The Children’s Healing Institute, formerly HUGS for Kids, began helping parents and children in Palm Beach County in 1988 and expanded into Broward County in 1995. We are one of the largest service providers in a federation of more than 100 independent Exchange Club Child Abuse Prevention Centers in the nation. Our three offices are located in Lantana, Pompano Beach and Lauderdale Lakes. The Children’s Healing Institute has grown from serving 42 families to serving over 4,000 families per year! The mission of The Children’s Healing Institute is to provide help, understanding, guidance and support to all children including those with chronic and/or terminal illnesses in an effort to promote health, prevent child abuse/neglect and protect our future by strengthening families and protecting children. Through our family mentoring program as well as providing support services to children with chronic and or terminal illnesses The Children’s Healing Institute provides services to children and their families from 0 to 18 as well as services to pregnant women.

Child abuse and neglect occur in all segments of our society, but the risk factors are greater in families in which parents seem to be having economic, housing or personal problems; are isolated from their families or community; have difficulty controlling anger; abuse alcohol or drugs; have little to no education; and were abused or neglected as children (Prevent Child Abuse America, 2003). The vision of The Children’s Healing Institute is to establish programs that are holistic in nature taking into account the child’s physical, cultural, economic, and spiritual environment in which they live.

In meeting that vision The Children’s Healing Institute is establishing the HUGS Prevention Center, a Pediatric Holistic Center and an Outreach Center. The HUGS Prevention Center will focus on the prevention of child abuse and neglect by providing home visitation, case management, family mentoring and parent education. The Pediatric Holistic Center will provide support services to families with children who have chronic or life threatening illnesses. Support service will include case management, educational advocacy and financial assistance. The Outreach Center will be dedicated to educating the community as a whole about the prevention of child abuse, and approached to working with children who face a chronic or life threatening illness. The Outreach Center will also host the Institutes yearly “Turn on the Lights Conference”.