View the entire newsletter for more articles: 2021 – NJAC County Biz – September
by Christine Norbut Beyer, MSW, Commissioner for NJ Department of Children and Families
The New Jersey Department of Children and Families, in partnership with the 21 County Human Services Advisory Councils, recently released the findings of its 2019-2020 Needs Assessment.
The analysis, which is conducted every two years, represents a comprehensive and exhaustive accounting of individual counties’ assets and needs, strengths and opportunities, as we work together, across systems, to support families in becoming safe, healthy, and connected.
In each of our respective areas of service to New Jersey, we may be focused on a limited scope of resources or supports, but we all recognize that our systems inter-connect and overlap in so many ways to support the welfare and well-being of the entire family.
As examples: access to health care or employment opportunities depends on access to affordable transportation. Educational success depends on a student’s ability to focus, and they can’t focus on schoolwork if they don’t have access to nutritious food inside and outside of the home – through SNAP benefits, access to grocery stores, or school breakfast and lunch programs.
In this most recent assessment, it likely will not surprise readers that housing was the one single need prioritized by all 21 counties: safe, affordable housing is foundational to so many other social determinants of health.
When there’s an unmet need in one area, it can have far-reaching repercussions in other areas of the family’s well-being.
And when families become unbalanced – struggling with rent, medical payments, or food insecurity– that’s when they’re at the highest risk of becoming destabilized, engaging in child maltreatment, intimate partner violence, crime, addiction and mental health disorders.
At DCF, we want to be able to engage families before the crisis happens, not after.
The last 18 months have been very difficult for so many families throughout our state. The economic, psychological, and social challenges of the pandemic will be with us for many, many years to come.
But in this moment, we have an opportunity to build requested supports, to grow stronger, to learn and adapt, so that we’re prepared – not just for the next global crisis, but for the next family crisis.
This work requires coordination, creativity and courageous collaboration. It means recognizing the system as more than the sum of its parts.
This needs assessment is the first step. What we do with the data – how we work together to solve some of the problems that rise to the top of the assessment, how we continue to look at these needs and barriers – that’s what will define us.
As county leaders, you are determining how best to use American Rescue Plan money within your communities. This needs assessment plan can help to guide you.
We are so grateful to our county-level partners that helped make this needs assessment possible, during an incredibly trying time. I look forward to our continued partnership and embarking on this journey together with each of you, to meet the needs of families in counties and communities across the state.