Christine Bell’s passion for youth is based on her childhood experience in the child welfare system and growing up in a low-income neighborhood. At the age of eight, her exposure to an unstable environment helped her realize that the key to changing the future of vulnerable children is investing in youth support agencies in the nonprofit sector. She began volunteering for a local nonprofit in Hudson County, New Jersey, where she learned the importance of community-based services and the process for developing not-for-profit organizations.
After receiving her Master’s in Criminal Justice and Administrations from New Jersey City University in 2010, she returned to her hometown, ready to lend her skills and education, only to discover the nonprofit agencies that supported local youth no longer existed. In 2013, after working in the community on various youth-based events, she volunteered as a child protective services case reviewer. She witnessed countless children under emotional duress due to being removed from their primary caregiver and environment. Christine knew something needed to change. She applied for the social work program at Fordham University in 2013 and began the process of turning her passion for youth into a lifetime mission.
In 2018, Christine joined forces with Jade de Saussure, the former executive director. Jade shared Christine’s passion for helping youth and developing nonprofit organizations. Together they combined their love for children, education, and decades of experience working in the nonprofit sector with underserved populations, to create 100kidsinc. This trauma-informed agency focuses on the needs of youth and young adults from birth to age 26.
Christine Bell graduated from Henry Snyder High School in 2002. She attended Hudson County Community College, earning an A.S. in Criminal Justice in 2005. She later attended New Jersey City University (NJCU) to complete her B.S. in 2007, M.S. in Criminal Justice in 2010, and completed CADC courses in 2013. She resumed her education at Fordham University, where she earned her Master’s in Community Based Practice and Leadership in 2018. She has worked in New Jersey as a social worker, assessment counselor for treatment centers, and entrepreneur from 2012 to current.