Project Self-Sufficiency Awarded Grant to Assist Women and Families

NEWTON, NJ – Women and families in Sussex and Warren Counties will have increased access to health care and other services through a Central Intake Grant recently awarded to Project Self-Sufficiency by the New Jersey Department of Health.  The non-profit agency located in Newton already provides a wide roster of programs to families in Sussex, Warren and Hunterdon Counties.  The Central Intake funding will allow Project Self-Sufficiency staff to link pregnant women and women of childbearing age to medical and social services which will enhance their overall health and quality of life.  The program ensures access to medical care, preconception care, prenatal care, women’s primary care, pediatric and well-child care, child care providers, early childhood services and early intervention services.

The new initiative is a natural fit for the agency explains Deborah Berry-Toon, Executive Director of Project Self-Sufficiency.  “Project Self-Sufficiency has informally taken on the Central Intake referral role with our three home visitation programs for Sussex, Warren and Hunterdon Counties for a number of years.  This grant will allow the program to become fully operational while expanding the full range of maternal, infant and child services available to local residents.”

The Central Intake Project, known as Sussex Warren Project Family Connect, will build on the informal network of services already in place and create a system in which an individual’s risk factors for health or other issues are routinely identified, documented and addressed by agency personnel.  Central Intake workers will be able to quickly refer participants in need to health care providers or social service agencies.

Specific functions which will be available include promoting universal screening of pregnant women; connecting women and families with community resources for health care, behavioral health care, maternal infant and early childhood home visitation programs, domestic violence shelters and support services; educational alternatives; family support programs; financial assistance; employment training; infant and child care; early intervention; and other community services and programs.

“Sussex Warren Project Family Connect will allow Project Self-Sufficiency to build on its existing programs for families, including the three home visitation programs we offer, as well as Project Sussex Kids, and the Sussex County Family Success Center,” continued Berry-Toon.  “Women and families in some of the more impoverished areas of Sussex County currently have limited access to medical services and resources.  By connecting these families to resources, this new program will promote better overall health for the entire family, and enable formerly at-risk parents to progress on the path towards family stability and eventual economic self-sufficiency.”

Project Self-Sufficiency is a private non-profit community-based organization dedicated to improving the lives of low-income families residing in northwestern New Jersey. The agency’s mission is to provide a broad spectrum of holistic, respectful, and comprehensive services enabling low-income single parents, teen parents, two-parent families, and displaced homemakers to improve their lives and the lives of their children through the achievement of personal and economic self-sufficiency and family stability. Since 1986 Project Self-Sufficiency has served more than 20,000 families, including over 30,000 children.  For information about the programs and services offered by Project Self-Sufficiency, visit www.projectselfsufficiency.org or call 973-940-3500.  For more information about the services available through Sussex Warren Family Connect at Project Self-Sufficiency, call 844-807-3500.

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