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

Barbara Christensen’s proudest achievement was founding and acting as the President of St. Germaine Children’s Charity.  She worked tirelessly for many years actively and successfully raising money to provide financial support to help prevent child abuse.

The Award was named after her as a fitting tribute to her work and devotion.  The first Barbara Christensen Award was granted in June of 2007.

The Barbara Christensen Award is given to a selected agency who has shown St. Germaine Children’s Charity they had exceeded the expectations of their mission.

Angel Faces

Founded in 2003.  Angel Faces was created to transform the lives of adolescent girls with severe permanent scars and disfigurements from burn injuries and traumatic events, at times as a result of child abuse.  Angel Faces Retreats have helped hundreds of young women develop the skills to thrive in their communities and feel confident inside and out.

Angels Foster Family Network

Angels Foster Family Network’s mission is dedicated to creating safe, stable loving homes for infants and toddlers in foster care throughout San Diego County.

Their mission is to passionately care for children five years and younger to pair them with diverse and exceptional families who dedicate themselves to each child’s well-being.  The agency is an independent charitable organization, which allows them to do things quite differently from traditional foster care.

Armed Services YMCA

Armed Services YMCA San Diego enhances the lives of military members and their families through programs that are relevant to the unique challenges of military life.  The agency supports over 170,000 San Diego-based families and members with over 40 no-cost or low-cost programs, services, and special events that give support to spouse or grandparents who are left to take care of the children when their parent(s) are deployed.  These programs also help the children to cope and adjust when one or both parents leave for deployments.

Children’s Legal Services

Children’s Legal Services of San Diego protects and defends the rights of children in the child welfare system through high-quality and compassionate legal representation.  The Strong Bends, Nurtured Children pilot project will serve infants and toddlers up to three years as they enter the juvenile dependency court system.  The project aims to maintain a child’s significant attachment to parents and family, reduce the stress on the youngest children in the foster care stays, and provide the child with a secure attachment to persons and caregivers.

Episcopal Community Services

Since 2000, ECS Para Las Familias (PFL) has provided free bi-lingual/bi-cultural behavioral services annually for approximately 7,000 low-income children up to 12-yr-old and their parents/caregivers who are residents of San Diego County.  PFL helps children and families learn how to communicate their emotions and respond to stressors with healthy coping strategies that prevent intergenerational cycles of physical and/or verbal abuse and neglect.  This grant will help Episcopal Community Services hire an additional mental health professional to meet PLF’s growing needs.

Home Base Ranch

Home Base Ranch is a non-profit sanctuary for young people ages 8-14 yr-old.  The Ranch, located in East County, cares for six rescue horses that are used to help at-risk students on the verge of dropping out of school learn new behavioral skills.  The ranch offers them one last chance to stay in school by paring them with counselors and school administrators.  The staff mentor groups, have classroom visits, and have summer camps to improve the emotional intelligence of the students using the horses as mirrors to see their own behavior more clearly.  Their goal is to provide youth tools to transform their lives through better interpersonal and self-reflection skills.

Home Start

For over 50 years, Home Start has worked to stop child maltreatment and improve the quality of life of San Diego children by strengthening families.  Home Start’s Maternity Housing Program (MHP) provides safe and secure supportive housing for youth transitioning to single parent, child abuse prevention programming, and wraparound supportive services for transitional age youth (18-24) aging out of foster care system and their children who are facing homelessness.  The St. Germaine Children’s Charity’s grant will be used to provide life-changing support for 16+ young MHP families not covered by government contracts.

Monarch School

Monarch School’s Mental Health Services Program is delivering high quality school-based mental health services to the San Diego community and to those schools that serve large populations of unhoused youth.  Our Emotional Support Team of behavioral specialists, clinicians, counselors, and partner agencies create a safe and stable environment for students to heal and learn.  All of St. Germaine Children’s Charity’s grant will help the agency meet its growing needs for professional behavioral and mental health services, individual and family counseling, and treatment planning.

Promises2Kids

Promises2Kids annually provides over 3,300 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, to help them overcome the difficulties of their past and grow into healthy and successful adults.

Solutions For Change

Solution For Change is committed to change the future of children in the community by providing parents with the foundation of knowledge and skills to build a better future for their children.  Through their Solutions Academy, a 700-day personal development academy that re-imagines the future for homeless families, the agency provide a safe, stable, sober-living home, food and supplies, along with the mental and emotional support these children and their parents need.

Women’s Resource Center

The Women’s Resource Center is a transitional housing program that focuses on the healing and success of families and children who have experienced domestic violence.  Their wraparound services provide survivors the opportunity to establish a foundation for themselves and their children that is free from abuse and violence.  Women’s Resource Center understands the effects of domestic violence on children, which can be devastating and long-term; therefore, they provide special emphasis and care on children’s well-being and experiences in the program.