CHS Services

Adoption

We provide domestic infant adoption, international adoption, adoption of older children from the DYFS foster care system, confidential adoption counseling for birth parents considering adoption, post-adoption counseling and background and search services for adult adoptees and birth parents who request it. For more information about international adoption, please contact Patricia Faiola via e-mail at or via telephone at (609) 695-6274 ext.149. For general inquires about adoption, please contact Marie Braun via e-mail at or via telephone at (609) 695-6274 ext. 115.

Child Placement Services

If you are parenting an infant or toddler and you are unsure if you can continue to do so, help is available to you from The Children's Home Society of NJ. Please refer to the pregnancy services section of our website for a list of our services. The same services are available for you ane your child(ren). Our services are free, private and confidential. For more information, call our Toll-free pregnancy helpline 1-800-CHS of NJ (1-800-247-6365) to speak with one of our experienced professionals. You can ask to speak with: Marie Braun via telephone at (609) 695-6274 ext. 115 or contact via e-mail at , Christine Rednor via telephone at (609) 695-6274 ext. 172 or contact via e-mail at .

Children's Futures: North Ward Parent Child Center

This center, located at 1554 Princeton Avenue in Trenton, offers an extensive array of services that are designed to improve birth outcomes, strengthen effective parenting, and improve early child literacy in Trenton's north ward. The center, which is made possible by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Children's Futures, is a collaborative program by CHS of NJ, Capital Health System, Community Innovations/TEDCO, Henry J. Austin Health Center, Inc., Puerto Rican Community Day Care Center Inc., Capital Corridor Community Development Corp. and other faith-based north ward organizations, and Trenton School District. For more information contact Dolores Bryant via e-mail at or via telephone at (609) 393-2980 ext. 11.

Respite Child Care

If you need some time out from taking care of your children... If you are overworked... If you are feeling stressed.. We can provide Drop-In Respite Care - for up to twelve hours of child care, and Emergency Overnight Respite Care to assist during difficult times. For more information please contact Marie Braun via e-mail at or via telephone at (609) 695-6274 ext. 115.

Child Welfare Provider Services

We provide counseling in your home or at our office, permanency planning, pre and post-adoption counseling, loss and grief counseling, kinship care and family group counseling. CHS of NJ provides recruitment, evaluation, training, support, concrete services (clothing, furniture, heat, etc.), and advocacy to foster parents, adoptive parents and kinship caregivers. We work cooperatively with the N. J. Division of Youth and Family Services to help children achieve permanent families. For more information about our child welfare provider services, please contact Marie Braun via e-mail at or via telephone at (609) 695-6274 ext. 115.

Clinical Services to Children and Families

We provide therapy, usually in homes, to children and families dealing with foster care, adoption, separation, loss, difficult behaviors, school problems, abuse or neglect. For more information on our clinical services for children and families, please contact Marie Braun via e-mail at or via telephone at (609) 695-6274 ext. 115.

CUNA: Serving the Pre and Postnatal Needs of Latino Women

CUNA, which means crib in Spanish, offers information, support, and resources for Spanish-speaking parents and their children as early as possible in the pregnancy. The objective is to start services in the prenatal stage and continue throughout pregnancy, delivery, and into early childhood with an emphasis on the first three years of the child. CUNA offers linguistically and culturally competent services to Latino parents and children. Its services move beyond the basic services and into developing and supporting new resources for Latino families in the community, including excellent quality health care and comprehensive parenting resources. CUNA's pre- and postnatal support groups offer information, support, and resources for pregnant mothers as well as new mothers. CUNA is a partnership of CHS of NJ, Capital Health System, and Henry J. Austin Health Center, in collaboration with the Puerto Rican Community Day Care Center. For more information about CUNA click here.

Para mas información en Español, presione aquí.

Early Care and Education Services

Ocean County
The Early Care and Education office in Toms River, NJ serves Ocean County and is contracted by the NJ Department of Health & Human Services to administer two child care subsidy programs and a child care resource and referral program; assist with the professional development of those in the early childhood field; develop family child care homes, improve the quality of child care provided by friends or relatives of our subsidy program participants in their own home and administer the Child Care Food Program. Our office is the only agency in NJ to host a Special Needs Family Child Care network. A registered nurse serves as our Child Care Health Consultant Coordinator and helps infants and toddlers with health and safety issues. We work to bring together key early childhood stakeholders in identified school districts that receive Early Childhood Program Aid (ECPA) and the Early Launch to Learning Initiative (ELLI) funding. For more information, please contact Pat Crane via telephone at 732-557-9633, x111, or email the Ocean County office at . For more information, visit the Early Care and Education Services section.

Mercer County
This service includes child care, including support and supervision for family workers in child care centers, parenting groups for pregnant and new mothers, family literacy programs, and health/mental health/literacy services to preschool children and their families in Trenton. For more information about our early care and education services in Mercer County, please contact Carolyn Sabin via e-mail at or via telephone at (609) 695-6274 ext. 132.

Foster Care

This service includes Infant Foster Care for medically fragile babies and babies whose parents are making permanent plans for them, and Extended Family Care and Pregnant Adolescent Treatment Homes for pregnant and parenting teens and their children. We recruit, evaluate, train, support, and supervise the foster parents, and maintain close contact with them, and also oversee the baby's medical care, and the teen's social, educational, and family functioning. For more information about our foster care services, please contact Marie Braun via e-mail at or via telephone at (609) 695-6274 ext. 115. or via telephone at (609) 695-6274 ext. 115.

Pregnancy Services

We offer a free, private and confidential Pregnancy Helpline that will put you in touch with a caring and compassionate CHS of NJ social worker who can help you make the right choice for your baby and yourself. We can answer your questions, help you think through your choices, and help you decide what to do next by exploring options of keeping your baby, placing your child for adoption, or placing your baby in a temporary baby care home while you decide what to do. The Pregnancy Helpline number is 1-800-247-6365. Find out more online about pregnancy services or contact Marie Braun for more information via e-mail at or via telephone at (609) 695-6274 ext. 115.

School-based Services

We provide prevention services (drug use, sexuality, bullying and racism) by using a group work model in Trenton, East Windsor, and Princeton schools in grades 5 - 8; after school groups in Trenton with a violence prevention program; and counseling services to junior high school in Trenton. For more information about our school-based services, please contact Louise Shabazz via e-mail at or via telephone at (609) 695-6274 ext. 151.