Below are brief summaries of Grant Results Reports available on past grantmaking in New Jersey. Findings and lessons from the grants described in these reports have informed RWJF’s current grantmaking.

New Jersey Helped by Broad Program of Health Initiatives
The New Jersey Health Initiatives program is charged with improving health care for New Jersey residents through innovative, community-based health services. Since its inception in 1987, New Jersey Health Initiatives has funded 135 projects that address one or more of the Foundation’s goals. Grantees are responding to diverse needs through creative programming in a wide variety of projects. The program office solicits proposals from across New Jersey on an annual cycle. Eight to nine projects are funded each year. Here are descriptions of two of its recently completed projects:

• Safe at Home: Treating Offenders and Their Victims
  

  Domestic violence cases in Passaic County increased significantly in the mid-1990s and court-ordered counseling services for offenders were inadequate. From 1999 to 2003, a collaborative effort of the probation and family divisions of the county court and prosecutor’s office and the Passaic County Women’s Center formed the Domestic Violence Initiative. It served more than 700 domestic violence offenders; each received 26 weeks of 90-minute classes that included education and behavioral counseling. The recidivism rate was 16 percent, compared to 35 percent for standard domestic violence probationers. The women’s center provided counseling and support services to more than 175 victims of domestic violence and their children. See the Grant Results Report at www.rwjf.org/reports/grr/037964.htm.

• School-Based Health Center Gives Children a Healthy Place
  

  Low family incomes and a shortage of primary care professionals were among the problems plaguing the neighborhood of Washington Elementary School in Plainfield. The Plainfield Health Center established a comprehensive school-based health center at Washington Elementary. Called the Healthy Place, the center provided 968 primary and sick care visits and 1,560 screenings to students at Washington and three neighboring elementary schools from 2000 to 2002, the period of the grant. The operation of the Healthy Place has since been folded into that of the Plainfield Health Center. See the Grant Results Report at www.rwjf.org/reports/grr/037967.htm.