Horizon NJ Health Partners with Union Industrial Home for Children for Seventh Annual Fatherhood Conference Reconnecting Fathers and Their Families

(West Trenton, N.J, April 17, 2007) - Horizon NJ Health announced today that Philip M. Bonaparte, MD, Chief Medical Officer at Horizon NJ Health, is a scheduled speaker at the 7th Annual Fatherhood Conference, hosted by Union Industrial Home, on April 18, 2007. The conference titled: "Fathers as the Missing Link" begins at 8:30 a.m. through 4:30 p.m. in The National Conference Center at the Holiday Inn in East Windsor, NJ.

Karen L. Clark, President and Chief Operating Officer for Horizon NJ Health, noted, "We are pleased to be a part of this event and appreciate the powerful example Union Industrial Home for Children demonstrates for changing outcomes for young men and their children. Thanks to the leadership of their Executive Director, Zuline Grey Wilkinson, this organization takes on the issues that have made a difference to hundreds of children."

According to the most recent data from the National Fatherhood Initiative, almost every measure of child well being is negatively affected when a father is not involved.

• Children are five times more likely to live in poverty
• Three times more likely to fail in school
• Twice as likely to be involved in drugs and crime

Joined by a distinguished group of speakers, Dr. Bonaparte will discuss "Doctor Phobia: The Effects on Men's Physical and Emotional Health." Other speakers include Jeremy Travis, nationally-known criminal justice and anti-crime expert; Rev. Dr. W. Wilson Goode, former mayor of Philadelphia, PA, now the director of the Amachi Program, a national faith-based mentoring model for children of incarcerated parents and Zuline Gray Wilkinson, Executive Director of Union Industrial Home for Children in Trenton, NJ. The Conference is sponsored by Horizon NJ Health and Children's Futures.

CONTACT: Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey
Daniel Emmer, 973-466-4805
Daniel_Emmer@HorizonBlue.com