As a Title V agency, the New Jersey Department of Health (DOH), Division of Family Health Services, has an unyielding commitment to meet the needs of New Jersey's maternal and child health population and recognizes that communications and systems building efforts are key components to improving the health, safety, and wellbeing of families and communities.

As such, the NJ DOH, Division of Family Health Services, participated as the lead agency in the originating federal Health Resources & Services Administration's Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems (ECCS) grant initiative (July 2003 - July 2013) to ensure a statewide focus on New Jersey's early childhood health, development and early learning issues would be established, and a statewide mechanism for long term sustainability of NJ's early childhood community's goals, mission and vision would be developed.

Successfully, through the dedication and leadership of the NJ DOH, Division of Family Health Services, what had begun as an initial NJ statewide early childhood public/private policy centered initiative (ECCS, 2003), transformed into a fully integrated web-based resource tool within the State of New Jersey's IT communications & systems infrastructure (NJ Parent Link, 2010). 

Today, NJ Parent Link continues as the State of New Jersey's “go to” resource for parents, families and professionals.

NJ Parent Link
The State of New Jersey's Early Childhood, Parenting and Professional Resource Center

The focus of NJ Parent Link is to initiate, facilitate, implement and sustain coordinated linkages between early childhood stakeholders, government, community services, parents and professionals.

The goal of NJ Parent Link is to implement and maintain an accessible, comprehensive and culturally competent early childhood health, development and early learning communication system that informs and empowers families and care givers while supporting the needs of each child.

The mission of NJ Parent Link is to facilitate the understanding of the importance of the physical, developmental, social and emotional wellbeing of New Jersey's young children (from birth to age 8)
in preparation for school entry and attaining lifelong professional, educational and social goals.

The vision of NJ Parent Link is that all young children in New Jersey are safe, healthy, nurtured, and capable of reaching their full potential.

• The human infant enters the world with remarkable capabilities for relatedness to invite, inform, and engage. We must support these earliest capabilities and relationships.
• Parenting is a relationship, not merely a skill set. A comprehensive system needs to address and support the parent/child relationship.
• Family Centered Care means services are individually tailored to each child and family.
• Programs should be flexible, culturally competent and responsive to each family's strengths, goals and needs.
• Success in school and later life is built on a foundation of mental, physical and emotional wellbeing developed in early childhood.
• A collaborative effort of families, educators, health and social services providers, and other community partners, should guide all service planning and implementation.
• Partnership with families is essential as linkages are made to state and local agencies, community and faith-based programs, child care programs and health care services.

• To serve as the NJ DOH Title V communications and systems building network for the early childhood health, development and early learning community with the goal of introducing, facilitating and maintaining current topical and service linkages to all of New Jersey's early childhood stakeholders.
• To support the communications and systems building efforts of NJ statewide early childhood health, development and early learning initiatives.
• To ensure the ready availability of information and resources to all of New Jersey's parents, families and professionals striving to ensure our children's health, happiness, readiness and ability to learn upon kindergarten entry and beyond.