Read this letter from Angela Juffey, Chairperson.

Join your neighbors, community and friends for a fun-filled day to help raise awareness about child abuse and neglect in Monmouth County. The Stomp out Child Abuse 5k and Family Fun Run/Walk will raise funds for The Friends of the Monmouth County Child Advocacy Center, whose mission is to develop awareness and raise funds to support a coordinated response to child abuse.

Road Runner Flyer

Sunday, October 29, 2017

Stomp Out Child Abuse 5K
Time: 9:00AM – Cost: $28

Stomp Out Child Abuse 2017 Fun Run
Time: 10:00AM – Cost: $18

Location: Thompson Park, 805 Newman Springs Rd., Lincroft, NJ US 07738

Registration and packet pick up begin at 8:00am; events begin at 9:00am.

Medals will be awarded to the top runners in each age group. Following the 5K and Fun Walk, join us for music, face painting, crafts, and other activities.

L to R: Brenda Ross-Dulan (Regional President Southern NJ), Susan Modri-Smith (Area President Jersey Shore), Angela Juffey (Treasurer of The Friends of the Monmouth County Child Advocacy Center), Janine Brumbaugh (Marlboro Wells Fargo Store Manager)

Freehold, July 16, 2015 – The Friends of the Monmouth County Child Advocacy Center was awarded a $1,000 grant on July 16, 2015 by Wells Fargo to support the organization’s mission to raise funds to complete the construction of a child friendly facility by continuing to develop community awareness and to support a coordinated response to child abuse in Monmouth County.

The Friends of the Monmouth County Child Advocacy Center (MCCAC) is a volunteer driven 501(c) 3 nonprofit organization.

Formed in 2003 by a group of individuals in the Monmouth County community, The Friends sought to raise the funds needed to build a full service Child Advocacy Center in Monmouth County. The County donated land on Kozloski Road in Freehold, NJ and the project was begun. A Child Advocacy Center offers an integrated, multidisciplinary, child-friendly approach to the investigation and treatment of sexual and physical abuse of children.

Phase One of the Capital Campaign was completed in June 2009 and since then the MCCAC has served more than 400 cases of child abuse each year. The Friends is now embarking on a final effort to complete Phase II of the project. $2.3 million is needed to expand the facility to include a full medical suite, therapy rooms and additional office space.

“At a time when donations from the public and private sectors are down due to the economy, we truly appreciate the support Wells Fargo has provided,” said Angela Juffey, Treasurer of the Friends of the Monmouth County Child Advocacy Center. “We will use this grant to meet the challenges of completing Phase II of the Monmouth County Child Advocacy Center and we are most grateful!”

The grant was awarded as part of Wells Fargo’s Community Connections program, which provides local branch managers the opportunity to make a $1,000 charitable contribution on behalf of Wells Fargo to a nonprofit of their choice.

Wells Fargo’s 56 branches in the Southern New Jersey region distributed a total of $50,000 in grants to support nonprofit groups – $1,000 for a nonprofit identified by each store manager.

“Our local branches see which nonprofits are out in the community making a difference every day,” said Brenda Ross-Dulan, Wells Fargo’s Southern New Jersey region president. “We use this as an opportunity to celebrate and say thank you to The Friends of the Monmouth County Child Advocacy Center for all of the value they have provided to our community over the past year.”

The Community Connections program offers Wells Fargo store managers the opportunity to provide additional grants to local nonprofits of their choice in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut. A total of $140,000 in Community Connections grants is slated to be distributed throughout the month of July in Southern New Jersey.

“Many of our Wells Fargo team members also volunteer or are impacted by The Friends of the Monmouth County Child Advocacy Center in some way,” states Janine Brumbaugh, Manager of the Marlboro Wells Fargo Store, located at the intersection of Routes 520 and 79. “We’re proud to help the nonprofits serve our communities wherever we can.”

About Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is a nationwide, diversified, community-based financial services company with $1.7 trillion in assets. Founded in 1852 and headquartered in San Francisco, Wells Fargo provides banking, insurance, investments, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance through 8,700 locations, 12,800 ATMs, the internet (wellsfargo.com) and mobile banking, and has offices in 36 countries to support customers who conduct business in the global economy. With approximately 266,000 team members, Wells Fargo serves one in three households in the United States. Wells Fargo & Company was ranked No. 30 on Fortune’s 2015 rankings of America’s largest corporations. Wells Fargo’s vision is to satisfy our customers’ financial needs and help them succeed financially. Wells Fargo perspectives are also available at Wells Fargo Blogs and Wells Fargo Stories.

By Tamara Copeland
President
Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers

Earlier this year, I witnessed an incident of child abuse. A girl of nine or ten was leaving school when an adult outside in a car with three other young children – her mother, I assumed – began to yell at her. In a violent tone and with much cursing, she asked the child why she was wearing a coat on what was admittedly a very warm day. She continued to yell with great volume and vehemence as the child exited the school, walked the steps to the car, got inside, and as the car drove off.

I sat watching this incident feeling sad, angry, and powerless.

I am educated as a social worker. I worked briefly in the child welfare system in direct service and for decades in the policy arena as a child advocate. In fact, being a voice for children was the center of my professional career until I joined the WRAG staff. I understand the impact of life’s stressors on parents and I understand that the cycle of being poorly parented can lead to becoming an inadequate parent. Nonetheless, on that day I was powerless. I had no idea what to do in the brief time that I watched this emotional abuse unfold.

The incident came to mind when I learned last week of the death of a nine-year-old at the hands of his mother’s boyfriend (WaPo, 7/6)*. His offense: he had eaten an extra piece of cake. That young girl’s offense: wearing a coat on a warm spring day. Did the emotional abuse I witnessed turn into physical abuse once they arrived at home? I will never know.

Making sure that our children are educated and making sure that they have health care are priorities for many in the philanthropic community, but making sure that they are safe seems to have completely fallen off the priority chart if it was ever really there. Protecting the welfare of children, be it through child abuse prevention, quality foster care, or promoting adoption are nowhere on the list of priorities for most funders. In fact, in a recent WRAG survey, only 3 percent of our members reported that they do any work on child welfare/child abuse/foster care/adoption. Giving toward these areas is limited despite the fact that statistics support the fundamental need to address them.

We know that the number one reason that children are in foster care is physical abuse, followed by sexual abuse and then neglect. And we know that the foster care system is riddled with problems and that those children who age out of foster care often become homeless, sometimes suffer from untreated forms of mental illness, and that a large percentage of adult prisoners have spent some time in the foster care system (60 percent according to a 2010 study done by the University of Chicago and the University of Washington).

The abuse of children sets a life’s trajectory that is far too often tragic. Yet, societally, we don’t attend to it. Having access to quality, affordable physical health care or attending the school with the most innovative, effective teaching staff will not overcome the physical and mental scars of living in an abusive household. Philanthropy can make a difference. When you think about impact and evidence-based, effective grantmaking, consider child welfare as a new focus area for 2016.

*Yesterday, the boy’s mother and uncle were arrested and charged with child abuse and second-degree murder in connection to the boy’s death.

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