Tagged With "Summer Camp"

My name is Gloria and I’m a 36-year-old Puerto Rican mom of five children — three boys and two girls — who was born and raised in Newark. In December 2016 I was able to move my family out of a small two-bedroom apartment in Bradley Courts housing project to a four-bedroom apartment on Clinton Place and that’s where my family became a part of the Leaders for Life (L4L) family. One of my sons is a special needs child who is always looking for friends and a place to play. He started finding new...

I've been with DCF for nearly 15 years and for the first 10 years or so I was a child protection worker, and while in that role, I sent numerous children to YMCA Camp Huguenot . The experiences had by my kids at Camp Huguenot was LIFE CHANGING! It saddens me to know that so many children will no longer be able to attend Camp Huguenot and reconnect with friends especially during these trying times. The Greater New York YMCA said that because of pandemic losses to the tune of $100 million, the...

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and while the unfortunate truth is that domestic violence occurs all year-round, this month offers us the opportunity to continue to engage others about the social, emotional and economic impact domestic violence has on individuals, families and communities. On Thursday, October 21 st , we’ll be raising awareness by wearing PURPLE , the color that represents support for domestic violence victims and survivors. Resources can be found here DCF...

The First Round of RAC projects, funded by DCF’s Office of Resilience, is now five months into the grant period and we have seen some outstanding results. While three of our projects in the Central RAC are preparing to launch, five others are up and running. We are seeing creative project activities and curriculums, participants experiencing success, and programs evolving. Projects are currently serving Hunterdon, Union, Mercer, and Middlesex counties. One of the most exciting, inspiring...

A small purple ukulele sat inside Deacon Nelson’s office, waiting for its next musician. Deacon Nelson picked it up and started to play. “ The ukulele is easy to play. It is a soft instrument.” Deacon Nelson’s connection to music is clear – music has the ability to heal, to calm the noise all around. A guitar player himself, Deacon Nelson wanted to give this same gift of music to the youth of his community. He landed on the ukulele because of its relative affordability and ease of playing.

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...