RELEASE: January 20, 2005

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Treatment House Becomes Home for Moms and Children

Focus on drug abuse part of Child Welfare Reform Plan

NEWARK – Commissioner James M. Davy today announced that a substance abuse program here is opening a residential house so mothers in treatment can have their children live with them.

Newark Renaissance House will be the home of 15 women and up to 30 of their children. Similar programs exist at Seabrook House in Cumberland County and Sunrise House in Sussex County and are designed to meet the needs identified in the Child Welfare Reform Plan for substance abuse treatment of DYFS moms.

“We need more programs like these to strengthen families and protect children,” said Governor Richard Codey. “We have to stop tragedies caused by substance abuse. It's one of the most pressing and destructive problems facing families and children.”

“These are mothers, sisters, daughters, friends, neighbors - and their children are our future. I am committed to doing everything I can to break the vicious cycle of substance abuse and protect our children,” Commissioner Davy said.

The Commissioner noted that more than 80 percent of DYFS cases involve substance abuse. Of the DYFS cases related to substance abuse, more than half involve children under five years of age.

For the past five years, 23 percent of all child abuse/neglect deaths of children under the age of one involved evidence of prenatal drug exposure.

Under the new Child Welfare Reform Plan, DHS plans to spend $58 million over the next five years to expand substance abuse treatment services.

“Seeing little children with smiles on their faces warms my soul. This is a service that has been sorely needed for many years and we are blessed that everyone had the confidence in Newark Renaissance House to make it happen,” Renaissance President and CEO Wiley Griffin said in a prepared statement. “I want to thank Assistant Commissioner Carolann Caviola and Commissioner Davy not only for unfailing support but for the funds necessary to run such an operation.”

Providers were selected on the basis of their experience in providing this service and ability to expand their programs within a short period of time.

The overall treatment goal will be each client's recovery and permanent reunification with her children. Barriers to access to treatment will be removed by providing for the child and facilitating services on site to the children that come to the program with their mothers.

Newark Renaissance House (NRH) was established in 1975 by providing drug/alcohol treatment to adults and began providing treatment services to teens in 1980. In 1987 NRH started to provide substance abuse treatment services to adolescents. At this time New Jersey youth were being sent out of state for treatment services.

Today 60 young men live at NRH for up to 18 months and more than 30 young men and women participate in the day treatment program.

Over the years this program branched out into an intensive outpatient program for women and children in a separate location on the Newark campus. It is designed to meet the specialized treatment needs of women substance abusers and the developmental needs of infants and children affected by maternal substance abuse.

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