We hope that you had the opportunity to read the recent article that appeared in the October 2004 issue of New Jersey Municipalities entitled, “New Child Welfare Reform Plan Protects Youngest Members of the Community” By James Davy, Commissioner, Department of Human Services. Reform of the child welfare system is long overdue in our state and the Child Welfare Reform Plan promises a genuine transformation of all aspects of the system.

As Commissioner Davy stated in his article, all sectors of the community have a role to play in implementation of this important reform. In addition to taking part in planning for the community prevention initiatives that are described in the article, we would like to suggest a more immediate way that municipalities can advance implementation of child welfare reform.

On July 1, 2004, a statewide, 24 hour, toll free hotline for reporting allegations of abuse and neglect began operations. For the first time, New Jersey has available one single telephone number for citizens to call to make a report and get assistance to a child who might need help: 1-877 NJ ABUSE. This is major improvement over the previous system of different numbers for different offices throughout the state and at different times of the day or night.

We need your help in getting the word out to the community about the new statewide, centralized, toll free telephone hotline and we are asking you to post the hotline graphic on your municipal home page so that it is a frequent reminder of the number to the people who visit your site.

1-877 NJ ABUSE
Make The Call, Help a Child