Donate to Parents Who Rock

Parents Who Rock support many charitable causes with the monies raised from their events. Here are some of the causes which we have raised funds for and supported in the past:

• Tsunami Relief
  
  
• Mountainside Breast Cancer Education Center
  
  
• Montclair Rape Crisis
  
  
• Volunteer Lawyers for Justice
  
  
• The Developmental Learning Center in Montclair
  
  
• Hole In The Wall Gang

We encourage you to contact any of these centers to learn more about
their work or to lend them your support. If you would like to help
Parents Who Rock, you may contact us directly at:

alma@parentswhorock.com

Featured Charity - The Developmental Learning Center

The Developmental Learning Center (DLC) is a public school program for preschool students with special needs. Operated by the Montclair Board of Education, the DLC services students who reside in the township of Montclair. The DLC’s mission is to provide a quality early childhood education to preschool students who have been identified with a disability in an area of functioning such as communication, social emotional skills, gross motor development or cognitive abilities. Students who diagnosed with a developmental disability such as autism can also receive services at the DLC. The DLC is unique due to the team of professionals who our available to the students and families in the program. Speech language therapists, occupational therapists, physical therapists as well as a Child Study Team comprised of a psychologist, learning consultant and social worker work with the students and families at the DLC. Often times, services are provided in a multidisciplinary team, which promotes generalization of skills and reinforces the continuity of services. The DLC is committed to the growth of all of our students.


In the spring of 2007, the PWR held a concert at the Commonwealth Club for the DLC. The music, food and atmosphere of the concert were spectacular. The event raised a significant amount of money for the DLC, as well as awareness about our program. The funds raised at the event have allowed us to expand our services to students. First, we were able to offer a program called “Therapeutic Listening” to many families at the DLC. Therapeutic Listening is an evidence-backed protocol that combines a sound-based intervention with sensory integrative activities to create a comprehensive program that is effective for students with sensory challenges. Therapeutic Listening can impact sensory modulation, attention, behavior, postural organization, and speech and language difficulties. We have also expanded our professional development services this year for our teachers as well as parent training for our parents with children with autism. Lastly, our hardworking dedicated teachers were able to enhance their classrooms thanks to the money from the PWR concert. Our entire staff is forever grateful for the amazing contribution that the PWR has made to the DLC.

Nicole Fried, Psy.D., DLC Supervisor

Featured Charity - Covenant House New Jersey

Covenant House New Jersey (CHNJ) is the largest provider in the state of services to homeless and at-risk adolescents between the ages of 16 and 21. Last year, we served over 2,000 young people. Tonight alone, we will give 120 homeless adolescents and 19 babies in North and South Jersey a safe and caring place to sleep. Another dozen will walk through the doors of our Crisis Centers in Newark and Atlantic City for the first time, at all hours of the day and night, looking for a way off the street and someone to help them, to care for them. We will help over most of them to stabilize their crises and leave the streets.

Thanks to the kindness and genersoity of friends like Parents Who Rock,we are able to further our mission to get homeless and as-risk youth off the streets and on the path to a better life. We hope you will continue to keep our kids here at Covenant House in mind for future benefits.

If you are interested in making a donation to help Open Doors for Homeless Youth, please contact Jennifer Tunnicliffe, Development Director, at 973-286-3410 or via email at jtunnicliffe@covenanthouse.org. For more information about how you can help go to www.covenanthousenj.org.



Background
Our kids come in many shapes and sizes, each with their own story. Many are running from abuse, violence or gangs. Some were kicked out of their homes with their infants because no one wanted a baby in the house. Far too many aged out of foster care and showed up on our doorstep on the eighteenth birthdays. Others simply do not have any place to be and no other connections to adults who can help them.

As we trace their journey to our front door, we almost always find a dysfunctional family at the root of their crises. Although there is no standard profile of the Covenant House kid, most, if not all, face a combination of many risk factors, including a history of childhood neglect, sexual and physical abuse, mental illness, poor physical health, poverty, drug use, low educational achievement, involvement in street activity, and prostitution.

Our work has shown us the many factors that contribute to a young person’s homelessness. Therefore, we offer shelter that is enriched with a comprehensive array of supportive services that help our young people to not only stabilize their crises, but to also transition to a stable living environment where they can continue to progress in their life’s goals.

To accomplish this, we have a team of Outreach staff on the streets each night finding and connecting with homeless young people. We then provide them with a Service Manager who helps them to develop and implement a plan for their future, as well as link them with our doctor, nurse practitioner, lawyers, addictions specialists, pastor, and career and educational counselors. These caring and competent professionals help our kids to address the many health concerns they bring to the door, after years of medical neglect. They help them to stop using drugs, manage their mental illnesses, and resolve their legal issues. They work with them to get jobs, go back to school, learn independent living skills and move into their own apartments.

