PEI Kids, a Lawrenceville-based nonprofit organization dedicated to providing a safe environment for all children and a leader in addressing issues surrounding child sexual assault for over a quarter of a century, has been selected to formalize the Greater Mercer Coalition to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse. The announcement was made at a press conference on the steps of the State Capitol in Trenton on Thursday, December 8.
Pictured left to right are the leaders of the agencies who will be heading the statewide initiative to prevent child sexual abuse after the December 8th press conference: Keri Logosso-Misurell, Executive Director, Wynona’s House; Rush Russell, Executive Director, Prevent Child Abuse-New Jersey; Alison Lampron, Program Coordinator, Project Self-Sufficiency; and Penny Ettinger, Executive Director, PEI Kids. |
Prevent Child Abuse-New Jersey and the NJ Partnership to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse conducted the press event to formally announce the selection of three statewide coalitions to replicate the “Enough Abuse” campaign throughout the State. The Enough Abuse Campaign is a grassroots movement that provides adults and communities with the knowledge and skills they need to put an end to the silence surrounding child sexual abuse.
Rush Russell, Executive Director of Prevent Child Abuse-New Jersey, introduced the leaders of all three Coalitions - PEI Kids, Project Self-Sufficiency (Warren and Sussex Counties), and Wynona’s House (Newark) - who discussed their roles in taking up the task of educating all adults in their local communities about how important prevention is, and how exactly it can and will be done through local training and outreach. The Greater Mercer Coalition represents all 13 municipalities in Mercer County and includes partners from the medical community, child welfare agencies, law enforcement, educators and the media.
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“The outpouring of support and commitment to this Coalition is remarkable and indicative of the fact that there is a wide commitment to stopping the horror of child sexual abuse,” said Penny Ettinger, Executive Director of PEI Kids. “Working with the State Coalition to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse, PEI Kids will lead the Greater Mercer Coalition to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse in stopping child sexual abuse, ensuring high quality services for child victims and their families, and continuing to educate children and teens on ways to protect themselves,” explained Ettinger.
The press conference also included a prayer for survivors led by Reverend Darrell Armstrong, the Pastor of Shiloh Baptist Church and board member at Prevent Child Abuse-NJ; remarks by Dr. Allison Blake, Commissioner of the NJ Department of Children and Families, and Dr. Martin Finkel and Dr. Esther Deblinger of the CARES Institute, who are leaders in this field; and testimony by Keith Smith, the former President of PEI Kids’ Board of Trustees and an adult survivor of child sexual abuse who called the initiative “a revolutionary transformation in the way we protect our children from sexual abuse.”
PEI Kids provides immediate counseling to 95% of the reported cases of child sexual abuse in Mercer County. Well regarded throughout Mercer County for its efforts regarding child sexual abuse prevention, crisis intervention counseling, and support for child victims and their families, PEI Kids was founded 26 years ago to address the problem that there were limited services dedicated to Mercer County children who had been sexually abused. For over two decades, PEI Kids’ Crisis Intervention Program for Child Victims of Sexual Abuse Program has served 5,000 children and families. To learn more about PEI Kids’ services and the Coalition, please call 609-695-3739 or visit www.peikids.org.
ABOUT PEI KIDS
PEI Kids was founded as a private, non-profit organization in 1985 to address the ever-growing need for education, intervention and training programs relating to children’s personal safety and child sexual abuse. PEI Kids is dedicated to promoting and maintaining a safe environment for all children. Today, PEI Kids serves more than 16,000 children in Mercer County through its comprehensive programs and services, including school-based workshops on preventing child abuse and bullying for students, educators and parents/caregivers; individual and group counseling through Crisis Intervention for Child Victims of Sexual Abuse; services for at-risk youth including Comprehensive Juvenile Offenders Outreach Services and the Lawrence Township Stationhouse Adjustment Program; and Supervised Family Visitation and Transportation Plus for families in the foster care system and clients needing transportation for visits and appointments associated with the child and family's well-being.
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