February 2024

At the Center for Prevention and Counseling (CPC), staff are committed to seamlessly integrating strategies and education on healthy youth development They saw a natural alignment between Search Institute's 40 Developmental Assets for youth and the importance of raising awareness of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), including strategies to prevent and mitigate their impact. Using funding from the Department of Children and Families’ Office of Resilience microgrants, CPC staff developed...

Program Name: Champions For Life RAC: Give a Kid a Dream Person of Contact: Jacklyn Atkins In her long professional career, Jacklyn Atkins has a diverse background. From being the Executive Director of Research and Development at AT&T to working with at-risk youth in Long Branch, to traveling to India for similar work. Her travel required long absences from her clients in New Jersey, which became increasingly difficult, eventually leading her to build her own program- Champions for Life.

In July 2021, Governor Phil Murphy signed into law P.L.2021, c.187 to create a statewide, universal home visiting (UHV) program for newborns in the State of New Jersey.1 The program has been branded in New Jersey as Family Connects NJ. New Jersey is the second state in the country to legislate a statewide program through which families with a newborn can have a specially trained nurse visit their home in the first few weeks after the child’s birth. The services are free, voluntary, and meant...