Grant Supports PEI Kids Efforts to Keep Children Safe

Nov. 16, 2012 – LAWRENCE, N.J. – Generous grants and support from a number of philanthropic corporate and foundation donors are allowing PEI Kids to provide more than 16,000 Mercer County children and their families with programs focused on keeping them safe.

• The Merancas Foundation, which is a longtime donor to PEI Kids, has granted $30,000 in support of the organization’s overall operations. Supporting organizations in North Carolina, Georgia and New Jersey, the Foundation is committed to making a difference by financially supporting organizations that prepare children to become productive adults and help adults in need become self-sufficient.

• The Nordson Corporation Foundation and the Church & Dwight Co., Inc. Employee Giving Fund (EGF) donated $10,000 and $7,500 respectively to support PEI Kids’ Comprehensive Juvenile Offenders Outreach Services (CJOOS), a court-mandated program aimed at first or second time juvenile offenders on probation. CJOOS has a strong and well-established track record of helping at-risk youth experience reduced recidivism (re-arrest); develop individualized plans to improve educational/job outcomes; increase understanding of positive ways to manage emotions, and gain knowledge of positive alternatives to gang culture. Based in Westlake, OH, and with an office in Robbinsville, NJ, Nordson is dedicated to helping individuals become self-sufficient, active community participants. Church and Dwight’s EGF is focused on supporting those less fortunate in the communities where the company’s employees live and work.

• The TJX Foundation, Inc. awarded a $5,000 grant toward PEI Kids’ Crisis Intervention for Child Victims of Sexual Abuse program, which helps local children and families heal from the horror of child sexual abuse. The Foundation supports programs providing basic-need services to disadvantaged women, children and families in communities where The TJX Companies, Inc. (which operates Marshalls, Home Goods, T.J. Maxx stores in the U.S.) does business.

• Wells Fargo made a $1,000 donation as part of the company’s generous Community Partners Program, which allows branch managers to make a $1,000 contribution on behalf of the company to the nonprofit of their choice. PEI Kids will apply the funds toward costs relating to the hundreds of child assault prevention and education workshops it presents in more than 60 Mercer County schools annually.

PEI Kids Executive Director Penny Ettinger states, “These much-needed funds come at a time mixed with increasing economic uncertainty as well as increased community demand for our Prevention/Education and Intervention services. We are very thankful for the ongoing community and corporate support of PEI Kids. Since we began in 1985, every one of our efforts has been focused on keeping our children safe.”

About PEI Kids

PEI Kids’ aspiration for the children of Mercer County, NJ, is “Safe Kids, Sound Futures.” Currently serving approximately 16,000 children and their families each year, the nonprofit organization began in 1985 when, while working at a rape crisis center, its founders discovered there were no local services tailored for children who had been sexually abused. For the past 27 years, its mission has been dedicated to promoting and maintaining a safe environment for all children. Its services have expanded to include engaging, developmentally appropriate and culturally diverse Prevention/Education and Intervention programs relating to personal safety; physical and sexual abuse; understanding physical and educational differences; school safety and bullying; anger management; gang prevention; and the overall well-being of the child and family. It is currently the lead agency of the Greater Mercer Coalition to Prevent Child Abuse. To learn more about PEI Kids’ many programs and services for Mercer County children and families, and how you can support its efforts, please call 609-695-3739 or visit http://www.peikids.org. All calls regarding possible abuse are confidential.

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