Featured Awards – November 2013

Gerard Costa (Center for Autism and Early Childhood Mental Health, CEHS) received an award from the New Jersey Department of Children and Families for $360,000. MSU will work with the New Jersey Department of Children & Families and local partners to provide a network of professional education and training support to promote Infant/Early Childhood Mental Health (IECMH) services and evidence-based practices in community-based settings that target young children, birth to age eight, and their parents, families and/or other caregivers in the counties most directly impacted by Superstorm Sandy. The primary focus for these funds will be limited to the ten counties: Atlantic, Bergen, Cape May, Cumberland, Essex, Hudson, Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean, and Union.
Through this initiative, NJ will build the capacity of local programs/staff in the field of IECMH in a variety of early childhood community settings. As a result of these professional development activities, it is anticipated that at least 500 professionals will be prepared to apply for the newly established, New Jersey Association for Infant Mental Health “Endorsement” — at levels I and II. New Jersey is one of 17 states that has established infant mental health competency guidelines and an endorsement system in partnership with the Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health. Early care settings may include: childcare centers, family childcare providers, Early Head Start/Head Start, home visiting programs, preschools, elementary schools, family outreach programs, Parent Linking Programs, Project TEACH sites, Family Success Centers, child welfare offices and other related settings.

Robert Ferrara (Fire Safety, University Facilities) received an award of $1,500 from FM Global in support of life safety activities for MSU residents. This includes the Fire Bowl competition, where students compete against each other in a trivia-style event, and the annual Fire Safety Poster Contest, which invites students to create a poster based on the NFPA fire safety message with the winning poster being reproduced and displayed throughout campus.