Our History

On January 27, 2022, Rancho Damacitas formally entered into partnership with Community Mission of Hope, merging two Temecula entities aligned in mission. This collaboration will streamline business operations to create one highly efficient organization designed to assist as many individuals and families as possible struggling with homelessness and food insecurity, ushering them onto the road of self-sufficiency.

Rancho Damacitas Children & Family Services (founded in 1983 as Thessalonika Family Services) was started as a foster home for young girls removed from their homes due to severe abuse and neglect.  As the needs of the children grew, so did the organization.  More foster homes were added until land was purchased outside Temecula, CA to build a residential campus.  In 1988 the land was cleared and construction began for what people would soon come to know as “Rancho Damacitas”.  Residency was granted in 1990 and the campus opened with the first four girls being able to call it home.  As the years passed, Rancho Damacitas became home to some of the most challenged foster youth, both girls and boys, ages 6 – 18 years old.  After 30 years of working with foster youth, Rancho Damacitas opened “Project Independence” in 2012, a program focused on filling in the gap of support for former foster youth as they transitioned from the dependency system into independent adulthood after 18.  Beginning in October 2017, Rancho Damacitas transitioned the residential campus from serving foster youth to serving struggling single mothers with young children through the Empowerment Village, and began focusing on strengthening families and young adults to keep their children out of the foster care system and families intact.

Today, Rancho Damacitas serves children and young adults who have been victims of child abuse, neglect and abandonment through four programs – Empowerment Village, Project Independence, New Heights Scholarship, and Children’s Enrichment.  Programs address the unique challenges facing former foster youth and single mothers today and provides them with safety and stability while helping them build accountability, financial stability, faith in themselves, and paving their pathway to success one brick at a time.

Thanks to our visionary founders and a supportive community, Rancho Damacitas has served over 4,000 children and young adults for over 35 years!

Campus Construction Photos (1988)