Hudson County CASA welcomes Safe Babies program!

Safe Babies Court Team™ Approach, a nationally recognized program, is dedicated to preventing young mothers and their babies from long involvement in the child welfare system. It works effectively, using a comprehensive approach that embraces the Court, the Division, CASA, and a variety of valuable community resources.

Hudson County CASA, along with Essex and Passaic County CASA programs, were selected to inaugurate the Safe Babies program to New Jersey with a goal of bringing the program to the entire state in a few years.

Since its creation in 2005, Safe Babies has done impressive things, such as;

Improved safety- More than 99% of infants and toddlers served by SBCTs did not experience maltreatment within the 12-month period following the initial substantiated allegation — a recurrence rate of 0.7%. The Children’s Bureau national standard for recurrence of maltreatment is 9.1%.

Faster time to permanency- Children served by SBCTs exit foster care significantly faster than comparison groups . In a recent evaluation of QIC-ITCT sites, 92.7% achieved permanency within 12 months, more than double the Children’s Bureau national standard (40.5%).

Racial equity- Children of all races and ethnicities were served equally well with regard to both placement stability and length of stay in foster care.

Hudson County CASA is incredibly proud to be one of the host sites for this exciting new project.

Learn more at: https://www.njsafebabies.com/