Three years ago, The Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey, informed by area stakeholders, launched a $1.5 million demonstration project to increase access to behavioral health services for infants and young children in the Greater Newark area.  The initiative responded to a well-documented need to support the healthy social and emotional development of the area’s young children.

This innovative, three-year project funds three neighborhood-based behavioral health programs – two inNewark and one in Irvington.  Each program provides a model of direct service within preschool, toddler, or infant care settings, as well as ongoing training and consultation for professional and family caregivers.  The initial projects will conclude in the summer of 2009.  Plans are already underway to conduct a professional evaluation and disseminate information that we hope will affect public policy and elevate standards of care for young children and their families throughout the area.

Grantees:  

         
Family Connections:  Rise & Shine

Ironbound Community Corporation:  
Ironbound Early Childhood Mental Health Services Initiative

         
Northern NJ Maternal & Child Health Consortium:  
Play, Grow & Heal

SPOTLIGHT:  Rutgers University Foundation Soap Opera Videos to Combat the Spread of HIV/AIDS    
                  

Reducing the spread of HIV/AIDS among vulnerable populations has long been a component of The Healthcare Foundation’s work.  

Rutgers’ innovative project recognizes that urban black and Latina women are being infected at an epidemic rate, and that approximately 82% of the infections in 18-29 year-olds are transmitted through heterosexual sex.   It recognizes, too, that most women know what to do about protecting themselves against HIV.  In the heat of the moment, some just don’t do it. 

To reach those women, Rutgers researcher Dr. Rachel Jones proposed creating a series of 12 soap opera-like videos, to be downloaded from the web onto cell phones, videos that would speak to women in ways they would heed and model behavior they would follow.  “What we believe … is that knowledge alone is not effective at changing behaviors,” Jones said.  “We believe that women in the community will so identify with heroines in the story that their own behaviors will change as well.”  The cell phone format offers privacy to viewers, and the opportunity to view the videos over and over again.

Armed with a grant from HFNJ to produce the videos, and a subsequent $2 million grant from the National Institute of Health for evaluation, the project is proceeding.  We eagerly await the results.