A South Jersey program that is internationally recognized for its work with abused, neglected, and traumatized children and their families is now reducing its staff by roughly one-third and closing one of two locations under the threat of state funding cuts.
Staff and labor leaders are sounding the alarm over cutbacks at the Cares Institute at Rowan University, changes they said are prompted largely by the elimination of their state funding — a total of $1.85 million — in Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s proposed budget.
They worry about the impact on some of the state’s most vulnerable children living in rural communities with few resources and limited public transportation. New Jersey received nearly 90,000 reports of child abuse and neglect in 2025, according to state data, with roughly one-third of them involving children age 5 or younger.
“This will just weaken the child-welfare and justice systems and their ability to accurately identify and respond to abuse and neglect,” Lori Galiano, a clinical care administrator who has worked at the Cares Institute for nearly 26 years, told the New Jersey Monitor.
The institute provides specialized medical and mental health services to as many as 2,000 children annually, trains clinicians on their unique model, conducts research, and offers 24/7 consulting services to local hospitals and clinics, Galiano said.
The institute is also the legally mandated referral program for law enforcement and child welfare workers across seven South Jersey counties, and it runs a unique program for young victims of human trafficking, something advocates say is especially needed as the region hosts multiple World Cup men’s soccer matches this summer.
“These are just really essential services for these kids,” Galiano said.
Julie Harrison, a clinical psychologist with the institute, said news of the proposed cuts is devastating. Roughly 20 staff members received layoff or reduction-in-hours notices earlier this month, she said, and the Vineland office is slated to shutter in July, just two years after it first welcomed families. The Stratford office is expected to remain open.
“We try very hard to keep our waitlist low, so families can get services ASAP. So that waitlist is going to grow significantly, and that wait time is going to grow significantly for families if these budget cuts go through,” Harrison said.
Harrison said the waitlist, which was once about two weeks, has since stretched to at least six weeks in the wake of other funding cuts. When access to treatment lags, children’s symptoms can worsen, and families can start to fracture under the stress, she said.
In fiscal year 2025, the Cares Institute received $2.7 million in state funds, according to Galiano, a level that was reduced to $1.85 million in the current state budget year. Funding is listed at zero in the $60.7 billion proposal Sherrill introduced in March.
“The purse straps are tight, I know,” Galiano said. “There are a lot of worthy causes and I get that.”
She added, “But we’re talking about children who cannot go to Trenton and ask for money themselves.”
The Cares Institute receives roughly one-third of its budget from the state, Galiano said, with other money coming from federal grants and foundation support. But those other funding sources are also becoming increasingly scarce. Services are available to patients at no cost.
Debbie White, president and CEO of HPAE, the state’s largest healthcare union, said she was surprised to see the program cut in Sherrill’s budget proposal. HPAE represents fewer than a dozen workers at Cares, but White said she felt strongly about the need to advocate for it.
“This is a state-mandated, state-funded program that they have eliminated funding for,” White said.
She noted that hospitals are slated to receive hundreds of millions in formula-driven funding, with one system — RWJ Barnabas Health, which operates a dozen hospitals in northern and central New Jersey — projected to receive $60 million for a suite of community health projects.
“We hand them money in the state budget, but we can’t find $1.85 million for these kids” in South Jersey, White said.
Sherrill’s office declined to comment specifically on the cuts but pointed to the governor’s message in budget documents released earlier this year that focused on the need to reduce some spending by some $2 billion to trim the structural deficit, the gap between predicted revenue and planned spending.
“As part of this different kind of leadership, my budget includes tough choices,” Sherrill said in that message. “These tough choices will help us redirect funding to serve people’s greatest needs and to make government run as intended.”
Diomedes Tsitouras is executive director of the American Association of University Professors, which represents biomedical and healthcare staff at Rutgers and Rowan, including some at Cares. He noted that Sherrill also prioritized child mental health in her budget speech.
“This is the most at-risk population you could think of in New Jersey,” Tsitouras told the New Jersey Monitor, “and mental health is something she’s very interested in.”
Sen. John Burzichelli (D-Gloucester), a champion for the program, called Cares a “critical and essential” resource for children and families.
“This program is safeguarding children. That’s what government is supposed to do,” he told the New Jersey Monitor.
State lawmakers have until July 1 to draft and adopt a final budget based on Sherrill’s proposal, a process Burzichelli said was just getting underway now, suggesting funding for the institute could be restored.
“This program does not have any adversaries,” he said. “It’s regarded as being successful, important, and valuable.”
Burzichelli said programs like the Cares Institute should receive reliable state funding, instead of depending on regional legislators to advocate for money each year. The institute’s funding is one of dozens of budget items Sherrill’s team eliminated in her spending proposal, raising concerns from Democratic and Republican lawmakers.
“The person who was charged with moving the numbers around didn’t go behind the numbers and see what these programs do,” Burzichelli said.
Advocates for Cares said the work it does reaches far beyond the South Jersey region it serves. The institute developed a treatment model called trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy that has been subject to more than two-dozen controlled trials and is now being used in Ukraine, Israel, Japan, and elsewhere around the world, Harrison said.
Cares also trained many thousands of clinicians in this model, Harrison said, experts who now diagnose and treat children at clinics and hospitals around the state and nation. Members of the training team are among those now shifting to clinical care, as the number of direct service providers at the institute dwindles, she said.
Harrison herself received a layoff notice. When her job is slated to end in late July, she’ll be seven months pregnant with twins.
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