Family Unification Day Celebration

LSNJ hosted its 15th Family Unification Day celebration on June 12, 2025. This event, which is part of the American Bar Association's National Family Unification Month effort, honored families who have reunified or remained united after involvement with the Division of Child Protection and Permanency. We always enjoy celebrating families and their heroes: the social workers, CASA volunteers, DCPP caseworkers, therapists, and attorneys who helped the families reach their goals. Highlights of the 2025 and our previous celebrations appear below.

2025 Family Unification Day

Family Connections: Recognizing the Importance of Kin Placements in Child Welfare

• Keynote Speech: The Honorable Russell Wojtenko, Jr., J.S.C., Mercer County

Previous Family Unification Day Videos

• The Price of Reunification: Foster Care Child Support (2024)
• Fighting to Father: Recognizing the Important Role of Fathers in the Child Welfare System (2023)
• Listen Up! Serving Families by Centering the Parent Voice (2022)
• A Partnership of Hope: One Family’s Story (2020)
• Caseworkers and Parents: Heroes Together Saving Families and Homes (2019)
• Iesha’s Story: Reclaiming Her Voice (2018)
• Overcoming Barriers to Educational Success for Children in Out-of-Home Placement (2017)
• Nurturing and Rebuilding Family Ties (2016)
• Home - Housing's Critical Role in Child Welfare (2015)
• Poverty, Addiction, and Meeting Family Needs (2014)
• Visitation: An Indispensable Tool for Reunification (2013)

Keynote Speeches from Prior Years

• The Honorable Rodney Cunningham, Atlantic and Cape May Counties (2024)
• The Honorable Lisa James-Beavers, Burlington County (2023)
• The Honorable Michael P. Wright (2022)
• The Honorable Sallyanne Floria (2019)
• The Honorable David Katz (2019)
• The Honorable Daniel Yablonsky, Passaic County (2018)
• The Honorable Madelin F. Einbinder (2017)
• The Honorable David B. Katz (2016)
• Lisa von Pier, Assistant Commissioner of the New Jersey Division of Child Protection and Permanency (2015)
• The Honorable Julio L. Mendez (2014)
• The Honorable Hany A. Mawla (2013)
• The Honorable Thomas H. Dilts (2012)
• The Honorable Sallyanne Floria (2011)
• The Honorable Glen A. Grant (2010)

Other Presentations and Speakers

• Special Presentation: April Lee, Community Legal Services of Philadelphia (2022)
• Nora McCarthy and the Reunified Youth Foster Forum Talk About Visitation During Covid-19 (June 2020)
• Parent Testimony at Keep Families Together Forum (March 2019)
• Ode to the Family Destruction System: They Decided Not to Listen to Her (A Poem by Diane Redleaf, 2017)

About National Family Reunification Month

• National Council of Juvenile and Family Courts
• ABA Center on Children and the Law