therapists can grow to meet demand.
- Support and scale models like ours where private licensed therapists partner with nonprofits to accept reduced fees for referred children because these partnerships remove the two biggest barriers to care: cost and wait time.
How do you define “Leadership”? Can you explain what you mean or give an example?
I believe leaders stay relentlessly focused on the mission whether they are navigating funding, staffing, or operational challenges. Building a nonprofit from the ground up is exceptionally hard. I’m always looking for new opportunities, whether that’s adding a new treatment modality or launching a program that reaches more children. I stay open to ideas from staff and board members, and I look for the most dedicated ambassadors and advisors to keep the mission moving forward. To me, leadership is combining compassion for vulnerable children and adolescents with the determination to build the systems, partnerships, and resources that turn that compassion into real healing.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why? Please share a story or example for each.
1. This is a calling, not just a job. You carry the mission with you constantly, which can be demanding, but it is also the driving force that allows us to innovate and reach more children quickly.
2. Expect ‘Mission Misalignment.’ Early on, I was surprised when others didn’t share my vision for collaboration. I learned that in the nonprofit sector, organizations have different priorities and that is okay. The key is to stay focused on finding partners whose goals and values truly align with your own.
3. The path to social impact is rarely a straight line. You will inevitably face administrative or structural hurdles. I learned that the most effective response to these challenges is to refuse to be distracted. Stay laser-focused on the children we serve; that clarity of purpose is the best way to navigate obstacles.
4. Own your ‘Why.’ In the beginning, I spent too much energy reacting to external opinions. I had to train myself to filter out the noise and center myself entirely on our mission. Your conviction is your most powerful tool, and when you lead with that clarity, the right supporters will naturally find you.
5. Find the joy in the small wins. Even in a sector as heavy as trauma recovery, the bright spots are constant. Whether it’s a progress update from a therapist or a smile in a photo from a parent, celebrating these individual successes is what sustains you for the long haul.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
My favorite life lesson quote is by Desmond Tutu: ‘We need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in’.
This quote is the guiding philosophy of my life’s work and the core essence of A Child’s Light. During my five years as a crime victims’ advocate, I worked closely with children and families in crisis. I saw firsthand that while crisis centers do incredible work addressing the immediate emergency, the long-term care for traumatized youth often falls through the cracks. We were constantly pulling people out of the river, but no one was looking at why they were falling in.
I realized that if we do not resolve childhood trauma early, it digs a deeper neural pathway that lasts a lifetime and often becomes a gateway to self-medication, substance abuse, and incarceration. This realization pushed me to leave my advocacy role and start A Child’s Light to provide rapid, upstream mental health intervention. By getting traumatized children into specialized therapy in just five days, we are going upstream to unseat the root cause of the pain before it permanently alters the trajectory of their lives.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂
I would love to have a seat at the table with any national leader who is willing to prioritize pediatric mental health funding. Regardless of political affiliation, the need to support traumatized children is a bipartisan imperative, and I would use that platform to advocate for systemic, non-partisan investment in their future.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Mental health care has made significant strides, and trauma-informed treatment for abused and neglected children is both life-changing and life-saving. I believe every person should be seen through a trauma-informed lens. If someone cannot work on healing the root of their pain, they struggle to heal in a way that makes them whole. We have the tools to help people heal, and no child should have to wait for psychological relief. While 14-year-olds can advocate for themselves, children suffer at every age, and no one should be denied a path to wellness.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Readers can follow our work, read our impact stories, and learn more about our rapid-response mission by visiting our website at https://childslight.com. If you are interested in getting involved, volunteering, or helping us circumvent the waitlist for vulnerable youth, we invite you to make a direct donation on our site. Because we operate with a highly efficient business model, your contribution does not go toward massive administrative salaries. Instead, it goes directly to funding a child’s specialized therapy. You can also reach out to my team and me directly via email at connect@childslight.com or sign up for our newsletter to stay updated on our upcoming community events, such as our annual spring walk.
This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success in your great work!
Social Impact Heroes: How Leslie Holt Of A Child’s Light Is Helping To Change Our World was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.