TRENTON, NEW JERSEY – Four Mercer County programs were among 28 recognized for outstanding child abuse prevention programs by Human Services Commissioner Gwendolyn Harris and Paulette Moore Hines, chair of the Child Life Protection Commission, at a StateHouse ceremony on May 20.

Among the 2003-2004 grant recipients of the Children’s Trust Fund was the Father Center, developed by Union Industrial Home for Children of Trenton.  It received a first year grant of $52, 976 to provide a resource center for first-time fathers and fathers with a history of substance abuse, incarceration and/or unstable employment. The Center offers culturally sensitive information, referrals and parenting education, along with opportunities for supervised visitations with their children.

The Concerned Pastors Economic Development Corporation received $41,212 for its second year of running the Parents as Positive Role Model program in Trenton. In this program, parents develop skills to understand developmental needs of family members, create a shared vision of a healthy family, develop community-wide circles of influence, make moral decisions and resolve conflicts peacefully. A combined parent-child workshop works on improving listening skills.

Home Front, now in its third year of programming, received $25,140. The program Safe at Home has had a goal to reduce child abuse and neglect in homeless families living in transitional housing within Rowan Towers.  Developing a strong and comprehensive support system reduces social isolation, commonly experienced by homeless families. The entire family engages in the program:  parents learn effective parenting techniques, and children learn how to protect themselves from abuse.

Isles, Inc., another third year program, received $27,648 to continue their Parents Empowering Parents program. In this program, strong families are built through a series of workshops.  In a support group setting the parents are able to draw on each other’s strengths, expand their parenting skills, learn to cope with stress, and continue to develop a strong bond with their children while staying control.

Commissioner Harris thanked the programs for their dedication to the prevention of child abuse and neglect. Commenting on the benefit of the Children's Trust Fund grants, she noted, “I am especially pleased to see that most of the money for these grants has come from citizens who generously checked off the donor box on their New Jersey tax returns.”

Each year CTF selects innovative programs structured to prevent child abuse and neglect among high-risk populations. This year, a majority of grantees are utilizing widely recognized standard curricula that have proven to be successful, like Parents As Teachers, Families and Schools Together and the Strengthening Families Model.  Most focus on parent involvement -- a key element for effective child abuse prevention programs as outlined in the New Jersey Prevention Standards.

The Children’s Trust Fund provides funding on a three-year basis with a step down process in the grant amount. During the course of three years, programs must procure additional funding to meet the original amount granted in their first year.  The goal is for programs to work towards independence from CTF funding in order to carry on their program beyond the first three years. Over the past 16 years, $11.3million have been awarded to agencies within every county of the state. In the 2003-2004 grant year, ten first year programs will receive a total of $449,306, ten second year programs will receive a total of $345,168 and eight third year programs will receive a total of $176,756, for a total of $971,230.

For more information on The Children’s Trust Fund, go to the New Jersey State website at http://www.state.nj.us/humanservices/cap/njcap2.html.

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