This is a YouTube video titled "KUSI News Feature! Loan Signing System Gives Back to Promises2Kids" containing an English interview recorded in July 2025. The interview features Mark Wills discussing National Mentoring Month and his involvement with Promises to Kids, a program supporting foster youth in San Diego County. The conversation covers the challenges foster youth face transitioning to adulthood, the mentoring programs available, and ways the community can help.
Chapters
It is National Mentoring Month, and that has groups like Promises to Kids reaching out and asking anyone that's willing to play a role in the life of foster kids. For more, we turn to Mark Willis. Mark, thanks so much for joining us on a Saturday. We sure appreciate it.
Oh, thank you so much for having me, man. How are you doing tonight?
Doing just fine. Better that you're here now. And I wanted to ask you just about National Mentoring Month, what does this mean to you personally?
What means me personally is I was a former foster youth myself, and Promises to Kids helps foster youth throughout San Diego County. And so for me, being able to give back to the foster youth of San Diego and be part of the mission that Promises to Kids has. It's absolutely amazing. I mean, Promises does so much for the foster community here in San Diego, and I'm so honored to be a small part of that. There's so many amazing people making this come to happen every single day.
Absolutely. I mean, how can a mentor play a role in a kid's life just to have someone who they can talk to? I guess.
Yeah. You know, what I specifically do with Promises is I'm part of the Cardiac Scholars program. So a lot of times, foster children unfortunately don't get. And so what happens is they just kind of age out of the foster care system. So there's a lot of foster care children who go from being 18 years old and kind of like, now what? Right. A lot of the things that we take for granted, you know, they don't have the opportunity for. And so the program that I'm within Promises to Kids helps these. These young adults transition in adult life. And the program I'm with really helps them through their college years. Less than 10% of foster children actually graduate from college, and Promises helps them along this journey. So for me, it means a ton. And it's a phenomenal program that Promises Kids has.
I mean, you kind of mentioned it there. They get to 18, and now it's sort of a now what? Attitude. What are the main questions that they come to you with? What are they concerned about?
Yeah, it's so funny. It's a lot of things that we take for granted. You know, we literally teach them how to balance their checkbook. We literally help them, like how to interview if they go do a job interview. We teach them how to network and how to, you know, have an elevator pitch and how to have confidence and believe in themselves. Again, a lot of things that, you know, some people who don't go through the foster care system Take for granted. And so, yeah, I've some students like Mark, how do I go through a checkbook? And so it's. It's really things we take for granted that, that we help them with.
I would have to imagine too. I mean, they get to this point, certainly they've had a long road already. And we all know that adulthood really, no matter how you've grown up, can be so difficult. I mean, do you find that they're. They're downtrodden, that they need someone to kind of let them know it's going to be okay and that they can succeed in life?
You know, it's a yes and no. You know, foster children are really resilient. Like I said, I'm a foster child. And so we're really resilient. But to your point, you know, we go through things in life, but I find a lot of foster children more resilient than you may understand. But it's a lot of the. Just the basic adult skills that we have because of our parents that bouncing from foster home to foster home that they don't get. And it's really a moment for them to learn how to transition into adulthood. And it's really. I'm blessed to have an opportunity to help some foster children San Diego county make this transition. But Promises does it as young and to the transition. That's what makes Promises so amazing. It's just not the transition that I'm responsible or I participate in, but it's the whole age group that really makes this program phenomenal.
Well, I'm sure like you said, there's so many different working pieces to something like Promises to Kids. How can the community get involved? How they. How can they help out with the cause?
Yeah, you can go to promisestokids.org there's so many different opportunities to help Promises. Specifically one is through, obviously financial donations. 83 cents of every dollar goes directly back to supporting the children. But there's a ton of volunteering options too. So if money is not something you want to donate, there's tons of opportunities. The men's and women's scholar program, My amazing wife is a mentor, one of the female students. And there's also events that they throw year round. So just go to promisestokids.org and just sign up and figure out how you can just give a little bit of your Saturday or Sunday to some of these children, or donating as little as $10 a month. Everything counts. And foster children really could use the support in our amazing county.
Mark, this is such incredible work. What you guys do. And just to hear your personal story and what you're doing with these foster youth, we love hearing it and obviously we hope everyone else else out there is going to consider helping you guys out as well. Thanks for stopping by. We appreciate it.
Thank you so much for having me. Have a good night.
