CAMDEN – The Safe Child Fund of New Jersey and Department of Human Services (DHS) Commissioner James M. Davy awarded a $1.2 million grant today to the Southern New Jersey Perinatal Cooperative (SNJPC) to implement the nationally recognized Nurse-Family Partnership program to serve 100 at-risk families in Camden .

"Preventing child abuse and neglect is everyone's responsibility," said Commissioner Davy. "I applaud the Safe Child Fund and its corporate and foundation leaders for their generosity and ongoing commitment to New Jersey 's children."

In addition, Commissioner Davy announced $4.2 million will be available shortly through a request for proposals (RFPs) to establish 10 additional Nurse-Family Partnership sites in New Jersey .

The Nurse-Family Partnership is a voluntary program where specially trained nurses visit low-income women in their homes during their first pregnancy and throughout the first two years of their children's lives. The goals of the program include:

• Improve pregnancy outcomes by helping women improve their health-related behaviors

• Improve child health and development by helping parents provide more responsible and competent care for their children

• Improve families' economic self-sufficiency by helping parents develop a vision for their own future, plan future pregnancies, continue their education and find work.

"The Nurse-Family Partnership home visitors are able to prevent child abuse and neglect by helping parents fulfill their deepest desires- to protect and nurture their children," said Dr. David Olds, professor of pediatrics and program developer. Research has shown the program to reduce child abuse and neglect up to 79 percent.

The Nurse-Family Partnership program in Camden will be implemented by the Southern New Jersey Perinatal Cooperative, the state licensed maternal and child health consortium of health care providers and consumers serving the pregnant women, infants and children in the seven county southern New Jersey region.

"We are honored to lend our 20 years experience to the delivery of this important program for at-risk families in Camden City ," said Judy Donlen, SNJPC Executive Director. "Nurse-Family Partnership offers a crucial enhancement to the existing network of programs reaching out to the most fragile in our community," she said.

Under the state's child welfare reform plan, corporations and foundations were encouraged to join the Department of Human Services in its efforts to prevent child abuse and neglect. Founded in December 2004, the Safe Child Fund and the Safe Child Consortium of New Jersey brought together more than 20 corporations and foundations under the leadership of New Jersey Resources Chairman and CEO Laurence Downes. The Safe Child Fund of New Jersey is a fund of the Princeton Area Community Foundation (PACF).

"Organizations can give to the Safe Child fund with 100 percent confidence that their contributions are safe and well-managed," said Nancy Kieling, president of PACF, a public, non-profit organization that administers 175 charitable funds and the only New Jersey community foundation to earn national standards accreditation.