SD Foundation Awards $252K To 11 Nonprofits Helping Children

SAN DIEGO, CA — The San Diego Foundation Monday awarded $252,000 in grants to 11 nonprofit programs in San Diego County with the intent to prevent abuse, provide mental and behavioral health services, support early interventions, address trauma and increase health equity for young children and their families.

"Supporting children and families who experience abuse or trauma and strengthening services that prevent trauma are important components of a healthy, thriving, resilient region," said Katie Rast, director of community impact at The San Diego Foundation. "This care is critical for children in the earliest stages of life. We're thankful to these regional partners who will equitably serve San Diego families with sensitivity and care."

According to a December 2020 report from the California Surgeon General, "adverse childhood experiences" and trauma represent an urgent public health crisis with wide-reaching health and societal impacts.

Those experiences are recognized as a challenge impacting many children, families and service providers that deliver care in San Diego County, according to The San Diego Foundation, which strives to ensure young children have opportunities to thrive and families have access to supportive services that are crucial to nurturing early childhood development and care.

The Early Childhood Initiative grants are intended to support both immediate impact initiatives and systems-level change in early education and care, according to foundation officials.

The grant recipients are:

-- Diamond Educational Excellence Partnership: $17,000 to help strengthen the capacity of family childcare providers in Southeast San Diego and address the mental health needs of young children and their families through specialized trainings in trauma;
-- Family Health Centers of San Diego: $25,000 for healthy development of young children with multiple adverse childhood experiences by supporting their parents in individual and group support sessions;
-- Father Joe's Villages: $25,000 to support the Therapeutic Childcare program that provides childcare, therapeutic interventions and developmental support for hundreds of children and parents experiencing homelessness and poverty;
-- Hannah's Family Center: $25,000 to provide structured education and skills to low-income parents and caregivers of young children, from prenatal development through age 3;
-- Home Start, Inc.: $25,000 to provide behavioral health services for young children who have been a victim of a crime or have experienced early childhood trauma;
-- International Rescue Committee: $25,000 to provide intervention for refugee and immigrant families with young children who have experienced forced displacement;
-- Miracle Babies: $15,000 to hire a licensed clinical social worker to support the mental health of low-income mothers with a child hospitalized in a San Diego County Neonatal Intensive Care Unit;
-- Promises2Kids: $25,000 to hire a care coordinator and expedite developmental and mental health services for young children in foster care who have complex needs and may be at-risk for losing their current placement if their needs go unaddressed;
-- San Diego State University Research Foundation: $25,000 for the SDSU Healthy Early Years Clinic childhood mental health internship program to immediately expand services to Spanish-speaking, low-to-moderate income families in need of early childhood support and trauma treatment;
-- Voices for Children: $20,000 to help match more abused and neglected young children in the foster care system with court-appointed special advocates volunteers and staff advocates; and
-- YMCA of San Diego County: $25,000 to provide early childhood mental health consultation.

— City News Service