PEI Kids Welcomes New Prevention Director/County Coordinator

Lawrenceville, N.J., October 20, 2016 – PEI Kids is proud to welcome Erika Hillman as its new Prevention Director and Mercer County CAP (Child Assault Prevention) Coordinator. Erika will be responsible for the leadership and direction of PEI Kids’ 15-member CAP Task Force.  As such, she will be working in partnership with community agencies and schools throughout Trenton and Mercer County to educate and raise awareness on the effects of child abuse, sexual assault and peer violence.

In addition to CAP, Erika has a background in conducting positive youth development workshops with at-risk youth in urban settings and has provided prevention workshops for a variety of age groups including middle- and high-school students and victims of domestic violence.  Erika is DVVRT (Domestic Violence Victim Response Team) and SART (Sexual Assault Response Team) certified and is well known for her presentations on relationship violence and dating safety.

Erika is currently becoming certified in the Elementary, Early Childhood, and Teen Child Assault Prevention (CAP) programs.  As the Mercer County CAP Coordinator, she will continue to build on PEI Kids’ legacy of promoting and maintaining a safe environment for all children while empowering the children of Mercer County to be free from abuse and violence and learn strategies to keep their rights to be “Safe, Strong and Free” – which is the CAP program motto.  She will also spearhead PEI Kids’ work as lead agency of the Greater Mercer Coalition to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse and the Enough Abuse Campaign; and she will manage the agency’s Kids on The Block (KOTB.org) puppet-based child assault prevention program.

About PEI Kids

Since 1985, PEI Kids’ mission has been dedicated to promoting and maintaining a safe environment for all children by providing Prevention/Education and Intervention programs relating to personal safety; sexual abuse; bullying, delinquency prevention, and the overall well-being of the child.  Currently serving approximately 12,000 children and families annually, PEI Kids is a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit which provides school-based prevention programs reaching over 10,000 students, teachers and parents.  PEI Kids’ intervention services include crisis counseling for child victims of sexual abuse, anger management for youth at risk of juvenile justice involvement and juvenile offender diversion programming for adjudicated youth. Since 2011, PEI Kids has been the lead agency for Greater Mercer Coalition to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse which spearheads the Enough Abuse Campaign in Mercer County  — an effort which has trained over 1,500 Mercer County adults in how to prevent, recognize and respond appropriately to child sexual abuse.  Through its Support Services programs, PEI Kids also provides transportation and supervised visitation for children in foster care and their families. To learn more about PEI Kids, please call 609-695-3739 or visit www.peikids.org.