About Wynona's House
Our Story
Twenty-five years ago, the Senator Wynona Lipman Child Advocacy Center, known as Wynona’s House, was founded to serve the children of Essex County, New Jersey who have experienced abuse or neglect. Wynona’s House transformed how children and non-offending caregivers navigate the aftermath of abuse by creating a coordinated, child-centered response grounded in collaboration to provide Hope, Healing, and Justice.
Today, Wynona’s House is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that is legislatively mandated to facilitate a co-located multidisciplinary partnership of more than 85 professionals across law enforcement, prosecution, child protection, healthcare, mental health, and victim, family, and child advocacy.
Our work is anchored in three core service areas: Child Advocacy Center (CAC) and Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) services, which coordinate the multidisciplinary response for child victims and their non-offending caregivers; Family Advocacy Program and support services, which help families access resources and stabilize during and after involvement with systems; and Prevention Services, which focus on preventing abuse through education and community-based strategies, including building community coalitions and educating, empowering, and supporting those coalitions to collaboratively reduce Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), build Protective & Compensatory Experiences (PACEs), and help children and communities thrive.
We coordinate a cross-systems response that leverages both public and private resources to improve outcomes for children affected by abuse, neglect, and maltreatment across all 22 municipalities of Essex County, including Belleville, Bloomfield, Caldwell, Cedar Grove, East Orange, Essex Fells, Fairfield, Glen Ridge, Irvington, Livingston, Maplewood, Millburn (including Short Hills), Montclair (including Upper Montclair), Newark, North Caldwell, Nutley, Orange, Roseland, South Orange, Verona, West Caldwell, and West Orange.
Together, this collaboration serves approximately 950 children and their families each year. To date, Wynona’s House has provided services to more than 14,000 child victims and has supported over 38,000 siblings, parents, and non-offending caregivers.
Hope, Healing, & Justice
Mission
Our Vision
Wynona’s House was inspired in part by a mother’s frustration with the then-existing system for helping children and their families obtain justice and receive healing. The existing system was awkward, confusing, and hard for families to access and navigate. Lack of coordination put successful prosecution at risk and increased the potential for re-victimization as children had to disclose their abuse several times and in several locations.
We thought we could do better. A multi-disciplinary team was assembled to find a solution. The team researched best practices and traveled around the country to learn about the most effective methods of treating maltreatment. They adopted the innovative and successful Child Advocacy Center model. The team included private individuals and representatives of the New Jersey Division of Youth and Family Services, the Essex County Prosecutor's Office, Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, and the New Jersey Legislature through the commitment of our namesake and champion, Senator Wynona Lipman.
Today, law enforcement, prosecutors, medical and mental health professionals, child protective services and a nonprofit administrator all work together in one, child-friendly facility. The result is the Senator Wynona Lipman House Child Advocacy Center, which now serves more than 950 children in a typical year.
Wynona’s House is the only fully co-located Child Advocacy Center in New Jersey. This best-practice model has improved outcomes for child victims of abuse and violence in Essex County. Children and their families receive better, more comprehensive and victim-focused care faster and more conveniently. Prosecutions are more successful, quicker and often result in longer sentences.
We look to the future and fulfilling our vision of safe communities for children through continuous improvement of services, improved prevention strategies, increased public awareness, and tireless advocacy for better legislative protection for the most vulnerable members of our society.