Monmouth County Non-Profit Dedicated to Kids in Crisis

RED BANK — It takes a village to raise a child, but when a child is in crisis, that could make things much more complicated.

Luckily, there is a non-profit there is an organization right here at the Jersey Shore dedicated to helping children that are in crises.

Pinwheel Place is a Monmouth County based organization that was established to protect children from potential susceptibility to abuse, neglect, or trauma by giving parents the time and guidance necessary to settle issues that they are facing.

Founder and Director of Pinwheel Place Lynn Hawkins says that it began when she became a mother and started to wonder why we are not tackling abuse and neglect head on, "I began to look up what other states were doing, and that's when I found crisis nurseries."

Pinwheel Place is a crisis nursery for children from birth to five years old and is willing to care for them for a couple of hours to a couple of weeks.

Crisis counselor and Pinwheel Place volunteer Linda Law says that a lot of the times parents need a place for children to be cared for so that they can get to court dates, medical emergencies, mental health programs, or alcohol or substance abuse rehabilitation.

Law goes on to say that Pinwheel Place can also help when families are in crisis, "if families become homeless, and parents are willing to deal with that, they have a safe place to bring their children while they figure it out."

Pinwheel Place describes its primary mission as wanting children to know that they are apart of something, to understand that the world is not full of darkness and that it is full of light.

While Pinwheel Place is located in Red Bank, they are willing to take children from all over New Jersey.

The organization also offers an opportunity for people to donate monetarily and their time.

You can donate or fill out a volunteer application on their website: www.pinwheelplace.org

Mark Anthony is a reporter for Townsquare Media: Mark.Kowalski@townsquaremedia.com

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