Felician College Scholarly Nursing Project
Wins $32,000 Grant for Eva’s Village 

Lodi, NJ—A student scholarly project completed by Felician College graduate nursing students recently won a $32,000 grant for Eva’s Village in Paterson, NJ—one of America’s most comprehensive programs for the poor and homeless.  Among 68 applications submitted to the Children’s Trust Fund, the grant was one of eleven proposals to be awarded funding towards child abuse prevention.  Written by Donna Wilson and Emerlinda Imperio, Felician College 2001 graduates of the Master of Science in Nursing Program, the purpose of the grant is to decrease incidents of child abuse by providing educational programs for parents and their children. 

The three-year grant will put into place HAPPY—Halt Abuse in Paterson for Parents and Youths.  It will fund the hire of a part-time program coordinator, a childcare provider and an art/play therapist who will carry out the 15-week programs three times a year.  As a new service at Eva’s shelter for homeless men, women and families, it is the only program of its kind in New Jersey since it meets the needs of the parent and the child simultaneously.  Families will benefit from educational programs regarding the different forms of child abuse including emotional and physical abuse as well as medical neglect.  It will also offer solutions by directing parents to an on-site social worker who can help them find facilities to provide their children with immunizations, dental, eye, and medical exams. 

A master’s prepared, certified art/play therapist will work as a consultant one night a week to help children express and cope with their emotions through art.  A childcare provider will care for children under the age of three who are too young to participate in art therapy with their siblings, and a program coordinator with a minimum of a bachelor’s degree in nursing or social work will oversee the administration of HAPPY.  “The positions call for a minimum of 20 hours per week and are perfect for someone working towards their master’s degree who would like to work part time,” says Wilson. 

Designed to be a collaborative endeavor, Felician College Family Nurse Practitioner students will assist the program director as volunteers and earn essential clinical hours needed to complete the nursing program.  Felician graduate nursing student Colleen Kearney will also serve as a resource to the program director drawing from her experience as Director of Operations for the world's first Audrey Hepburn Children's House at the Hackensack University Medical Center, a state-designated regional referral center for children of abuse and neglect.

The grant is structured to allow full funding in the first year, fifty percent in the second year and none in the third year so that a system of fundraising is put into place.  To ensure the perpetuity of the grant in years to come, future graduate-level nursing students at Felician College will assume responsibility for HAPPY as their scholarly projects.  “One entry-level and one upper-level student will take it on as their scholarly project so that there will always be one student to carry over knowledge and experience from one year to the next,” says Dr. Margo Griffin, who served as Wilson and Imperio’s mentor and is Chair of the Department of Graduate Nursing at Felician College.  During the next academic year, students will prepare the second-year evaluation and objectives and will submit proposals for future funding so that the grant can continue to run.