Founder of Rooted Hearts Initiative

Kelly Jones is a Registered Nurse, educator, children’s curriculum creator, and mental health leader passionate about helping children and families grow emotionally, relationally, and spiritually through connection-centered, faith-rooted support.

Raised in rural Minnesota, Kelly understands the value of strong communities, authentic relationships, and everyday people showing up for one another during life’s hardest moments. Her work blends professional mental health education, nervous system science, faith, parenting, and real-life experience into practical tools that help children and families feel safe, seen, connected, and deeply loved.

Kelly earned her Master’s Degree in Nursing Education and has spent years working in healthcare leadership, mental health programming, education, and community outreach. She currently serves as the Program Director of a hospital-based mental health program, where she works closely with individuals, families, healthcare teams, churches, and community organizations to support emotional wellness and healing across the lifespan.

Throughout her career, Kelly became increasingly passionate about one important truth consistently supported by trauma-informed and attachment research:

Children heal, grow, and regulate best through safe, connected relationships.

Research continues to show that emotionally safe relationships are one of the strongest protective factors for children experiencing stress, adversity, anxiety, grief, or trauma. Safe adults help regulate nervous systems, build resilience, strengthen emotional development, and create the foundation for lifelong emotional health.

For Kelly, this research beautifully reflects the heart of Jesus.

At the center of Rooted Hearts Initiative is the belief that Jesus is the ultimate safe person - steady, compassionate, protective, emotionally present, and deeply loving. Through both faith and neuroscience, Kelly believes children flourish when they experience connection, safety, belonging, and unconditional love.

This foundation became the heart behind Rooted Hearts Initiative:
creating simple, practical resources that help families, churches, daycares, and communities nurture emotionally healthy children through both faith and relationship-centered care.

Kelly’s work includes:

• Developing faith-based emotional wellness curriculums

• Creating children’s social-emotional learning resources

• Organizing trauma-informed trainings for churches and community leaders

• Providing education on abuse awareness and response

• Teaching nervous system regulation and emotional development

• Supporting churches in creating emotionally safe environments

• Speaking on faith, grief, mental health, trauma, parenting, and connection

Kelly is also the creator and author of the Bo & The Big Feelings children’s book series - an emotional wellness series inspired by her family’s beloved black Labrador therapy dog, Beau (“Bo”). Through warm, story-centered lessons, children learn about emotions, nervous systems, bravery, grief, kindness, connection, and emotional safety in ways that feel gentle, comforting, and developmentally appropriate.

Her passion for this work also became deeply personal after navigating the devastating loss of close family members while pregnant and parenting young children. Walking through grief while helping little children process confusion, loss, and big emotions strengthened Kelly’s desire to create resources that support both children and the adults caring for them.

Kelly believes emotional wellness is not separate from faith.

She believes God designed human relationships, attachment, comfort, and connection as part of healing itself - and that children deserve environments where they feel emotionally safe enough to grow, learn, explore, and thrive.

Through Rooted Hearts Initiative, Kelly hopes to help churches, daycares, schools, and families create spaces where children know:

You are safe.
You are loved.
You are never alone.

Because when children feel rooted and grounded in love, strong hearts can grow.