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Major Gifts Information
Campaign: From 0-5
Changing the lives of adolescent families and their children well into the future
For more than 20 years, Teen Parent Connection has been providing research-based programs that offer support, parenting education, and community resources to families. With this support, Teen Parent Connection helps grow bright and hope-filled futures for each young family served by the organization. Teen Parent Connection is also dedicated to reducing the number of births to teens through its Pregnancy Prevention Education Program. Through this program, teenage students are presented with the realities and responsibilities of life as a pregnant or parenting teen.
For the first time in more than a decade, teen birth rates are on the rise in the United States. DuPage County has its own evidence to support that premise with a nearly 10% increase in the number of teens giving birth to babies in this community. The potential for adverse outcomes for both parent and child are significantly increased for a teenage parent. Those risks include poverty, educational failure, criminal activity, incarceration, pregnancy complications, compromised relationships, and many others.
Now more than ever, the programs and services offered by Teen Parent Connection are vital to the health and well-being of the DuPage County community. For teen parents to successfully navigate both parenthood and adolescence, it is imperative that they receive adequate support and good information about parenting.
Why Support Teen Parent Connection? During Teen Parent Connection’s existence, it has provided parenting education and programs to thousands of young families and thousands more have heard our message of prevention. We have made a difference in the lives of adolescents as proven by their outcomes and achievement of set goals. Such outcomes include continuing education and job attainment, breastfeeding rates, and lower-than-average subsequent birth rates.
We know that Teen Parent Connection makes a difference in the lives of so many young families. And we know that the challenges of parenting at a young age have an impact—not only on that young parent and child, but also on other family members, friends/neighbors, co-workers, and the economy.
Because of our commitment to adolescents and our proven success, we are raising money to ensure that we can provide these programs now and well into the future.
The Needs: We recently approved a plan to establish the four following components as the key areas most in need of your support.
- Healthy Families – Providing home-based support and parenting education to adolescent parents
- Parents’ Pantry – An incentive program providing support of basic needs such as baby food, formula, clothing, and personal hygiene products
- A Message of Reality – Pregnancy prevention education
- Car Seat Program – Keeping children safe away from home
1) Healthy Families – Providing home-based support and parenting education to adolescent parents
Healthy Families DuPage is a program that consists of intensive, individualized home visitation services for adolescent parents. These visits provide parents with information and education on stress management, problem solving skills, budgeting, child development, family health, and child guidance. Through the efforts of the home visitor who engages and establishes a strong relationship with the family, it is hoped that the program will produce short-term and intermediate positive outcomes such as changes in parent knowledge and behavior, decreased stress, better family functioning, and access to needed services. The long-term outcomes generally include better child health outcomes, better social and emotional support for the families, increased capacity of a parent to care for the child, and decreased abuse or neglect (Home Visitation in 2005: Outcomes for Children and Parents. Gomby, 2005).
The demand for these services has been steadily increasing over time and Healthy Families caseloads are at capacity. With openings in caseloads in short supply, a number of eligible families are put on a waiting list until an opening in a caseload can be identified. Because the Healthy Families program is primarily a prevention model that requires participant families to enter the program before their child reaches the age of three months, many families “age out” of eligibility for services. Increased support could allow this program to reduce or eliminate our waiting list and allow many more families to access this research-based program – a program that has been proven effective in reducing the risk of adverse outcomes for both parent and child.
The cost to offer one year of Healthy Families services to an at-risk family is approximately $3,000. Support of $500,000 is sought to allow additional families to access Healthy Families programming for five years. This includes staff time, training and curriculum. Donate Today.
2) Parents’ Pantry – An Incentive Program
The Parents' Pantry is a place where Teen Parent Connection participants can shop for baby and personal items. Participants can earn "Baby Bucks" by attending Teen Parent Connection meetings, keeping up with their child's immunizations, and finishing their education. Parents can then "spend" their bucks in the Pantry to purchase necessities like baby wipes, diapers, formula, baby food, clothing, and personal hygiene products. In program year 2007/2008, 159 families made more than 750 visits to the Parents’ Pantry.
Over the last six months, Teen Parent Connection has recorded an increased number of families seeking supplemental supplies from the Pantry, with many families noting that the rising costs of these items is making it difficult to provide for their families’ needs. The Parents’ Pantry space at Teen Parent Connection was carefully designed into the floor plan of our offices to provide privacy for families as they “shop”, as well as provide adequate storage for stock and shopping space that accommodates families with small children. We often receive donations such as diapers, wipes, formula, clothing, baby food, and other items. However, it is often not enough to keep the pantry fully stocked during the course of an entire year. Your support would help ensure the Parents’ Pantry remains a safe, available, and stocked place for parents to meet their families’ needs.
The cost to underwrite the rent and maintenance, as well as to keep the Pantry fully stocked, is $10,000 annually. Support of $50,000 is sought to ensure that families can access and obtain basic necessities for their families for the next five years. Donate Today.
3) A Message of Reality – Pregnancy Prevention Education
Prevention Education is delivered to middle, junior high, and high school students. In addition, the program is presented to community groups including churches and clubs. During the Prevention presentation, Health Educators engage students in activities that educate in a non-judgmental manner while focusing on prevention of pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and HIV/AIDS. Peer Educators (who are adolescent parents) are trained to share a prevention-focused story on the health, social, emotional, and financial consequences they have personally experienced since becoming a teen parent.
Teen Parent Connection believes in providing adolescents with accurate information about sexuality in a manner that is respectful and non-judgmental. We believe that all adolescents deserve health information that is medically accurate and research based. We promote optimal reproductive health for all adolescents by promoting responsible decision-making skills, offering support in defining personal values, and recommending healthy sexual attitudes and behaviors. We enhance adolescent health by educating adolescents on abstinence as part of a comprehensive sexuality education. In order to meet the needs of adolescents, we provide resources and referrals for affordable, sensitive, and confidential reproductive health care services within the community. Resources are also available to parents that will support a healthy dialogue with their children about sexuality.
The cost to offer Prevention Education to 15,000 students and community members during the course of a year is $150,000. Support of $750,000 is sought to allow these students and many more to receive information for the next five years which will provide optimal reproductive health education by promoting responsible decision-making skills, offering support in defining personal values, and recommending healthy sexual attitudes and behaviors. Donate Today.
4) Keeping Children Safe – Car Seat Program
Each year in this country, thousands of children are killed or injured in automobile accidents. Many children could be saved from serious injury or even death if they were properly restrained in car seats. Car seats can be expensive; used car seats, although more affordable, often come with unknown or uncertain histories that may compromise the very safety they were originally designed to provide.
The annual cost to offer a new, safe car seat to all the families we serve (more than 500) is $10,000. Support of $50,000 for five years could provide a new car seat to each family who enters the programs and services of Teen Parent Connection. Your gift will also provide for proper installation of the car seat as well as parent workshops devoted to teaching parents how to keep their children safe in and around vehicles. Donate Today.
For more information, please contact Lora Vitek at 630.790.8433 ext. 269 or lorav@teenparentconnection.org
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