What Does It Mean to Receive the Barbara Christensen Heart of San Diego Award?

For its exemplary work, we are pleased to present the prestigious Barbara Christensen Heart of San Diego award to Voices for Children.

This year Voices for Children celebrates 45 years of helping children and families navigate the complex and demanding court system for foster placement. The CASA volunteers and VFC staff served more than 2,300 children last year alone. 

A big congratulations to Voices for Children!

Angels Foster Family Network

Angels Foster Family Network’s cares for the youngest of children along with diverse and exceptional families who dedicate themselves to each child’s wellbeing.  This program equips caregivers with the tools and resources they need to care for children placed with them outside of traditional foster care, furthering the organizaiton’s mission of supporting vulnerable children and families.

Center for Positive Changes

Center for Positive Changes serves to empower, nurture, and provide advanced life and job skills to abused and vulnerable foster youth on their journeys to realizing their full potential.  It encourages youth to maximize their capabilities by participating in effective therapeutic services through engaging in extraordinary activities that help them develop coping skills, life goals and a path to an empowered life.

Episcopal Community Services

Episcopal Community Services is committed to preventing child abuse by offering trauma-informed early childhood mental health services through the Para Las Familias (PLF) program.  PLF provides bilingual therapy, parenting, education and support services to strengthen families, and reduce the long-term impact of trauma on young children and their families/caregivers.

GRACE

GRACE (Girls Rising Above Child Exploitation) supports, empowers, and provides services to trafficked, exploited and at-risk youth.  Since 2018, GRACE has been serving San Diego by providing wrap-around services to youth and their children.  Many of their parenting program participants are a product of familial trafficking.  New curriculum will help break the generational cycle of abuse.

Kids’ Turn San Diego

Kids’ Turn San Diego serves families going through divorce and separation in high conflict relationships and changes family relationships in positive ways.  It is the only organization that works with children and their parents together.  The program teaches parents and children communication and coping skills.  It helps children with behavioral issues and reduces the long-term impact by acknowledging their feelings and teaching children resilience.

Home Start

Home Start provides behavioral health services to include center-based tele-health, school-based, and in-home therapeutic mental health services to over 150 underserved children suffering trauma and abuse throught the county each year.  These children have barriers to accessing treatment including lacks of insurance, no local providers, etc.  Evidence-based practices are used to treat and change the lives of those children..

Monarch School

Monarch School nurtures resilience in unhoused youth and their families.  They empower students to influence their own growth in the areas of academic success and social emotional learning.  They reinforce the existing strength of families so that students can thrive in school and in life.  Monarch School Project has developed a comprehensive mental health program of clinical and behavioral support for students.

Promises2Kids

Promises2Kids works to solve challenges faced by foster youth by providing for their physical safety and mental health.  It supports connection to positive sibling and adult relationships, access to education and career opportunities, stable and affordable housing.  This includes outreach, recruitment, training, and ongoing support of volunteer mentors to work with children aged 6-18 who are currently in foster care.

Restoration 225

Restoration 225 is the only non-profit in San Diego county that unites social workers, agencies (like Children’s Legal Services) and local churches to help vulnerable children in crisis.  Since 2019, they have mobilized volunteers to bridge urgent gaps in the foster care system to stabilize children placed in foster homes or with relatives.  They act quickly to provide needed items such as cribs, car seats, and groceries to facilitate placements.

Voices for Children

Voices for Children transforms the lives of abused, abandoned or neglected children by providing them with trained, volunteer, long-term Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASAs).  A CASA attends hearings, works with social services, and is an exper problem-solver who makes things happen with the resources provided by Voices for Children.