The array of challenges confronting today's families are of such magnitude and diversity that no single profession or discipline can adequately address them. From infant care to elder care, more and more families in New Jersey are facing challenges that demand a concerted response, including a strong commitment from higher education. Building on its longstanding commitment to helping communities across the state and throughout the nation, its research and training expertise in services for families, and its strong ties to disciplines in the social and health sciences, the School of Social Work will continue to provide leadership through its new Institute for Families. Consistent with the University's broad mission, the Institute provides a focal point for training, research, and service activities concerned with strengthening families.

The Institute for Families is the umbrella organization that is composed of the Center on Violence Against Women and Children, the Center for Gambling Studies, the Center for International Social Work and Outreach, the New Jersey Child Support Institute, and the New Jersey Child Welfare Training Partnership, as well as the former Office of Professional Development and Research (OPDR). The Institute's activities will focus, first, on problems and issues that threaten to undermine some families, such as poverty, child abuse and neglect, spouse or partner battering, mental illness, school failure and truancy, teenage pregnancy, delinquency, alcohol and other drug abuse, problem gambling, and HIV-AIDS. Second, its activities will focus on challenges that at one time or another confront nearly all families, such as caring for elderly family members and providing safe and nurturing homes for children. The Institute will develop and apply knowledge concerning the design and operation of family-centered human, educational, and health services systems.