For Immediate Release: May 14, 2007

Contact: 609-633-8507 Kate Bernyk Tom Bell

Home Visitation to Serve 600 Families Statewide

TRENTON – Advancing New Jersey’s child abuse prevention effort, Department of Children and Families (DCF) Commissioner Kevin M. Ryan announced today grants for eight community agencies totaling $2.4 million through DCF’s Home Visitation Initiative, a program that promotes positive parenting and the healthy growth and development of infants and children.

The local agencies will expand or establish new programs to provide primary child abuse prevention and early intervention services to nearly 600 young families who are challenged by complex health-related or social problems and may present a risk for child abuse or neglect.

“Governor Corzine and I are committed to building and supporting a robust network of child abuse prevention programs like home visitation for at-risk infants,” Commissioner Ryan said.

The agencies selected are in 17 cities or communities where there are high incidences of factors that can elevate a family’s risk for child maltreatment, including teen births; pre-term and low-weight babies; mothers with little or no prenatal care; mothers who use tobacco, alcohol or drugs; domestic violence; child abuse and neglect referrals to the state child abuse hotline; poverty; and perinatal depression.

The programs to be funded under the initiative are the Nurse Family Partnership, which targets first-time mothers and families, and Healthy Families, which serves parents who have other children and may be overburdened by specific stressors known to contribute to the risk of child abuse and neglect. Both programs help advance prevention initiatives promoted by DCF, including parenting skills, such as coping with a crying baby to prevent shaken baby syndrome and placing infants to sleep safely.

Nurse Family Partnership is a research-based nurse home visitation program that provides health and parenting education and support from pregnancy until the child is two years old. The program is designed to help women with prenatal health; improve the care provided to infants and toddlers in an effort to help the children’s health and development; and support the personal development of the mothers, giving particular attention to the planning of future pregnancies. Each family is assigned a nurse visitor who works with them for the length of the program.

In one randomized clinical trial conducted in a New York town involving 400 women and their children who received Nurse Family Partnership services, there was a 48 percent reduction in child abuse and neglect and a 59 percent reduction in juvenile arrests.

The Nurse Family Partnership programs funded by the Home Visitation Initiative announced today will focus on specific areas:

• Youth Consultation Services Inc. will receive $448,000 to establish a new Nurse Family Partnership program in Newark, East Orange, Orange and Irvington.
• Southern New Jersey Perinatal Cooperative will use $448,000 in funding to enhance services for 100 families in the City of Camden and to extend services into other parts of Camden County.
• United Way of Central Jersey will receive $399,000 in funding for the continuation of services for 100 families in Franklin Township and Middlesex County.
• Northern New Jersey Maternal Child Health Consortium will receive $394,000 to establish a new Nurse Family Partnership program to serve 100 women and families in the cities of Paterson, Clifton and Passaic.
• Children’s Futures Inc. will use $178,000 in funding to enhance Nurse Family Partnership services for 100 families in Trenton.

The Healthy Families program is a national evidence-based model where home visitors, who often share the families’ culture and community, link expectant parents to existing social services and health care resources during weekly visits that can take place for up to six months. The Healthy Families program will incorporate the nationally recognized parenting curriculum for the Parent-As-Teachers program, which works to improve parenting practices and increase knowledge of early childhood development; provide early detection of developmental delays and health issues; increase children’s school readiness; and prevent child abuse and neglect. 

The new Healthy Families programs funded under the Home Visitation Initiative will also focus on specific areas:

• Visiting Nurse Association of Central Jersey will receive $213,000 to provide services in Long Branch.
• Project Self Sufficiency will receive $176,000 to provide services in Sussex, North Morris and North Warren counties.
• Northwest New Jersey Community Action Program will receive $168,000 to provide services in Phillipsburg.

“Both Nurse Family Partnership and Healthy Families provide instruction to help families know how and where to access supports and services after their participation in these home visitation programs has ended,” Commissioner Ryan said. “It is incredibly important for these services to leave families stronger and more self-sufficient.”

 

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