Prevention & Advocacy
Education & Training
Protection & Support
Originally founded as the Child Abuse Prevention Foundation of San Diego County, Promises2Kids is a 30-year-old nonprofit organization. Since 1981, Promises2Kids has led the fight against child abuse and neglect in the County of San Diego. No other organization in the area offers such a broad array of support systems, nor does any other organization in the area offer such a wealth of opportunity to connect with a wide variety of resources, programs, and collaborative partners focused on eliminating child abuse. The Chief Executive Officer of Promises2Kids is the former two-term Mayor of San Diego The Honorable Susan Golding.
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 Center, the Hillcrest Receiving Home was the only emergency shelter for children in San Diego County, which was overcrowded and did not adequately meet the needs of abused and neglected children. The Polinsky Center is the County’s only emergency shelter for abused and neglected kids and provides shelter, protection and support for more than 3,000 children going through its doors each year. The Polinsky Children's Center is now 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 250 foster teenagers.
Since its inception, Promises2Kids has distributed nearly $21 million for the care and protection of abused and neglected children and provided services for more than 166,000 children in need including current and former foster youth.
