Seeking NJ Community Partners: Help Mercer County Families Access Paid Family Leave

The New Practice Lab is working with the New Jersey Department of Labor to design and launch a pilot program to understand if having paid leave navigators can increase the uptake of paid family leave benefits in the state and improve family experience. Our team is seeking two to three community-based organization partners to help co-design and launch this pilot in Mercer County in fall 2025.

Paid family leave has a demonstrated benefit to the health and well-being of mothers and babies. When mothers and caregivers have access to paid leave, it improves breastfeeding rates, lowers the risk of postpartum depression, increases attendance at postpartum health visits, and lowers the rate of postpartum ED admissions for mothers and infants.

In the state of New Jersey, paid family and medical leave benefits – also known as Temporary Disability (TDI) and Family Leave Insurance (FLI) – allow eligible people to take leave to care for themselves or a loved one’s health condition, including pregnancy, and to bond with a new child.

In 2019, these benefits were expanded across the state, and uptake has increased. However, many families still experience significant challenges accessing the program:

• Families, and the frontline staff that help connect them to benefits, often struggle to complete their claim forms correctly on the first try. These challenges can be exacerbated for certain families, such as non-native English speakers.
• Claims can be delayed in receiving approval when the initial application requires further documentation or has missing information. This can impact parents’ ability to plan and budget for their leave.
• It can be difficult to understand how state and federal job protection laws fit together with the state’s paid leave program.

The New Practice Lab is working with the New Jersey Department of Labor to deploy paid family leave “navigators” in Mercer County to address these challenges and help more eligible families learn about and successfully apply for paid family and medical leave benefits. A benefits navigator provides compassionate guidance and support to individuals and families navigating New Jersey’s paid family and medical leave programs.

The one-year Paid Leave Navigator pilot will assess how a paid leave “navigator” role could assist Mercer County families, with a focus on underserved parents welcoming a new baby, to learn about state paid leave programs, complete the application process, and receive benefits they are eligible for. For this pilot, paid leave navigators will be employed by our community-based organization partners, and spend 3-4 days/week with families in various community settings to conduct family outreach and application assistance.

Our teams will work collaboratively with community-based organizations (CBOs) to further define and launch the Paid Leave Navigator pilot, initially focusing on Trenton and surrounding communities in Mercer County, to best optimize paid leave service delivery for families. The pilot will include launching navigators in the field this fall, iteratively improving on their resources and services over the course of the year, and participating in evaluating the efficacy of this intervention in helping eligible families receive their benefits. Selected CBOs will also gain access to additional training and technical assistance.

For more information and access to the application to become one of our pilot partners, see this page. The form to submit your proposal can be found here. Please submit all proposals by July 18. Selected organizations will be notified by July 31. If you have issues applying, please reach out to pfml-navigator-pilot@newamerica.org

NPL will host a virtual information session on this opportunity on Monday, July 7, from 12-1 ET for interested applicants. You can join the session here.