News / New Jersey News

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...

The Bloom Project, initiated by Sanar Institute to address the profound impact of adverse childhood experiences, particularly violence, stands as a beacon of hope and healing. Established with a prevention-oriented mindset, the project provides trauma healing services to youth and young adults who have endured adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). By facilitating their journey towards holistic well-being, the Bloom Project aspires to heal existing trauma and also to mitigate the risk of...

Program Name: Expressive Art Therapy RAC: CUMAC Organization name: Aspire NJ Person of Contact: Davida Hunter Davida Hunter was a longtime school counselor about to start Expressive Art Therapy, a program for children, when the pandemic disrupted her plans. What she found was that during COVID, while it was easy enough to provide online therapy, she was finding it difficult to keep the attention of the children with which she worked. To address this, Davida and her coworker, a former art...

Makers Place, launched in July 2018, was founded on the principles of asset-based community development, emphasizing the value of building relationships and fostering a sense of community strength. Instead of focusing on what a community lacks, Makers Place recognizes and celebrates the inherent gifts within each individual. The organization is committed to bringing people together and leveraging community support to create a more unified and empowered environment. The challenges posed by...

Dress for Success- Central New Jersey is dedicated to empowering women and teen girls by providing them with clothing and essential workforce development tools. Their mission is to instill confidence through effective communication, personal branding, and image enhancement, guiding these individuals to the next level of their academic and professional journeys. Dress for Success Mercer County began modestly in 2007 as a small affiliate, primarily focused on providing clothing to women...

NJDCF Office of Resilience is inviting anyone that may be interested in learning about Resilience. Executive Director of our Office, Dr. Rebecca Bryan, will be conducting a virtual "Lunch & Learn." The Topic will be: Everyday Resilience Attitudes

Kindly see the attached flyer for an upcoming in-person youth event from Amber Pierce, Gateway Wellness Center. This event hits all the relevant points: positive youth development, trauma prevention, violence reduction, and Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

LILO H. STAINTON, HEALTH CARE WRITER | MAY 13, 2022 | HEALTH CARE Private funds paid his salary. NJ taxes covered the staff. Now he’s gone New Jersey generated a national buzz among child welfare experts when in June 2020 it launched the first state-level office devoted to childhood resilience and arranged for private foundations to pay the salary of the director. Two years later acclaimed director Dave Ellis is leaving the Department of Children and Families Office of Resilience. The...

We must combat the myth of declining homelessness — in New Jersey and beyond | Opinion Paul R. Shackford | The Bergen Record via Yahoo.com Last fall, U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Marcia Fudge announced the “House America” program to fund the rehousing of 100,000 families and the building of 20,000 affordable housing units. The goal is admirable but the reality here in Bergen County is that affordable rentals are a myth. The opportunity for local working families to find...

Lyra Walsh Fuchs | DissentMagazine.org Over 630,000 children, who are disproportionately Black and Indigenous, were “served by the foster care system” in 2020, according to the federal Department of Health and Human Services. That number doesn’t account for the many families placed under informal supervisory plans, or who received surprise knocks on their doors from caseworkers, often accompanied by police. Dorothy Roberts and a growing number of activists across the country have another...

Eric Scott | NJ1015 After two years of remote learning and hybrid classes, New Jersey's K-12 students continue to struggle and are in danger of falling even farther behind. Even with in-person learning since the start of the current school year, the struggles are evidence in every grade level. The non-profit education advocacy group JerseyCAN recently completed the first comprehensive look at so-called 'learning loss,' and the results should alarm every parent. On average, New Jersey...

By MICHELLE BOORSTEIN Washington Post White-supremacist groups continued in 2021 to distribute propaganda at a historically high rate, a report published Thursday says, part of what some experts call an increasingly panicked reaction to growing diversity in America. The Anti-Defamation League’s research found 4,851 reported cases of white supremacist propaganda in 2021, including racist, anti- Semitic and anti-LGBTQ items. That’s down 5% from 2020 but way up from 294 cases in 2017, when the...