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History of Our Organization
 Hello! I am
Susan Griffin and I was one of the founders of Hannah’s House. I would
like to tell you a little bit about the history of our organization. |
We started in 1988. Our initial focus for prevention and intervention work with
families was the workplace, through employee assistance and drug-free workplace
programs. We also provided training to mental health professionals, primarily in
the area of substance abuse and substance dependencies, as well as dual diagnosis.
Research finds that substance abuse (meaning periodic negative, unhealthy use of a
substance) is a factor in the majority of serious family problems. If identified
early, substance abuse does not have to develop into a dependency, and the family
does not have to deteriorate. In addition we had a counseling service for families.
As we trained we consistently were asked to consider a larger scale effort to help
families, based on the principles and philosophy of our work. These urgings met
with our own desire to create a set of services that would genuinely meet the
unmet needs in our community.
After years in the counseling room, we knew how often adults would pinpoint the
beginning of their own emotional and mental health problems by saying...”before
the divorce, my life.........” or “after the divorce, my life..........” We knew the break-up of the family was a critical life transition for children but we didn’t know
exactly what to do with that information. So, we began fact-finding.
A synchronistic event occurred that catapulted us into our family court services
programs. My youngest son’s father and I published a small booklet called
Coparenting For the Sake of the Kids
(Book now titled "Parents Are Forever", available
online). We had written it at the urging of our son’s
teachers who found themselves again and again caught in the battles between
parents who were separated or divorced. They quickly learned that things were
different with our family. And they asked us to write something they could give to
parents who were, without realizing it, hurting their children emotionally and
sabotaging their children’s school relationships and performance. So we did it.
A local family magazine, “Family Press” ran a cover story on the booklet and
reprinted a portion of it in 1993. The organization’s phone number was printed in
the article. Over the next 3 months, we received over 800 calls from parents,
relatives and even children touched by the message of the article. We had found
the knowledge base to help us design much-needed services from the ground up.
Nearly everything we do at Hannah’s House today came out of our work with those
parents who read and heard and responded. They told us their stories.
And we listened: Hannah’s House is their legacy. We are a private non-profit social
service agency with the mission of creating safe places where troubled families can
come together to resolve their conflicts for the sake of the children. As a non-profit organization, we are committed to providing our services in a manner that all
families can afford. We use a sliding-fee scale based on income, and provide free
services to children and parents with grant monies as they become available.
We are registered with the Secretary of State as the Griffin & Wong Institute
for Education & Training.
How We Got Our Name - A Story of a Little Girl’s Resilience
| "If we don't find a way to prevent the painful abandonment, abuse and
exploitation of children, we will spend the rest of our lives building mental
hospitals and prisons."
-Karl Menninger
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Hannah lives with her mom and two half-sisters and visits with her Dad on a regular
basis. She is happy, healthy and full of life. She is an amazing and inspiring example of the
resilience of the children of divorce and separation traumatized by the pain and suffering of their
parents. Hannah was a victim of parental abduction who is an inspiration to everyone who knows
her.
We started supervising exchanges for Hannah when she was four (4) months old. She
lived with her mom and sisters and spent several hours with her father three-four days a week.
We did the exchanges for Hannah from Mom’s House to Dad’s House and back again. Hannah
was a happy and easy-going child who seemed to do well in both of her homes.
While Hannah did well with both of her parents and in both of their homes, Hannah’s
father held an anger toward Hannah’s mother which made every exchange a challenge for the
staff. Hannah’s dad directed his anger at the staff and at the agency, finding fault with policies
and procedures and trying to get the staff to side with him against the mother.
The staff remained neutral and objective, and performed the exchanges for Hannah
between her parents for almost two years. When Hannah was just over two years old, a Family Court
judge decided that the parents “should be able to do the exchanges on their own after so much
time.” A new order went into effect and Hannah’s father abducted her shortly after the
unsupervised exchanges began.
Hannah was two years and four months old when her father abducted her. She was gone
for almost exactly four years. During that time Hannah’s mother and two sisters struggled with
fear, depression and despair. They tried to cope with the alternating hope that Hannah would be
found and the grief that she was lost to them forever.
During Hannah’s absence she and her father were on the run, frequently changing their
location to keep from being found by the San Diego District Attorney’s office. Hannah’s name
and gender were changed three-four times over the years to make sure she was not discovered by
adults who might become suspicious and check the Missing Children’s Website. She was told
that her mother and sisters had died, and she was kept out of school to minimize contact with the
larger world.
Hannah and her father were found when Hannah was six years and four months old. They
were returned to San Diego by investigators from the District Attorney’s office. Hannah’s father
was arrested and charged with child abduction, and Hannah was returned to her mother and
sisters – people she did not know believed and to be dead.
Hannah had to go through changes that would challenge the sanity of most adults.
Everything about her life was different overnight, with no warning, and she had no say in it and
no control over it. Hannah showed a remarkable resilience as she struggled to accept and
understand what was happening, and what had happened, to her. And she did so with the loving
support of her mother and sisters, and a supportive relationship with a psychologist who worked
with Hannah as she worked to adjust to her new life.
Hannah is the namesake of our organization and the continued inspiration for our work.
She reminds all of us, every day, of the importance of a safe and secure routine for the children of
divorce and separation. And she inspires us to protect children from the trauma she suffered.
Hannah's House
Animal Staff
"There are four elements of the human-animal
bond that relate to the larger concepts of companionship, love
and affections, pleasure, and protection. These are safety,
intimacy, kinship, and constancy. Each is a major factor in
psychological health and well-being."
Aaron Katcher, M.D.
 
More of our pets
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