JBWS

I had an extremely disappointing experience with Jersey Center for Nonviolence. The outreach call with was mishandled by staff, including Jackie, and did not follow proper trauma-informed or intervention-based practices. Staff were dismissive and minimized serious concerns, saying “I understand” to the abuser and “you can’t force her” to me, shifting responsibility onto me rather than addressing the abusive individual. Promised follow-ups were never completed. Leadership, including Ms. Harpal, has not responded to repeated inquiries or complaints, and internal escalation attempts through staff like Julie Helam were ignored or buried. This lack of professionalism and accountability left a critical situation unaddressed and caused undue stress. I cannot recommend this program in its current form and urge them to improve staff training, oversight, and follow-through. This is NOT what an abuser intervention program is!

My girlfriend was in this shelter with her 9 month old son in the beginning of 2024. She told me what happened to her in the shelter and when they place her to a hotel. she was in the shelter she told me multiple women would be neglected for their child needs by the coworker. The counselor at the shelter don't do nothing even after you tell them your life story. The workers and the counselor are there to make you believe they care about you and want to help you and your child but in reality every woman that comes there with their child is their first paycheck and after that they don't get a paycheck for you after the first one then they neglect you. Every session you have with your social worker that is assigned to you the only answer usually you will get from your social worker I'm working on it anytime you request something or have questions for the social worker their answer the progress on your case again they say I'm working on it and it goes on like this for two three four months until either they kick you out of the shelter or if you get lucky like some girls in there they will put you into a hotel for for one month for 2 months and if you get lucky they will extend it to 3 months most don't get lucky like that. In my situation I was close to a female who had a 2-month-old baby when she came into that shelter and there was another mother with two daughters the female that I was close to didn't get along with the mother and her two young daughters. Because these two mothers didn't get along the mother of two young girls these two young girls started to do really evil things to my friend every mother have their own assigned number Locker the you kid lock it up one day my friend was cooking and forgot to lock it the woman's two young girls decide to put something into my friend's food mind you she has a 2-month-old baby my friend that her baby could have gotten poisoned it didn't stop there these two young daughters of this mother messed with my friend's daughter's stroller one day I went to the store to get drinks and snacks for me and my friend one of her daughters went and took my friends drink and drink it and then hit it pretended like she didn't know where it was at when she was the one who took the drink and drink it without even asking and then she was laughing at it it didn't stop there these two young girls then proceeded to put hair under my friend's door and then they would even secretly go and eat my friend's food that she made for her and her kids because my friend also had a son who was 4 years old because I was friends with this girl the mother of the two young girls decide to come and start attacking me because I was friends with this girl shampoo and lotion all over my door in my own case they told me after some period of time that they were not going to help me with the food and I had to figure out to get money or figure out how to get food stamps for 3 months and a half that I was staying at that shelter my case did not progress the only thing they offered me is to go and stay at the hotel my situation got worse when I got to hotel at the second day that I was staying at the hotel with my 12-month-old Baby by now they brought me rotten food I couldn't believe it that they would do such an act of trying to poison me and my child and put my child in danger of getting sick or dangerously being hurt I stayed at the hotel for 2 months and then there was no help after that like many women that leave comments speaking about their story what happened to them at the shelter and the workers or whatever behind this delete the negative Commons many woman that in there don't talk about how they're certain women that come in that shelter with their kids like this woman that I'm talking about with her two daughters with a very snake energy and play with other females in there and their kids I believe if the shelter will not do what they're supposed to do and won't do and give the help that these mothers and the children need this shelter needs to be closed down

My first experience here was bad second experience was worst. My first time coming i attended all my counseling sessions, caseworker meetings. Became employed i was left on my own with housing plan. The programs they offered to assist with housing rental cost had a monthly limit of 1200. So my current job waged me 2000 per month. I was disqualified from that and had to show paystubs every month that I wasn't making over or under. No other solution was provided. Caseworkers pressured me to leave and begin telling me to buy my own food immediately after I started working giving me an unrealistic time to save up and disregarded my auto expenses as if I shouldn't be driving yet wants to see us working towards independence. Routed me back to the hotel which is supposed to start your exit timer of 30 days with the possibility of maybe an extension. Begin looking for a apartments but struggled because apartments are 2300 and up. Settled for a roomate option via my job with all men which inevitable led me back into same circumstances. I was consistently told there was no help for people in my shoes. Came back after falling victim again with a child. Went to hotel. Caseworker made arrangements to call and wouldn't follow through. Had a newborn caseworker and supervisor demanded me to leave hotel and travel 30min away in middle of January just for meetings and refused to offer me zoom or meet me in hotel option. Tried to make me look irresponsible after not offering accommodations for me. Struggled to keep up with housing searches while caring for my baby. Had housing plans already in line. Caseworker refused to acknowledge them and deemed me incompetent did not extend hotel stay. When I needed items for baby caseworker asked me to hack my foodstampcard to convert stamps into cash via cash back options instead of just putting in a request for the item..shame. hardworking individuals should be able to have an excuse when it is appropriate like having a baby. Watched me struggle and deemed me incompetent. Moral of the story is if you able they do the bare minimum and if you are not able they still do bare minimum making any excuse to rush you out while doing little as possible. All good comments are coming from experiences decades ago.