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Donations are fully tax deductible to the extent allowed by law and are gratefully accepted. Checks should be made payable to “Children’s Hope Initiative” and mailed to:

Friends of Somerset County Youth

P.O. Box 8063

Bridgewater, NJ 08807

Special thanks to our most generous donors and supporters who have, to date, given more than $935,500 to support our programming. We would not have been able to do all that we have done without the generous support and confidence of all of our donors! On behalf of the children we serve—THANK YOU!

Friends of Somerset County Youth is a New Jersey non-profit formed in 1985. Friends IRS Ltr 5.13.19 Its Registration with the IRS was amended in 2014 to reflect that it is Doing Business As Children’s Hope Initiative. Children’s Hope Initiative operates as a committee of the Friends of Somerset County Youth. Children’s Hope Initiative administrative costs, consisting of insurance, accounting and credit card fees in 2025 totaled less than $4,000, and were paid with a donation by one of our Board members. 100% of all other donations received were used solely and exclusively for the programs of the Children’s Hope Initiative. This policy and practice will continue for all donations received in 2025 and 2026.

Special thanks to our corporate supporters, especially FinPro, Inc. for their most generous support and confidence since we began in 2011, including $20,000 annually almost from our beginning. Special thanks too to Munich Reinsurance America for its $10,000 donations in 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022, $12,500 in 2023, $5,000 in 2024, and $10,000 in 2025. Thanks to the employees of Couch Braunsdorf for their support through time, talents, and finances! Thanks for past support to Harding Loevner for its 2017 grant of $3,800 and to the Piper Hill Foundation for grants of $10,000 in 2019 and 2020 that helped fund the Summer Connections Program.

Past programming was made possible, in part, by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, and administered by the Somerset County Cultural & Heritage Commission through the State/County Partnership Local Arts Program for its 2013 grant in the amount of $3,500.  www.Artscouncil.nj.gov

  • Services for children who have suffered abuse/neglect
  • Studies on Child Abuse and Neglect
  • Child Abuse Statistics

Services for children who have suffered abuse/neglect

Studies on Child Abuse and Neglect

Child Abuse Statistics

Children who experience abuse and neglect are 11 times more likely to be arrested as a juvenile, 2.7 times more likely to be arrested as an adult, and 3.1 times more likely to commit a violent crime. (1)

About 30% of abused and neglected children will later abuse their own children, continuing the horrible cycle of abuse. (1)

Five children die every day as a result of child abuse in America. (2)

A report of child abuse is made every ten seconds. (3)

4,154 New Jersey children were in out-of-home placements and not in their own homes in October 2020 (4)

NOTES:

(1) https://www.childwelfare.gov/topics/systemwide/statistics/can/can-stats/

(2) http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d11599.pdf (at page 1)

(3) http://www.childhelp.org

(4) https://www.nj.gov/dcf/childdata/continuous/Commissioners.Monthly.Report_10.20.pdf

US Government Statistics on Child Abuse & Neglect
Using information collected through various monitoring and reporting systems, the Children’s Bureau analyzes and reports data on a variety of topics, including adoption, foster care, child abuse, and neglect.
https://www.childwelfare.gov/topics/systemwide/statistics/

New Jersey Child Abuse & Neglect Statistics
Here you will find helpful information about the types of children involved with the Division of Child Protection and Permanency, DCP&P (formerly the Division of Youth and Family Services), including kids who are served in the homes of their birth parents and those who had to be removed into an out-of-home placement. You will also find up-to-date information about efforts to recruit new foster and adoptive families.
http://www.state.nj.us/dcf/ (look at “Data” tab)