#StandUpForNJChildren Campaign Seeks Restoration of Funding for NJCA’s Child Advocacy Centers Statewide to Aid Child Victims of Abuse and Neglect

COVID-19 has led to an increased need for mental health and advocacy support

and has had a disproportionate impact on children of color.

NEW JERSEY – September 3, 2020 – The New Jersey Children’s Alliance (NJCA) which supports New Jersey’s 21 county-based Child Advocacy Centers, alongside one of its Child Advocacy Centers (CACs), Wynona’s House, is asking the public to continue to help advocate for NJCA and the state’s Child Advocacy Centers which provide crucial services for child victims of abuse and neglect. The #StandUpForNJChildren campaign goal now seeks for state legislators to restore partial funding of the $5 million in funding NJCA typically receives annually in the New Jersey Department of Children and Families (DCF) fiscal year budget, following Governor Murphy’s proposed budget released last week. The campaign is seeking to restore an additional $1.5 million in CAC-MDT Advisory Board Funds in the FY21 budget.

NJCA understands the budgeting challenges due to COVID-19 across the state and is requesting the restoration of an additional $1.5 million in funds to be used strictly to support programs and services. “COVID-19 has led to an increased risk of child abuse due to added stress and financial instability. This funding decrease will be detrimental to some of our CACs and will lead to cuts in programs and services that will directly impact the mental health and advocacy supports victims of child abuse need to begin healing.” said Nydia Y. Monagas, Psy.D, Executive Director of NJCA.

The New Jersey Children’s Alliance supports all 21 county-based Child Advocacy Centers. Proposed budget cuts will directly impact each county’s CAC and the services it provides to child abuse victims and their families:

Atlantic County Child Advocacy Center

Bergen County Child Advocacy Center

Burlington County Child Advocacy Center

Camden County Child Advocacy Center

Cape May County Child Advocacy Center

Cumberland County Child Advocacy Center

Wynona’s House, Essex County’s CAC

Gloucester County Child Advocacy Center

Hudson County Child Advocacy Center

Hunterdon County Child Advocacy Center

Mercer County Child Advocacy Center

Middlesex County Child Advocacy Center

Monmouth County Child Advocacy Center

Deirdre’s House, Morris County’s CAC

Tina’s House, Ocean County’s CAC

Passaic County Child Advocacy Center

Salem County Child Advocacy Center

Somerset County Child Advocacy Center

Ginnie’s House, Sussex County’s CAC

Union County Child Advocacy Center

Warren County Child Advocacy Center

“A lack of funding in the next budget would end what has been developing into a game-changing way for Prosecutor’s Offices to provide access to needed services to an at risk group of child victims who often have no other avenue to receive this much needed help,” said Jennifer Webb-McRae, Cumberland County Prosecutor.

COVID-19 has led to an increased need for mental health and advocacy support and has had a disproportionate impact on children of color and children that are from families that are undocumented. CACs require this essential funding to provide mental health services, family advocacy services, and staff/CAC support positions. They also require funding for technology to support investigation and treatment (e.g. tablets for tele-mental health and tele-forensic interviews, teleconferencing services, etc).

“It would be detrimental to the progress that we have finally been able to make after waiting for so long to create a new CAC.  To lose funding for the position of a CAC Manager now would only impact the child victims of sexual and physical abuse because they would be left to navigate a system that has been greatly impacted by COVID-19 without a liaison,” remarked Det./Lt. Meredith McKay, Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office.

“Without this funding our clinical counseling program which provides services to over 85 child victims and their non-offending caregivers, there will be deep cuts to services and economically disadvantaged child victims whose cases have been closed by DCF’s Division of Child Protection and Permanency (DCPP) will have no clinical counseling available to them.” said Maria Savatierre, Executive Director, Deirdre’s House, Morris County’s Child Advocacy Center.

“These funds will enable our CAC to continue to build a community network of approved health and mental health providers, provide transportation services for client appointments, and to better assist clients struggling with the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, the economic downturn, protests for racial justice and other current issues,” stated Dominic Prophete, CEO, Wynona’s House. “This funding will help address the encroaching psychological and emotional impact on children, helping to avert a mental health crisis in children due to this convergence of national crises.”

NJCA and Wynona’s House are asking for the public’s support in the following ways:

• Sign the petition to Stand Up for Abused and Neglected Children.
• Send an email and/or tweet to your legislators to insist upon the restoration of funds for services for child victims of abuse and neglect.
•    Make a donation to support NJCA and the state’s Child Advocacy Centers, www.njcainc.org/get-involved/donate-now and CACs such as Wynona’s House, https://bit.ly/3gvrfOV.
• Follow NJCA and Wynona’s House on social media for live updates
• Share the QR code to the campaign with friends and family

NJCA and Wynona’s House appreciates any and all support of this campaign. For more information, visit www.standupfornjchildren.org.

About New Jersey Children’s Alliance

New Jersey Children’s Alliance (NJCA) is a statewide organization that actively supports and promotes New Jersey’s 10 accredited Child Advocacy Centers (CACs), and is working toward the mission of ensuring that every child in the state has access to a CAC, by providing training, technical assistance, advocacy, and leadership. CACs are child-friendly centers where a multidisciplinary team (MDT) consisting of child protective services workers, law enforcement, prosecutors, victim advocates, and medical and mental health professionals meet to coordinate a response to allegations of child sexual abuse, severe physical abuse, neglect and family violence. Through this coordinated and comprehensive response to cases of child abuse and neglect, CACs promote hope and healing for children and their protective family members, and do everything in their power to ensure justice is served.

About Wynona’s House Child Advocacy Center

Wynona’s House is an incorporated 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization named in honor of its legislative champion, the late Senator Wynona Lipman, who helped develop the Center to promote justice, hope, and healing for child victims of abuse and neglect throughout Essex County by coordinating investigation, prosecution, treatment, prevention, and supportive services utilizing the “child-centered” multidisciplinary team approach. Located in Newark, Wynona’s House is the only co-located Child Advocacy Center in New Jersey, serving over 800,000 Essex County residents and providing direct services to more than 950 abused/neglected children each year.

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