The Journey To Becoming
Grateful is the woman who bears a daughter and or son for she is the first example of what a woman is and what a woman should be in life, a mother is the one who shows love from the very beginning . Grateful for the man who is given a daughter and or son for he is the first example of what a man is and what a man should be. The journey of parenting is an amazing bless journey as our children grow so do we, ever evolving.
Building sustainable healthy families and communities in the areas of :
Income
Health & Safety
Environment/ Agriculture
Opportunity
Resources
2018 Camden County Board of Freeholders introduced the first long range sustainability plan. Sustainability means different things to different people and area of location with the County area. The board of freeholders plan includes:
Energy
Water
Waste
Transportation
Green Buildings
Purchasing
Food
Environment
Community Outreach
Communication
There’s a saying that if you can’t measure it, you can’t control it. What does sustainability mean to you and your community? What role do you play on a daily basis to improve your life and community?
Healthy Mother’s Healthy Babies Out Reach services provided by the Southern New Jersey Perinatal Cooperative provides services to communities to prevent infant mortality rates. In the studies we found that their is not much difference from the families income, living location in the matters of birth rate and infant mortality. It was through the efforts studies and forums of the Southern New Jersey Perinatal Cooperative and there research in woman’s health and birth rate to area’s of the community we now have options that we did not have before when it comes to material child health. The Doula program now provides childbearing families choices in childbirth home or in the hospital and many families are preferring the doula services for their birthing process. The doula provides many services to the mother to be during her pregnancy and after delivery to ensure that we help families as they are becoming parents.
The Southern New Jersey Perinatal Cooperative provides for families in the following areas:
Breast feeding support
Camden Healthy Start
Early Childhood connection
Early Intervention Services Coordination
Healthy Women, Healthy Families
Infant & Family development
Parents as teachers
To learn more about the Southern New Jersey Perinatal Cooperative Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies Out Reach services contact the customerservice@parentsasteachers.org or call toll free 1-866-728-4968 to learn more. http://belkin.evyy.net/c/3462086/1454641/3736
Parenting today has challenges but not as much as father’s are stepping up and being a part of their children’s lives and the earlier we can intervene as parents the better it will be for our families and communities in the future. As a parent navigating the journey of parenthood isn't always easy but it's always worth it. Pregnancy is boot camp, birth and child rearing becomes the terms of responsibility of service to the family you create. Just like a general in service as parents we have them knowing that one day they will go out and put all they have learned to work in their life with the knowledge of who they are and whose they are. Letting them know that there's something greater than you that provides the very breathe you take daily, a force that will never leave you or forsake you and is only a prayer conversation away when ever you need it💙
We are soilders of the Lord, building the foundation of sustainable families yet, not without challenges. Being actively involved parents/ grandparents and working with others to address issues such as adverse childhood experiences of the juvenile justice and youth violence from disparities across different pathways through the juvenile system is complex and has many variables.
Yet today violence is a major public health problem in the United States and New Jersey. Youth ages 15 -34 years of age deaths leading cause violence per the New Jersey State Health Assessment Data from 2000-2019
New Jersey offenses known to Law Enforcement by City.
2018 Criminal Justice information services division reports Camden County Police Department ranked at 1,198 under Violent Crime and other crimes such as Property crime 2,219
Burglary 458
Larceny theft 1,242
Murder nonmegilent manslaughter 23
Rape 64
Robbery 356
Aggravated assault 756
Motor vehicle theft 519
Arson 40
We're now in 2022 and it appears that efforts to reduce theses numbers are not working as we are still losing our loved ones. Grief has different stages and we will go through them.
Many of our cities are plagued with this very problem and many families are still waiting for answers and or closure of the death of a loved one. As some cases run cold and we never know why we are without our loved one. It takes a village supporting one another as we continue this life journey.
Jersey City ranked in at 1,233
Newark ranked in at 2,069
In violence crime 2018 criminal justice information services division reports.
The feeling of not being able to protect your loved one is a heavy load to bear, not being able to fix it, or make it better💔 today I stand up to do my best to become part of the solution and not more of the problem. This will not be that!
Many times youth who navigate through the juvenile justice system are released to the community from which they came and many do their best to change people places and things. This is a topic of discussion upon their release as they develop their plan to reenter society.
School
Employment
Housing (if returning to family is not applicable)
Change of activities habits behavior and sometimes more than most even change of peers
Finding more constructive was of spending time
Change isn't always easy but believe me it's worth it.
Change the way you think is the first step to changing your life. Life is a journey and the action steps we take changes our lives forever.
New Jersey is the first state to expand the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiative with the objectives for reform listed as:
Child Welfare
Community Change
Economic Opportunity
Equity and Inclusion
Evidence Based Practice
Juvenile Justice
Leadership Development
Research and Policy
As we are working to build sustainability in our families and community we understand that it will take for us all to buy into the idea of creating better families and communities. After years of experience and providing services in the field of human services there are challenges. Many times it’s the paradigm of our thinking that get’s in the way and the journey to learning to change your way of thinking is a journey in itself but it’s one that is worth it. However, I believe that these initiatives to help families within the community is a start but our work is definitely cut out for us as I have witness over the years. I don’t believe that our task are impossible but I do believe that we can no longer treat family issues with bandages. The entire family has to be treated as well as they prepare for their young people to return to their communities. Time and time again many efforts have been put in place to help our families but our families have to be committed to their changes in efforts for the change to work or at least begin to be practiced over and over again. Single parent homes are the norm in most inner City homes yet the father although he may not be present in the home if he is still living then he is somewhere in the area, moved out of state, or is incarcerated himself. All of which doesn’t mean that they are not part of the child’s life it also depends on the ability of the parents to work together for the betterment of their children. Most single parents report the father not being involved for many reason but we don’t discuss the relationships of the parents weather healthy or not. The ability to communicate and the relationship established with the children. Being a single parent I know the challenges one can face although the father did not live in the home we were able to keep a calm working communication with one another during the time away. As a parent in the filed of human services through training is where I learned all the ills of the world and communities that suffer through the disparities and even with all the education it doesn’t prepare you for when it hits you, however it does help you when having to navigate through the juvenile justice systems. Many programs that are designed to help our wayward youth are voluntary for the youth to participate so many parents end up with distress because if the child was willing to get help they would obey the parents rules and that just isn’t the case. So the burden falls back on the parents and it’s a heavy load depending on the child, if there’s a classification, or prior history of behavior issues. Most children are good children but it’s something about the home up bringing and or family relationships that prevents the family from getting the children together and or on the right track and other times it’s just the child’s rights of passage for them to see that they are in control of their life decisions and outcomes.
Some children go through the juvenile justice system and learn the first time return to their communities and develop relationships with their absent parent and some return without ever changing. As a parent, service provider and community member we see it all the time. With all the government programs and funding we still have not figured out a way to put an end to the juvenile justice system. As many ask is it helping or hurting the youth, families and our communities? More importantly how do we begin to come back from the destruction that appears to be growing in our communities?
The question one could ask is how did we get here in the first place?