A Message From Mayor Cory A. Booker In today's world, the struggle to raise a successful family is more difficult than ever. The old issues of education, nutrition, and teaching moral values remain critical, but today's parents face challenges undreamed of by our parents and grandparents. Children today are too often assailed by negative images from the mass media, besieged by gangs, poverty, and crime, and threatened by domestic violence and drug abuse.

Indeed, some of the basic issues of education and nutrition are more complex than ever. A single mother, herself not much older than her children, may not have the life skills and parenting experience needed to ensure that her children do their homework. She may not know how to cook nutritious meals or have the financial skills to manage a family budget.

As our world becomes more competitive, more complex, and more demanding, we cannot send children forth who are ill-equipped mentally or physically. We cannot let them fall victim to ignorance, crime, and obesity. We cannot allow our families - the moral and spiritual core of our society - to collapse.

We believe that it does indeed take a village to raise a child, and the Booker administration believes that the "village" of Newark must work with its private and public partners. We must teach our children and we must provide our families with the tools to enable them to grow and achieve self-sufficiency.

This is why the City's Department of Children and Family Well-Being partnered with the State, the Newark Housing Authority, the Nicholson Foundation, and several community-based organizations to develop neighborhood-based Family Success Centers.

These Centers are strength-based, culturally competent, and able to provide convenient and coordinated access to information, support, and resources that families need to be successful. The Family Success Centers provide a range of governmental and non-governmental services and support to promote safety, well-being, and self-sufficiency for families who voluntarily request assistance at the Center sites.

The Centers are managed by some of our finest community based organizations, and are supported by on-site public/private programs that facilitate the provision of support, services, and resources such as General Assistance, the Earned Income Tax Credit, Career Readiness Activities, Abbott Pre-School, Parenting Workshops, Anti-violence Workshops, Food Stamps, Health Insurance, and Nutrition Workshops.

Currently, there are two models of Family Success Centers in our community. Newark Now operates Centers at the Georgia King Village, Bradley Court, and Seth Boyden housing complexes. The remaining Centers are free standing facilities in the community. These Centers are operated by La Casa de Don Pedro (2 Centers), Ironbound Community Corporation (2 Centers), North Ward Center, FOCUS, Newark Emergency Services for Families, New Community Corporation, and Babyland. Overall, 12 Family Success Centers are operating in Newark.

These comprehensive services will help our caregivers, parents, and families. But our caregivers, parents and families must reach out to the Centers, and they must be willing to take the steps that the Center staff prescribe. That may require foregoing a favorite pizza for a cheaper, but more nutritious meal. It might also call upon youngsters to give up a television show to bear down on homework. But these are small demands compared to those that adult life will impose, and the alternatives of ignorance, poverty, and crime are too bitter to contemplate - for us as civic leaders seeking to build the best Newark possible, and for our children, seeking to be the best people they can be. Take advantage of our Family Success Centers. Get involved. Learn how you can take control of your life, and raise a successful family.

Please review the rest of this website, including the contact information for each of the 12 Family Success Centers.

Thank you very much.