Catholic Charities
Children and Family Service Division
39 North Clinton Avenue
Trenton, NJ 08609

Telephone: (609) 394-5157
Fax: (609) 394-3010
Contact:Audrey Snyder, Clinical Social Worker
Email: asnyder@cctrenton.org
Website: www.catholiccharitiestrenton.org

Organization Description and Mission

The Catholic Charities Children and Family Service Division seeks to improve the general well being of children who are abused and neglected by strengthening families and protecting children. The Division provides services through nine major program components:

• Family Growth helps abusive families change violent patterns of interaction so that children can remain safely in their own home and rebuild their basic trust.
• In-Home Foster Care Support helps children placed in foster homes maintain a stable placement.
• Natural Parent Support works towards reunification of children in foster care with their natural families in cases where that can be done safely.
• Maternity and Adoption provides adoption services for children who, because of the conscientious decision of birth parents or because natural family reunification is not possible, need to be adopted.
• Milepost provides specialized treatment for children who have suffered sexual abuse and have tried to resolve their trauma and pain by harming other children.
• El Centro de Recursos para Familias is a multi-service family resource center addressing the medical, educational, counseling, and support needs of Latino families.
• Mobile Outreach Program provides 24 hour, 7 days a week intensive, time limited services to children at the site of a crisis in order to prevent disruption of their current living situations.

• Gangs are a major issue in Trenton. Catholic Charities would like a student to conduct a literature review of any successful treatment programs, particularly on the West Coast where they have been addressing the problem for longer periods of time. Catholic Charities is especially interested in how to treat the whole family where one member is involved in a gang. They want to know how they can help both the individual and the entire family. Would it be helpful to address these issues in support groups?

• Across the nation, the rate of reported child abuse has declined, but child fatality and neglect have remained constant. Catholic Charities would like a student to examine and potentially explain this phenomenon.

• Catholic Charities would like to see a study of child abuse and neglect, comparing different states and focusing on the health of the economy. How is the state economy linked to the rates of child abuse and neglect?

• Catholic Charities is interested in looking at states that have done well with special needs adoptions. Which state has the best record for finding adoptive families for the special needs children? Catholic Charities would like a breakdown of who the children are. What are the states’ recruitment strategies in finding the families? What is the demographic breakdown (age, race, married/single, with children/with no children, etc.) of the families who are adopting? What are the percentages?

• The Children and Family Service Division would like students to design an outcome study for any one of its programs (listed above). The Division would be able to provide much of the data needed for the implementation of the study.

• The Children and Family Service Division welcomes any student-initiated project on child abuse, foster parenting, adoption, or any one of its programs.

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