Welcome to Prevent Child Abuse – New Jersey’s training department. Our mission is to lead statewide efforts in the elimination of child abuse and neglect, in all of its forms, for all of New Jersey's children. Learn more about our upcoming trainings.

Mission and Vision
The Training Department works to accomplish this mission by delivering high quality learning experiences, that increase participant’s knowledge and competency, to professionals and the general public.

We offer a wide range of high quality workshops and trainings to educate NJ’s citizens and fulfill our promise of a safe, healthy and happy childhood for all of NJ’s children. The focus of our workshops and trainings are in the areas of child development, family support, parental involvement, wellness and the prevention of child abuse and neglect. We also offer a number of workshops on various topics relevant to school staff and support staff, childcare providers, health care providers, family resource centers, and home visitation programs. PCA NJ’s trainers work with organizations both large and small to meet their staff development, program planning, program evaluation and operational needs.

The goal of our trainings is to enhance the essential skills and knowledge and attain positive outcomes linked to child abuse prevention. By increasing the knowledge and skills of individuals and organizations who work with families, we can improve the outcomes of the children and families they serve.

Core Principles
The training philosophy is to deliver quality training that enables participants to leave the training with the necessary skills and knowledge so they can take action and produce change. Our training and development philosophy is based on the following principles:

Professional development builds competencies and contributes to improved performance.
Trainings should not only motivate the participants, but give them the skills and practical experience to be able to apply this new knowledge. Organizations, and ultimately the families they serve, benefit when all employees are able to develop their potential and make greater contributions. We believe in these basic principles:

• Society is in need of constant change.
• Social change involves the use of education.
• The intention of training is to build the knowledge, skills and behaviors that are directly connected to the competencies considered necessary to provide quality family support services.

Development is tailored to meet the learning needs of individuals.
Learning must be based on identified needs. The information and concepts, while similar, must be delivered to meet the objectives, needs and culture of the individuals being trained. We accomplish this by:

• Designing trainings to meet the various learning styles and competencies of adult learners
• Shaping your training based on staff competencies and stated performance or business requirements
• Tailor key objectives to the needs and culture of those being trained.
• Plan an appropriate curriculum based on the specific learning objectives required

Lifelong learning is a process that involves continued development.
Our staff, materials and resources are available on an on-going basis. Our goal is to build long term partnerships. We work to:

• encourage a continued dialogue with our partners
• maintain an array of trainings and workshops that represent best practices
• refine training materials and content to reflect the latest research
• align trainings to reflect the realities of those working in the field with families

Our services are open to individuals who want one specific workshop or to those who want to develop a professional concentration in a particular area. Workshops are available for organizational teams who want to develop stronger partnerships with families, develop their skills as a team or for strategic planning to implement new programming. Training is provided at our training facility in New Brunswick and at regionally located facilities most convenient to our networks.

What people are saying about PCA-NJ’s Workshops

• “Most useful training to date that I have participated in. I will definitely do things very differently from now on in an effort to be safer and be a better outreach/family worker.”
  (Safety, Confidentiality, and Boundaries)

• Health Literacy: “Very interesting workshop – made me fully aware I need to reassess our written material.”
  (Health Literacy)

• Educating Families About Preterm Labor: “Very helpful training. Extremely applicable and useful for community education.”
  (Educating Families About Preterm Labor)

• “Welfare presentation was unusually well organized and clearly presented. It answered numerous questions I have had over the last year.”
  (Welfare Issues)

• “All the speakers were very knowledgeable about the topics and were great.”
  (NJ Academy for Home Visitation Training Kick Off Event)

• “Great job - exceeded my expectations.”
  (NJ Academy for Home Visitation Training Kick Off Event)

• “Very informative and thought provoking.”
  (NJ Academy for Home Visitation Training Kick Off Event)

• “Great. Thank you. It's exciting to be with people from different backgrounds and agencies to work together to help children and families.”
  (NJ Academy for Home Visitation Training Kick Off Event)
  

• “Very helpful training. Extremely applicable and useful for community education.”
  (Educating Families About Preterm Labor training)

• “I came in thinking I knew enough. I left knowing more.”
  (Postpartum Depression training)

• “Very productive day.”
  (Training Academy Kick Off Event)

• “Very interesting to see how many people and programs are working with young children and families. Good that you are working for more interagency collaboration.”
  (Training Academy Kick Off Event)

• “Very exciting, educational. I’m eager to make a home visiting program available to every child/family.”
  (Statewide Home Visitation Conference)

• “Inspiring and educational.”
  (Statewide Home Visitation Conference)

• “Just what I needed – excellent afternoon.”
  (Statewide Home Visitation Conference)

• “Stimulating and hopeful.”
  (Statewide Home Visitation Conference)

• “Refreshing and interesting.”
  (Statewide Home Visitation Conference)

• “A process that deserves to be continued.”
  (Statewide Home Visitation Conference)

• “A learning experience that also empowered the audience.”
  (Statewide Home Visitation Conference)

• “The training format kept us alert and was helpful for learning.”
  (Managing and Engaging Diverse Populations)
  

• “Very interesting and presented differently.”
  (Managing and Engaging Diverse Populations)
  

• “This training gave us the opportunity to see another’s views (perspectives).”
  (Managing and Engaging Diverse Populations)

• “The “saving face” exercise was valuable to gain an understanding of how Americans are viewed.”
  (Managing and Engaging Diverse Populations)