Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of Passaic and Union County recruits, trains, supervises and supports community volunteers to advocate for abused, neglected and abandoned children placed in foster homes or residential facilities. CASA volunteers ensure children’s best interests remain the priority while working toward establishing a safe, stable and permanent home for each child served.

Contact: Sarah Cane-During, Program Manager, Union County 

El Centro Hispanoamericano, located in Plainfield, NJ, promotes the rights and helps meet the
needs of immigrants and refugees in New Jersey through affordable legal services, advocacy,
social service referral, community education and organizing, and cultural programs. ESL and
Citizenship classes are offered on a regular basis, along with weekly food and clothing
distribution. El Centro is committed to the dignity, respect, and justice for those served

Contact: Silvia Herandez, Executive Director

Imagine, A Center for Coping with Loss, located in Mountainside, NJ, is a grief support center
for children, young adults and families dealing with the death or life-altering illness of a parent,
sibling or child. They provide free peer grief support year-round for as long as is needed. In
addition to these services, they provide training through education and outreach programs across
the state to a variety of organizations including schools, houses of worship and corporations.
They also provide onsite support after any trauma or loss. Their goal is to create communities
where grief and loss are transformed into resilience, empathy and compassion; and create
communities where no child grieves alone.

Contact: Lindsay Schambach, Executive Director

Johnsonburg Camp & Retreat Center, located in Frelinghuysen Township, NJ, was established to
provide experiential Christian education in support of the Presbyterian Church in New Jersey. Today, Johnsonburg seeks to serve all people in a beautiful natural environment which is conducive to building and strengthening relationships. Some of the services Camp Johnsonburg offers include: Summer Camp: six weeks of Christian camping and leadership training; Programmed Retreats: nine weekends annually for older elementary, junior highs, senior highs, and families; Spiritual Sanctuary: sabbath events and opportunities for personal retreat and respite; Conference/Retreat Venue: 400-acres in the rolling hills of northwest New Jersey — with year round overnight lodging, dining service, meeting rooms, worship and recreational facilities.

Contact Elise Bates Russell, Executive Director, 

The mission of Restore Ministries, located in Elizabeth, NJ, is to nurture urban youth who are at
risk of dropping out of school. In partnership with participants’ families and various community
organizations, Restore mentors each youth, advocates on the student's behalf at school, provides connections with area religious and social agencies, and helps youth finish high school or get
their GED. They offer a variety of programs and activities for elementary, middle and high
school students to provide academic support and make learning fun. Programs include assistance
in achieving school project deadlines, study help, and college coaching preparation.  Participants
are encouraged to take charge of their lives, and to develop personally and spiritually through
education so they can become responsible and contributing members in an ever-changing global
society.

Contact: Linwood Bagby 

Roots & Wings, located in Denville, NJ, provides young adults (18 and over) who age out of
New Jersey’s foster care system with safe housing, case management, education, counseling, and
life skills to empower them toward self-sufficiency. By the age of 23, aged-out foster youth are 5
times more likely to be arrested and 4 times more likely to receive government assistance, with
only 25% completing high school and 6% earning a college degree. Each year, approximately
600 – 800 of NJ’s foster youth population ages out of state protective care. Many of these young
men and women are not reunited with their families or placed into a permanent home. They lack
the childhood experiences and opportunities that teach the skills and impart the confidence and
self-esteem needed to become independent, self-sufficient adults. Roots and Wings provides
innovative, wraparound programs and services aimed at remediating the deficiencies in
education and socialization that result from unstable and often abusive childhoods.

Contact: Edith Villacampa Fiato 

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance Out of Chaos, Hope – this is the motto of the Presbyterian
Disaster Assistance (PDA) program. Presbyterian Disaster Assistance enables congregations and
mission partners of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to witness to the healing love of Christ
through caring for communities adversely affected by crises and catastrophic events. Providing
assistance both nationally and internationally, PDA responds to all sorts of Global events. Just
some of the efforts PDA is currently addressing include Hurricane Sally in US, Hurricane IOTA
Central America, Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas, Easter tornadoes in US, COVID-19 Global,
Missouri River Basin Flooding, and the California, Colorado and Pacific Northwest Wildfires
just to name a few.