Most importantly, they love our kids unconditionally, perhaps for the first time in their lives.

Jennifer Tunnicliffe
Development Director
Covenant House New Jersey

Featured Charity - The Hole In The Wall Gang Camp

It's one thing to perform or make a donation to a worthy cause. It's a wholly 'nuther experience to do so with the support of strangers and friends who come together as a team to make a difference in others lives.

In my case I had the joy of singing with AWESOME musicians and instead of focusing on my own nerves and insecurities I was buoyed by many talents and support of Parents Who Rock and Parents Who Heard. I've been both a clown and volunteer counselor for The Hole In The Wall Gang Camp, founded by Paul Newman 20 years ago.

In the ten years since working there, I have watched and loved hundreds of seriously ill kids. They are phenomenal children and they come away healed in more ways than one. As one little camper said yelled out last year, "THIS CAMP ROCKS!" I can't thank all the musicians enough for their generosity. I can't thank those who whipped out their dollar bills without hesitating.

Thanks to our lightening-fast night, a kid is going to this magical Camp for free and believe me, he/she will never be the same. It didn't take a major corporation, the major, the president to make this happen. It took little ole US.

If you'd have any questions about this place or make a donation, email Jo at senecal@comcast.net and check the site: www.holeinthewallgang.org

THANK YOU TO PARENTS WHO ROCK FOR MAKING THIS GROOVY THING HAPPEN!

With love, Jo

Featured Charity - Volunteer Lawyers for Justice

About Volunteer Lawyers for Justice

Mission Statement: Volunteer Lawyers for Justice (VLJ) seeks to improve the lives of economically disadvantaged adults, children and families in New Jersey by empowering them with tools, advice and pro bono representation with the goal of securing fair and equal treatment within the legal system.

VLJ recruits and trains volunteers to provide free civil legal assistance to low income clients throughout New Jersey. Volunteers include: solo practitioners; administrative staff, associates and partners from small, mid-sized and large law firms in New Jersey and New York City; corporate in-house legal departments; as well as students from a number of area law schools. VLJ operates seven distinct projects, all providing free services to financially eligible clients referred from community organizations. VLJ is supported entirely by gifts, grants and fundraising events. VLJ was established in 2001 by a small group of attorneys in New Jersey concerned about the limited availability of free legal resources to the poor. Since its inception, VLJ has grown from a program of 30 volunteers to an organization boasting over 1,000 volunteer lawyers, paralegals, law students and others who have donated their time and expertise to thousands of clients with almost every civil legal issue.

VLJ has won numerous awards for its programs including the 2007 New Jersey State Bar Association’s Pro Bono Award which it shares with all of its dedicated volunteers, funders and community partners working toward equal justice for all.

To learn more about VLJ, please visit our website at www.vljnj.org

Funds from PWR

In 2007, PWR held a concert to benefit Volunteer Lawyers for Justice at the Diva Lounge. The concert raised $2,500 to benefit VLJ’s programs. Those funds were used by VLJ to support its Children’s Special Education Law Project through which VLJ volunteers represent special needs children being denied services to which they are entitled in their schools. The funds from PWR went a long way to paying expenses of experts, and other costs incurred by VLJ clients and required in these matters. Without the funds from PWR, these clients would have been unable to proceed with their cases and their children would have withered in educational setting inappropriate to meeting their special needs. VLJ is indebted to all those involved with PWR for their generous support and their dedication to serving those in need in the community.

Featured Charity - Family Service League

The Essex County Rape Care Center is delighted to have been the benficiary of a Parents That Rock concert.

The Essex County Rape Care Center of Family Service League is the State of New Jersey’s “designated” Rape Care Center for Essex County. The Center provides direct services to survivors of sexual violence and their families, and works to prevent sexual violence through education and advocacy. Programs include a free and confidential 24-hour Rape Care Hotline at 1-877-733-CARE (2273), “Accompaniment” services to callers choosing to go to hospital emergency departments or police precincts, free, unlimited professional counseling for survivors and their significant others, and outreach and education services in schools, hotpitals and professional settings throughout Essex County.


The Essex County Rape Care Center is a program of Family Service League. To find out more about the Center, about volunteering, or about supporting the Center's work, please call the Director Ursula Liebowitz at 973-746-0800. Whether it was 10 minutes ago or 10 years ago, help is available.

The Center and its staff and volunteers are so grateful to the Parents That Rock team for helping to raise awareness about sexual violence in our area by selecting the program as a recipient of proceeds from one of its wonderful fundrasiing concerts. These additional funds were used to help print Hotline cards and flyers that are placed in bathrooms, nightclubs and other locations to make the Hotline and other services known and available to people who have survived sexual violence. We are also grateful to the Diva Lounge for hosting this terrific event and for its own contribution to our work. Thank you!

-- Sarah B. Wolman, Esq., Executive Director, Family Service League