Our Story
Some things begin long before you realize they’ve started.
For years, Amy Butler and Megan Taylor were each quietly developing a deep passion for helping those standing in the hardest gaps of human suffering — the local leaders in Haiti caring for traumatized orphans with no tools to help them; the advocates in Guatemala walking alongside children who longed for a family; the refugee workers holding space for pain they were never quite trained to carry. Independently and unknowingly, both women had lived close enough to these realities that when they finally found each other, something clicked. When their paths converged in 2016, they recruited three teammates, boarded a plane for Africa, and told themselves it was just a trip.
It was not just a trip.
Over five days they provided trauma care and attachment-informed training to international workers and local professionals who were quietly drowning. By the end of the week, people who had confessed uncertainty about staying on the field were leaving with renewed energy and a sense that they could keep going — which meant the vulnerable children and families depending on them could too. That is the ultimate power of helping the helpers.
On the plane home, Amy and Megan knew this was just the beginning. More trips followed. Local partnerships grew. And in 2018, Gap Relief was established as a 501(c)(3) non-profit.
Since then, Gap Relief has built a counseling clinic, developed programs across multiple trauma-impacted sectors, and delivered personalized trainings, retreats, and crisis care both locally and around the world — all with one goal: breaking down the silos that keep trauma expertise out of reach and putting it directly in the hands of the people who need it most.
We believe that when we come together to hold each other’s arms up, we become capable of things we never thought possible. That belief is where Gap Relief began. It’s what drives us still.