Support
Support and Resources for Survivors in New Jersey
Every county in New Jersey has a state-designated sexual violence program offering free, confidential support, and none of them require you to report anything, press charges, or speak to a lawyer. The statewide numbers are below, along with the county services this site references. Using any of them starts nothing.
Statewide, at any hour
- Emergency: if you or someone else is in immediate danger, call 911.
- New Jersey child abuse hotline: 1-877-652-2873, operated by the Department of Children and Families, 24 hours. You do not have to give your name.
- RAINN national sexual assault hotline: 1-800-656-4673, free and confidential, 24 hours.
- NJCASA, the New Jersey Coalition Against Sexual Assault, maintains the directory of county programs across the state.
County sexual violence programs
These are the state-designated services for the counties this site covers in detail. Every county in New Jersey has one.
- Atlantic: AVANZAR Atlantic County Women’s Center, 609-646-6767
- Burlington: Providence House / Willingboro Shelter, 609-871-7551. Also Contact of Burlington County, (856) 600-4800
- Camden: SOLACE, 856-227-1234. Also SERV / Center for Family Services, 1-866-295-7378
- Cumberland: Cumberland County Women’s Center, 1-800-322-8092
- Essex: Essex County Safe House, 973-759-2154
- Hudson: YWCA Battered Women’s Shelter, 201-333-5700
- Mercer: Womanspace/Younity Program, 609-394-9000
- Ocean: Providence House of Ocean County, 732-244-8259
- Regional sexual assault line, listed for Burlington County by the New Jersey State Police: (877) 871-7551
What these services actually do
More than most people expect, and none of it obliges you to anything.
- Someone to talk to, at any hour, including about whether what happened counts
- Free counseling, individually and in groups
- Accompaniment to hospital, to the police and to court, so that you are not alone in a room explaining yourself
- Help understanding a medical examination and what it involves
- Advocacy with schools, employers and housing where the aftermath has affected them
- Support for family members, who frequently need it and rarely ask
None of them requires you to report anything. They are confidential and independent of law enforcement, and they will not contact the police on your behalf without your agreement.
Support and a legal claim are different things
They are worth keeping separate, because conflating them stops people using either.
A crisis service supports you, at no cost, for as long as you need it, whether or not anything legal ever happens. A lawyer answers a narrow question: whether you have a civil claim, against whom, and what pursuing it would involve.
You can use one without the other, in either order. Many people speak to a county program for months before asking a legal question, and many never ask one at all. Nothing on this page requires anything of you.
If and when the legal question becomes relevant, how to report and what a civil claim involves set out what each route means.
Free, confidential, and no obligation. You decide what happens next, and you can stop at any point.