In a coordinated effort to understand the needs of families in each county, the NJ Department of Children & Familes (NJ DCF) has funded county Human Services Advisory Councils (HSACs) to undertake an assessment of local needs every two years. Counties are charged with gathering information related to local basic and service needs, social connections and community networks, the impact of those needs on subpopulations, trends in needs over time, key barriers to service delivery and considerations for action.

Each HSAC completed a county-specific needs assessment report that discussed findings related to six basic need areas and seven specialized need areas in their individual counties. These reports discuss the scope and nature of each need area, as well as local considerations, i.e. resources and timeframes for addressing, for priority needs areas.