Creating a brighter future for foster children.
Promises2Kids is a leading nonprofit organization originally founded 40 years ago as the Child Abuse Prevention Foundation of San Diego County. Since 1981, Promises2Kids has responded to the needs of foster children and provided support to children removed from their home due to abuse and neglect.
Promises2Kids annually provides over 3,000 current and former foster youth in San Diego County with the tools, opportunities, and guidance they need to address the circumstances that brought them into foster care, overcome the difficulties of their past, and grow into healthy, happy and successful adults. Promises2Kids supports these children through our four core programs: Polinsky Children’s Center, Camp Connect, Guardian Scholars and Foster Funds.
In the early nineties, the organization raised $12 million to build the A. B. and Jessie Polinsky Children’s Center. Prior to the opening of the Polinsky Children’s Center, the Hillcrest Receiving Home was the only emergency shelter for children in San Diego County. It was overcrowded and did not adequately meet the needs of abused and neglected children. The Polinsky Children’s Center was designed as an emergency shelter to better care for these children in need of a loving and nurturing place to heal.
Today, the Polinsky Children’s Center provides shelter, protection and support for more than 1,000 children each year.
The Polinsky Children’s Center is a national model for the care and protection of abused children with individuals as far away as Saudi Arabia traveling to San Diego to learn about the facility.
Promises2Kids, then known as the Child Abuse Prevention Foundation, also first initiated the concept of a residential high school for foster youth. The Foundation subsequently raised $6 million for the creation of San Pasqual Academy, a model residential high school for foster children located near Escondido, just north of San Diego. The Academy opened in September 2001 and currently provides a stable home and education for up to 184 foster teenagers.
Since its inception, Promises2Kids has distributed nearly $25 million for the care and protection of abused and neglected children and provided services for more than 200,000 children in need.
Today, Promises2Kids exists to better the lives of children who are in foster care as a result of abuse or neglect. We are dedicated to creating a brighter future for foster children in San Diego County. Through our unique programs and services, we respond to the diverse needs of foster children of all ages, promoting lifelong skills they will carry into adulthood.
San Diego has 3,000 children living in the foster care system on any given day. Promises2Kids has been a leader in our community for more than 30 years – meeting the needs of these children through life-changing programs including the Polinsky Children’s Center, Camp Connect and Guardian Scholars.
Last year, with the generous support of the community, Promises2Kids accomplished the following:
- Assisted 100 former foster youth in reaching their dreams of higher education by providing mentors and scholarships for youth in Guardian Scholars.
- Provided critical support to the 1,000 abused and neglected children who were protected and cared for by the Polinsky Children’s Center.
- Reunited nearly 500 children with their brothers and sisters through Camp Connect. These children are separated from each other while in foster care and the monthly Camp Connect activities are often the only opportunity they have to spend quality time together.
Foster Children Statistics
- On any given day, there are 3,000 foster children in San Diego County.
- Each year, approximately 100 foster children reach age 18 expected to transition to adulthood but lack the skills and resources to support this transition.
OUTCOMES DURING TRANSITION FROM CARE TO ADULTHOOD – NATIONAL DATA
- In San Diego County, foster children experience an average of 5 placement changes while in care.
- Approximately 80% of foster children experience mental health challenges including depression, post traumatic stress disorder, suicidal thoughts and others related to their traumatic past.
