Please share your mission.
Young moms come to New Moms, unanimously seeking help in three areas: they want to find a safe place to live, get a quality job, and give their children a brighter future — even if they have no idea of where to start. Most participants arrive at New Moms with nothing but a baby in their arms and a trash bag full of their belongings. Nearly 70 percent are victims of domestic or sexual abuse. Most have no permanent home, “couch surfing” from one potentially dangerous, transient living situation to another, children in tow. Many are officially homeless, living on the streets with their children. When they come to us, approximately 80 percent have dropped out of school, and read at an average 5th grade level. One-hundred percent live in extreme poverty (200 percent or more below the poverty threshold). Our transformative programs to help these young moms include:
-Transformation Center Housing: housing & supportive services for 40 homeless families.
-Workforce Development: education re-enrollment; job skills training; paid transitional jobs at our social enterprise; & permanent job placement with retention follow-up.
-Doula Services: community-based doulas, who pregnant youth from 28 weeks pregnant through 6 weeks post-birth, providing education, coaching, and support; and weekly prenatal support groups.
-Parent Support & Education: home-based parent coaching and support, child health & development monitoring, and weekly parent support groups.
Describe how your organization lives/realizes its mission.
Parenting services are at the very core of our mission — supporting homeless and high-risk adolescent mothers and their children. We believe that just because you are a young mom, it doesn’t mean you can’t be a great mom. Services are designed to help young mothers to foster positive family relationships, while supporting transformation in the areas of education, health, employment, and housing. We deliver services through a unique two generation approach, acknowledging that the needs of mother and child are inextricably linked, and serving both generations simultaneously. Participants are socially isolated, and have limited understanding of child development. Although they are desperate to be great moms, they need training in order to effectively care for their children, while creating stable, healthy homes. Doulas help youth to prepare for birth and parenthood, providing support and prenatal education. We offer weekly parent support groups, designed to foster community and training on life & parenting topics. We deliver services at an important time in participants’ lives — before the age of onset for most chronic substance abuse, mental health, and incarceration issues — meaning rapid, lasting change is possible — in just 12-24 months, most can stabilize their family units, locate permanent employment, and move into stable housing. Serving these families now means they will not require services in 5, 10, or 50 years — breaking the cycles of poverty and homelessness.
