The SOS Florida Promise: Healing, Hope and Home

Healing

Many of the foster children who come to live at SOS have been abused, neglected, and abandoned; growing up without a caring home which focuses on their needs and development. When boys and girls come home to our Village, we strive to provide services that will help them overcome their past traumas and regain the joys of their childhood.

Mental Health Therapy

The SOS foster children have all been touched by some degree of abuse, neglect or abandonment. Dealing with their traumas and learning to let go and trust are all necessary to break the cycle of pain and anger and regain hope. This is why our Village has on-site and visiting therapists that work with our kids, individually, as sibling groups, and as foster families to help them deal with their abusive pasts and look ahead to a brighter future.

Behavioral Health Program

We learn behavior patterns as children, picking up clues on how to act and what to do from our parents and the home we grow up in. It's these life lessons that help shape who we become. But our boys and girls come from homes absent of good role models and filled with abuse and neglect. Whether a child is two or seventeen when they arrive at SOS, we strive to help them understand right from wrong, respect themselves and others, and learn to make good choices.

Hope

Every child needs encouragement and support from their family as they grow. SOS programs and services are designed to help our foster children re-build their confidence, realize their potential, and discover the tools they need to help them fulfill their dreams and build a  bright future.

Tutoring

A good education opens doors to a future when our children can earn a good living and provide for themselves and their own family. Lacking encouragement, help and supervision at home, many of our children arrive at SOS behind in their education. To help them catch up and get ahead, each of our boys and girls receives up to three hours of tutoring. A professional tutoring company works closely with the children and their teachers to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses and teach them to excel. This past year, thanks to your support, our tutoring program has helped ensure... * 97% of our children improved or maintained their acadmic levels. * 83% of our children graduate from high school. The national average for foster children is 50%.

Independent Living Skills

From the moment our children arrive at SOS, they are learning indepent living skills. Learning how to keep house, cook, budget, resolve conflicts with others, apply for jobs, plan a career are all necessary as we grow into adults. With no other family to lean on, knowing how to care for themselves when they become adults is vital to our foster children. With the support of community leaders and local businesses we are able to provide presentations, classes and assistance to our children to help them learn these skills.

After Care

Family is forever and SOS never forgets the young adults who once lived at our Village. We are still family and strive to continue to be there to support, guide and help our children regardless of their age. The SOS After Care program keeps in touch with these young adults to make sure that they know they are never alone. We help them find housing, find employment, finish their education, and raise their own children. Thanks to the program, 100% of our young adults have homes, 47% have gone on to college or trade school, 78% are employed full time and all of them have a someone to turn to when they need the advice, guidance or help from family.

Home

Nestled on a cul-de-sac in the heart of Coconut Creek is a neighborhood like no other. A place where foster children come to live and grow with the nurturing and stability every child deserves. That neighborhood is SOS Children's Village.

The Village is located on an eight acre cul-de-sac in Coconut Creek and borders Broward and Palm Beach counties. Our Village features 12 single-family homes, a community center, counseling center and an administration building. Help for the children is always right next door or right down the street.

At its core, SOS is a family, reuniting brothers and sisters and creating a place that is safe, secure and stable.

Our children attend local schools together. After school, they take care of household chores, play outdoors with their friends, tend to their studies and homework, and work at after school jobs. They also participate in a variety of activities like scouting, gymnastics, karate, football and band. On weekends, each of our homes plan their own budgets and activities together as a family.

For our alumni, young adults who grew up here, the Village continues to be home and family. They return to visit their siblings and other children, to visit at the holidays, to celebrate Thanksgiving dinner, for special events, and for help and advice from staff. Our family also often attends their milestone events like college graduations and weddings.