News

Not having secure housing is a huge stress for anyone. But when children experience this, especially in early childhood, it can affect their health years down the line. That’s the finding of a new study in the journal Pediatrics, which says that teens who experienced housing insecurity earlier in life were more likely to report worse health. “Pediatricians, for a long time, have suspected that housing insecurity is associated with negative health outcomes,” says Dr. Hemen Muleta, a...

Lawmakers push for court-ordered counseling. Children who have witnessed domestic violence could soon be eligible to receive court-ordered counseling under a bill that cleared a Senate committee last week. “This is going to be so life-changing for so many people, especially the children, because it gives the children an opportunity to have access to care and access to services immediately,” Darian Eletto, the chief clinical officer of behavioral health services at Bergen New Bridge Medical...

📞 NJ 211 helps provide NJ residents with the services and help they need 📞 A statewide campaign has launched to bring more awareness to NJ 211 📞The website also allows residents to self-search for assistance If you need help or certain services in New Jersey, do you know where to look or what number to call? The New Jersey Department of Children and Families and NJ 211 are spreading awareness about the wide range of help and services available to state residents. The initiative aims to...

TRENTON, NJ — The New Jersey Cultural Trust, in partnership with the New Jersey State Council on the Arts (Arts Council), has released the guidelines for its Fiscal Year 2025 grant program , Institutional and Financial Stabilization Grants for Arts Organizations (IFS Arts). The IFS Arts program addresses the financial and institutional challenges that threaten nonprofit arts organizations’ stability, helping them build greater operational capacity. Past grant projects funded through this...

The Community Schools Reading Intervention program was developed by elementary school officials and Mercer Street Friends during the pandemic. A nonprofit in Trenton, N.J., is helping younger students read at grade level. Bernie Flynn, the CEO of Mercer Street Friends, said the Community Schools Reading Intervention program was developed in partnership with elementary school officials during the pandemic. During a ceremony at Trenton’s Luis Muñoz-Rivera Elementary School, first and second...

This is a community event where we encourage healthy habits and activities for children and families. Organizations and Vendors are able to set up tables (free of charge) and share information with the community. We just ask that you bring an activity for the children to participate in, engage in, take, etc. I’ve attached additional details. Alejandrina Batista, LCSW ( She/Her) Director of Mental Health Services RARITAN BAY AREA YMCA 357 New Brunswick Avenue Perth Amboy, NJ 08861 (P)...

Maternal and Infant Health Innovation Authority targets preventable loss of life in childbirth, especially among Black women and newborns. As the board of New Jersey’s new Maternal and Infant Health Innovation Authority sat down for its inaugural meeting Wednesday morning in Trenton, social media was buzzing with the story. Another educated, well-off Black woman had lost her life to childbirth: former Kansas City Chiefs cheerleader Krystal Anderson had died of sepsis days after delivering a...

The OOR Police-Youth Initiative was highlighted in the newest issue of The NJ Police Chief Magazine. Community navigator Tim Woody authored an article – look for it on page 25 on this link: The NJ Police Chief Magazine - Volume 30, Number 5 FEB 2024 MAG (joomag.com)

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...

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...

COVID-related ‘acting out’ is a growing problem in NJ schools David Matthau | NJ1015 It’s been more than two years since the start of the pandemic and the vast New Jersey schools resumed in-person learning last September, but the effects of COVID continue to reverberate with students statewide. “As I speak with school superintendents throughout the state they are indeed affirming that there are many more issues post-COVID, coming back to school, than there were pre-COVID,” said Rich Bozza,...