Family Success Institute awarded $100K grant from RWJ Foundation

Funds will support family success movement, Community Action Forums

The Family Success Institute was awarded a $100,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to support family success.

Budgeted over the course of two years, the grant supports FSI’s general operations, including programming and promoting the social determinants of good health: family relationships and community connections, safety and financial security, health and well-being and lifelong learning and education.

The grant is part of RWJF’s efforts to build a national “Culture of Health” that will enable all to live longer, healthier lives now and for generations to come.

“We truly appreciate this generous grant,” Tim Carden, executive director of FSI, stated. “It comes at a pivotal time, as we’re embarking upon community initiatives that will help pave the way toward a holistic, long-term, success-oriented approach to family success.”

The impact of the grant will be felt immediately, as it will support a series of Community Action Forums that are already underway.

Following a successful kickoff forum hosted by FSI partner organization Parents Inc. in New Brunswick, these forums will gather parents and community members in small local groups across the state to discuss important issues pertaining to family and community success, including child care, health care, positive youth development, financial success and more. Community input gathered from the forums will influence the content of a Statewide Family Success Summit, to be held sometime in 2023.

“We are eager to continue our work on the Community Action Forums, which are of course rooted in our effort to keep community and parent voice involved in the determination of their future,” Tom Blatner, co-founder and president of the board of directors, FSI, stated. “We are looking forward to launching many more Community Action Forums this fall.”

“The work of FSI has never been more important nor more urgently needed, and we are grateful to RWJF for helping to make it possible,” Carden added. “With the broad effects of the COVID-19 pandemic still hitting New Jersey’s families and vulnerable populations, but public interest waning, the time to act to substantially change and improve our support system is now.”