History of Children’s Trust of South Carolina

Children’s Trust Fund of South Carolina was established by the General Assembly and signed into law by former Governor Richard Riley on April 23, 1984.

S.C. citizens began donating to the fund through the Check-Off for Children income tax initiative.

Founded by the Junior League of Columbia, the Alliance for South Carolina’s Children began advocacy operations, focusing on low childhood immunization rates.

CDC-Kaiser Permanente conducted the original Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Study with 17,000 health maintenance organization members.

Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention (CBCAP) programs were established by Title II of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act Amendments of 1996.

Governor David Beasley, one of the legislators who introduced our enabling legislation, designated the Children’s Trust Fund to administer CBCAP funding in South Carolina.

The Council of Child Abuse and Neglect was chartered as the state chapter of Prevent Child Abuse America. The organizational name changed to Prevent Child Abuse South Carolina.

The Center for the Study of Social Policy introduced the Strengthening Families ™ Protective Factors Framework.

Alliance for South Carolina’s Children changed its name to Voices for South Carolina’s Children, aligning the organization with Voices for America’s Children to be the statewide voice for children in matters of public policy.

State child advocacy organizations began talks of merging Children’s Trust Fund of South Carolina, Prevent Child Abuse South Carolina and Voices for South Carolina’s Children.

Three legacy organizations merged to do business under the name Children’s Trust of South Carolina.

Prevent Child Abuse America launched the Pinwheels for Prevention campaign.

Gov. Mark Sanford designated Children’s Trust to implement the federal Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) investment.

Children’s Trust adopted its first board-approved legislative agenda.

Working with our South Carolina Children’s Hospital Collaborative partner, Chandler’s ATV law was passed.

Children’s Trust started the popular Policy Post newsletter.

Children’s Trust convened the first South Carolina Home Visiting Coalition and Home Visiting Summit.

Children’s Trust updated its mission and vision statements and set an ambitious long-term goal to reduce child abuse, neglect and unintentional injuries by 50 percent by 2023.

Children’s Trust named the KIDS COUNT grantee for South Carolina by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

In partnership with the Duke Endowment and the S.C. Department of Social Services, Children’s Trust began implementing the Strengthening Families Program in 10 communities.

Children’s Trust received a competitive grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration, to expand home visiting in South Carolina.

Children’s Trust received a competitive grant from the S.C. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Adolescent Health to support pregnant and parenting teens, young women and fathers.

Children’s Trust convened partners and issued the inaugural Early Childhood Common Agenda.

Children’s Trust began to collect Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) data for South Carolina.

Children’s Trust published the first county-level data profiles for child and family well-being for South Carolina.

BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina Foundation funded the S.C. ACEs Initiative.

In partnership with the S.C. Department of Health and Human Services, The Duke Endowment, Blue Meridian, Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, and BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina Foundation, Children’s Trust served as the fiscal trustee for the state’s first Pay for Success initiative expanding Nurse Family Partnership across South Carolina.

With funding from The Duke Endowment, Children’s Trust began implementing the Positive Parenting Program, also known as Triple P, in Greenville, Georgetown and Spartanburg Counties

South Carolina was named one of four Thriving Family sites by the U.S. Children’s Bureau.

Children’s Trust shifted prevention services from in-person to online delivery to respond to the global pandemic.

A new website, scParents.org, was launched for families to connect to free and reduced-cost resources in their communities through the Find Help database.

Children’s Trust launched the Family Resource Center Network to build community capacity and expanded services for family-serving organizations.

Children’s Trust expanded its prevention network to 46 funded partners.

Children’s Trust celebrated its 40th anniversary with a Senate resolution and a visit with Nobel Prize winner Gov. David Beasley.

Children’s Trust became a state partner for the national Opportunity for Prevention and Transformation Initiative (OPT-In) with the Doris Duke Foundation and other philanthropic funders.

Children’s Trust expanded Triple P South Carolina to include Triple P Teen and Triple P Online.

Children’s Trust launched its first Parent Advisory Council with 12 charter members.

Children’s Trust expanded its prevention network to 57 funded partners.

Children’s Trust launched “You’ve Got This” as the primary prevention messaging campaign to support the updated scParents.org.

Children’s Trust received a state investment to expand home visiting.

Children’s Trust expanded the Strengthening Families Program to serve youth up to age 17.

Children’s Trust launched Community Supporter Training targeting educators in partnership with the S.C. Department of Social Services.