Identity before labels
A diagnosis, setback, behavior, or score may describe part of an experience. It does not define the whole person.
About the Center
A human story became a framework for human development.
The Center for Trait-Based Transformation helps people and organizations begin with what is strong, then build the awareness, balance, and capacity to keep growing.
Start from strength.
Develop what is already present. Carry it into what comes next.
One frameworkA shared language for development
Three umbrellasPrevention, recovery, and leadership
Two foundationsResearch and lived experience
One directionFrom surviving to growing and contributing
People are more than the hardest chapter of their lives.
Why we exist
Too many systems begin by cataloging what is wrong. The Center was created to offer a more human starting point: recognize the capacities already present, understand how they operate under pressure, and develop the balance needed for the moment ahead.
Our mission is to transform the way people grow by strengthening identity, resilience, connection, purpose, and responsible influence across the lifespan.
Capacity over deficit
Traits are not fixed categories. They are human capacities that can be understood, practiced, balanced, and applied.
Growth beyond programs
The developmental tools belong to the person, so growth can continue after a class, session, intervention, or program ends.
Evidence in practice
Presenting measurable outcomes from real programs and real people.
The origin of the work
It began with lived experience and a question worth pursuing.
After 17 years of active addiction and homelessness, Jason Roop entered recovery in 2013. Recovery opened a path forward, but it also revealed something important: the traits that help a person survive difficult circumstances do not disappear when life changes.
What if those same capacities could be understood, balanced, and developed into purpose, connection, and leadership?
That question became a rigorous academic and applied journey. Research, field experience, program development, and collaboration shaped the Trait-Based framework, then expanded it into a connected developmental system used across recovery, education, justice, community, and leadership settings.
2013Recovery began, along with a new understanding of identity and human capacity.
2022A PhD in Business Management and Leadership deepened the research foundation.
TodayThe Center connects framework, tools, training, evidence, and implementation.
How the work fits together
One organization. One model. One experience people can carry with them.
The names serve different purposes. Together, they create a clear path from research and developmental theory to the experience people encounter in schools, recovery, leadership, and community life.
The organization
Center for Trait-Based Transformation
The organization responsible for research, development, partnerships, training, implementation, and continuous improvement.
The model
Trait-Based Model
The developmental framework, methodology, research base, and architecture that explain how human capacities are recognized, balanced, and developed.
The experience
Start from Strength
The accessible, public-facing experience through which people use the model, share its language, and continue growing across settings and stages of life.
Trait-Based is the model. Start from Strength is the experience.
The Experience Guides are part of a broader ecosystem that also includes the Reflection System, assessments, longitudinal measurement, facilitator development, university-backed training, implementation support, and research.
One framework. Multiple applications.
The setting changes. The developmental foundation remains.
The Center expresses one shared framework through three primary umbrellas, allowing each audience to encounter language and tools that fit its real-world context.
01
Prevention
Build identity, resilience, emotional capacity, and belonging before crisis becomes the defining story.
Explore Prevention →02
Recovery
Restore balance, rebuild identity, discover purpose, and develop the capacities that support life beyond survival.
Explore Recovery →03
Leadership
Strengthen self-awareness, ethical influence, balanced decision-making, and cultures where people can grow.
Explore Leadership →
The people carrying the work forward
Built through different experiences. United by one belief.
The Center’s leadership brings together research, recovery, education, facilitation, program development, and systems-level implementation.
Founder & Executive Director
Jason Roop, PhD
Jason leads the development and implementation of the Trait-Based framework across prevention, recovery, and leadership. His work integrates lived experience, research, and systems-level innovation to strengthen identity, balance, resilience, and responsible influence.
A researcher, author, and national speaker, Jason earned his PhD in Business Management and Leadership in 2022. He is actively involved with the Kentucky Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission and collaborates with schools, treatment providers, justice systems, and community organizations.
Co-Founder & Program Developer
Amanda Jo Roop
A certified peer support specialist and co-creator of the Trait-Based Models of Recovery and Prevention, Amanda brings more than 12 years of school-system experience, trauma-informed practice, and lived recovery experience to curriculum, training, facilitation, and participant support.
Director of Facilitation & Innovation
Nick Rhodus, APSS
Nick brings recovery leadership, peer-support training, program administration, and executive experience to the Center. His engaging facilitation blends philosophical inquiry, practical leadership, lived experience, and creative approaches to growth.
Structured enough for organizations. Human enough for real life.
Experience informs the work. Evidence keeps examining it.
The Center combines lived knowledge with behavioral science, measurable outcomes, program evaluation, and continuous improvement because meaningful human development deserves both humanity and rigor.
ResearchPublished and ongoing
PracticeAcross diverse settings
ImprovementData-informed growth
Partnership is how the framework becomes local.
These collaborations carry one developmental architecture into schools, recovery, justice, workforce, and community settings while honoring what each environment needs.
University partnerEastern Kentucky UniversityProfessional certificates and workforce development.
School systemManitowoc Public School DistrictWall-to-wall Start from Strength across student pathways.
School systemGarrard County SchoolsStudent development, engagement, and measurable outcomes.
Justice and diversionAlbuquerque Diversion PartnershipIdentity-centered growth within a community diversion pathway.
Community recoveryShepherd's HouseTrait-Based implementation in Lexington, Kentucky.
Youth developmentFreedom 4 YouthCommunity-centered work in Santa Barbara, California.
Residential treatmentMy Brother's KeepersResidential inpatient treatment and recovery services in Mount Vernon, Kentucky.
Community recoveryAsbury Start from Strength ProjectGrant-supported, community-based recovery programming.
Across a growing network of implementation settings
Begin with what is strong
Bring a developmental framework into the environment you serve.
Whether you support young people, recovery, communities, or organizational leadership, the conversation begins by understanding what your people need and what is already present.