Friends of the Children National | 44 NE Morris | Portland, OR 97212 | phone 503 281 6633 | fax 503 281 6819















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Friends of the Children was founded in 1993 by entrepreneur Duncan Campbell. Campbell was inspired by his own troubled childhood to start a revolutionary new program to help at-risk children in the same neighborhood where he grew up.

Campbell designed the Friends of the Children model based on the best research available in the field of youth development. Together with a team of respected researchers, Campbell found that the single most important factor that fosters resiliency in high-risk children is a caring and consistent relationship with an adult.*





The Friends of the Children Story

The Friends of the Children model puts this research into practice by allowing high-risk children to develop caring and consistent one-on-one relationships with professional adult mentors, whom we call “Friends.”

*Smith, Ruth and Emmy Werner. Overcoming the Odds: High Risk Children from Birth to Adulthood. New York: Cornell University Press, 1992.