Pregnant teenagers and teenaged moms face a myriad of problems. According to the National Library of Medicine, “Adolescent mothers and their offspring are a high risk group both physically and emotionally.” However, they don’t have to go it alone. Through a $500,000 grant provided for three years, the Family Resource Center of Northeast Georgia (FRC) has begun a new program specifically designed to support teenage moms.
The program is part of Healthy Families America, a national organization developed to support these young moms through home visits and hands-on training and helping them access additional resources in the community. The grant provides start-up costs and pays for the intense training for family specialists who work in the program. The grant will also provide seed monies to begin other programs regionally as well.
Melanie Allen, the Director of Healthy Families Northeast Georgia, explains that the program is based on in-home visits.
In the beginning, a client receives two visits per month. After six months, those visits are reduced to once a month. Allen states, “There is nothing more valuable than home visiting — as both a teaching and a learning tool.”
Healthy Families NE Georgia is a voluntary program. Many recipients come through the screening process of First Steps. However, any teenage mom and/or their families can reach out to Allen directly at [email protected] or through her direct phone line at 678-528-2071.
Campbell Wiedemeier, a recent graduate of Toccoa Falls College with a BS in Psychology and Counseling, serves as the program’s Family Support Specialist.
Wiedemeire describes the program as relationship-based and says the goal is to develop good, trusting and caring relationships with clients.
During home visits, Wiedemeier spends most of her time sitting on the floor, helping parents develop hands-on skills with their children. She is constantly collecting supplies such as duct tape, different sized boxes, packing tape, and socks to use to create educational toys for parents and their children. The work Wiedemeier does in homes is guided by Growing Great Kids curriculum.
Allen emphasizes that the home visits are designed to give every single tool a family can need in the areas of mental health, child development, and health and medical milestones. “It’s a whole child/whole parent perspective,” she explains.
Linda Johnson, the Director of the Family Resource Center, wants the program to expand. She emphasizes, “Our goal is to begin this program in each of the other four Northeast Georgia counties [we serve]. We believe entire families can be helped by providing this program regionally.”
Healthy Families America (HFA) has been in operation since 1992 and is the signature prevention program of Prevent Child Abuse American (PCA America). It’s approach over thirty years has shown positive results.
- HFA has improved child safety and present maltreatment of children in high-risk parents who enroll in the program prenatally. The recurrence of maltreatment by parents in the program has been reduced by one-third.
- By working with teenaged moms who are pregnant, HFA has reduced the number under-weight infants by 48% and parents understand the importance of well-child health visits.
- Homelessness for pregnant teenaged moms has been reduced by 27%, and teenaged moms are five times more likely to stay in school and participate in training programs. Teen moms within the program are twice as likely to complete at least one year of college than those teenaged moms outside the program.
For more information on these programs, go to Family Resource Center and/or Healthy Families America.
