Leading National Child Abuse Prevention Organization Accredits Healthy Families America site in North Brunswick, NJ to Serve Families
North Brunswick, NJ – Prevent Child Abuse America (PCA America) announced today that the Healthy Families America (HFA) affiliate, Central Jersey Family Health Consortium’s (CJFHC) Healthy Families Program has been accredited as a provider of high-quality home visiting services to pregnant families and families with infants and young children.
CJFHC’s Healthy Families program is part of Healthy Families America, the signature program of PCA America. HFA has been providing home visiting services for nearly 30 years, serving expectant and new parents who are facing new stressors and have questions about their child’s development. HFA connects with families through community partners like hospitals and pediatricians to support parents, meeting within the familiarity and convenience of the family’s own home. HFA is an accessible, voluntary and well received service.
“HFA sites [including CJFHC] utilize evidence-based best practices to provide individualized support to families when needed most, and linkages to community services,” said Melissa Merrick, President and CEO of PCA America. “We congratulate Central Jersey Family Health Consortium and we commend the staff for their leadership and commitment that has contributed to this most notable and highly regarded achievement.”
The accreditation process is based upon a stringent set of 12 critical elements grounded in more than 30 years of research. The process involves an in-depth examination of the site’s operation, as well as, the quality of the visits made by HFA home visitors.
“We commend the Central Jersey Family Health Consortium for opening itself up to such an intensive review process,” said Kathleen Strader, National Director of HFA. “We believe that all families and all communities deserve access to quality home visiting services.”
The HFA site in North Brunswick, New Jersey is located at 30 Silverline Drive, and provides services to families in the Central Jersey counties of Somerset and Middlesex.
"I'm incredibly proud of our Healthy Families team and specifically our Family Support Specialists.” says Lynda Cuevas, Healthy Families TIP Program Manager & Supervisor, “We are exceeding expectations around enrollment of families, and our Family Support Specialist were recognized for using Reflective Strategies to promote healthy attachment relationships and supporting families in setting meaningful goals. I hear time and again from our families how appreciative they are of the program and support for their child in their development. We're excited to continue providing outstanding home visiting services for families in Middlesex and Somerset Counties, and I feel privileged to work alongside a dedicated and truly exceptional team."
CJFHC’s Healthy Families program is currently serving a total of 100 families between Somerset and Middlesex Counties. Speaking on the success of the program, “We take pride that our program currently connects 100% of the focus children to a healthcare provider in addition to monitoring well-child visits and addressing barriers to care.” Ms. Cuevas says, “100% of our enrolled children are up to date on immunizations. Our program consistently informs families about healthcare, health care resources, community services, and tracks the referrals to these entities. 100% of our enrolled caregivers are screened for depression postnatally and within three months.”
One of the primary goals of HFA home visiting is to promote nurturing, responsive parent-child relationships. Home visitors in each community receive extensive training on a wide range of topics important to just about every new parent, such as: caring for a new baby, ensuring the baby is receiving the nutrition needed, promoting healthy child development, and coping with a myriad of other potential stresses, such as financial, housing, partner relationship, etc., that may become heightened with an addition to the family. It looks like the word kerning is different between their original text and our added text, please format (see this paragraph and paragraph above for example)
PCA America was established in 1972 with the belief that child abuse and neglect is preventable. The not-for-profit, volunteer-based organization is committed to preventing child abuse in all forms through education, research, public awareness, and public policy development. Today, PCA America supports a network of state chapters across the United States.
PCA America implemented the Healthy Families America (HFA) initiative in 1992. HFA serves families of all ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds, meeting the needs of close to 600 communities in 38 states, D.C., the U.S. Territories and Israel. CJFHC has been an HFA site since 2009.
Healthy Families America is an effective and proven evidence-based home visiting program according the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. PCA America is proud to support HFA and to be part of a national movement dedicated to improving the lives of families and children.
CJFHC is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit based in North Brunswick, New Jersey, providing information to the public and its partners regarding new and current state and federal mandates, disseminating information, and connecting families with programs they need. Central Jersey Family Health Consortium’s mission is to promote an equitable and healthy future for families through services, advocacy, education and collaboration. For more information about CJFHC programs, visit www.cjfhc.org.
