A RENEWED FOCUS:<strong>Roca</strong>’s Young Mothers ProgramWhen <strong>Roca</strong> decided to focus the bulk of itswork on the highest-risk young men, we wereleft with an important question: Can we, anddo we continue to serve young women? Theanswer was simple: Yes.<strong>Roca</strong> has become such a vital resource for serving high-riskyoung mothers in Chelsea, East Boston and Revere that wedecided we could not and should not abandon this part of ourmission. Nor did we want to.At our Chelsea site, <strong>Roca</strong> works with 200 young mothers a yearand operates the Harbor Area Healthy Families Program for100 first-time pregnant and parenting teens. <strong>Roca</strong> also workswith a higher risk group of young mothers, by combining itsIntervention Model with parenting education for those youngwomen who are not eligible for and/or refuse traditional homevisiting programs.<strong>Roca</strong>’s Healthy Families Program, based on the national modelof Healthy Families America, is a statewide program that isfunded and administered by the Children’s Trust Fund (CTF).The goals of the program are to: Reduce child abuse andneglect; Achieve optimal health, growth and development ininfancy and early childhood; Promote educational attainment,job <strong>read</strong>iness, and life skills; Reduce repeat teen pregnancies;and promote optimal parental health and wellness.In the past several years, <strong>Roca</strong>’s Healthy Families programhas taken off, moving from provisional status in 2009 tobeing awarded in 2011 the highest performing HealthyFamilies Site in the state. We achieved this award throughdisciplined work and persistent effort: Ninety-four percentof our participants had no subsequent births during theirinvolvement in the program last year; A full 100 percent ofparticipants were enrolled with a primary care provider;Ninety-three percent of participants’ children had primary careproviders; and <strong>Roca</strong>’s Healthy Families staff maintained a 95percent home visiting rate for all participants in the program,exceeding program goals by 10 percent.16 | www.rocainc.org
With support from the Massachusetts Pregnant and ParentingTeen Initiative (MPPTI), the Massachusetts Department ofChildren and Families Young Parent Support Program and privatefoundations, <strong>Roca</strong> serves an additional 100 young mothers bycombining its high-risk intervention model, parenting education,and nursing support. Using effective engagement efforts, <strong>Roca</strong>identifies, recruits and retains high-risk young mothers for up totwo years in programming with extended follow-up. This programis at the beginning stages of using theory and performance-basedmanagement to demonstrate its potential for an effective model.Many of the young mothers that <strong>Roca</strong> serves are street andgang involved or abusing drugs or alcohol. Others are involved indomestic violence, the juvenile justice system, foster care or havedropped out of school. Most are unemployed. Others have beenvictims of abuse and neglect and are struggling with trauma/mental health problems and have unstable living conditions.Still <strong>more</strong> are isolated immigrants/refugees, are engaged inrisky sexual behavior and are at high risk of secondary/tertiarypregnancy. Some are, sadly, all of the above. This is difficult forthe young women themselves and often tragic for their childrenand families.To accommodate young mothers who are out of school,lacking work skills and in need of additional supports, <strong>Roca</strong> hasestablished separate programming times with on-site childcarefor educational, pre-vocational and life skills programming. Thisyear, <strong>Roca</strong> also launched a work crew exclusively for youngmothers and on Wednesday evenings, <strong>Roca</strong> hosts upward of 40young mothers and their babies for dinner and programming.Everything we do with young mothers at <strong>Roca</strong> is not onlygeared toward helping them gain important skills but towardbreaking destructive patterns of isolation and poverty. At <strong>Roca</strong>,we offer critical one-on-one support and skill-developmentprogramming, while simultaneously bringing young motherstogether as a community.“This work is not easy, but itis important. I help youngmothers overcome theirchallenges, accomplish theirgoals, and create good livesfor their children. At <strong>Roca</strong>, wegive young mothers the toolsand support to become selfsufficient.And self-sufficiencyis the most important buildingblock for long-term healthand success.”— MARTA GONZALEZ,YOUTH WORKER FOR YOUNG MOTHERSFrom Hardship to Happiness:Stephanie’s StoryLike so many of the high-risk young mothers that <strong>Roca</strong> serves, StephanieColindres first came to <strong>Roca</strong> facing daunting challenges. The Chelsea nativehad two children, no high-school diploma, no prospects for employmentand was involved in an abusive relationship. For Stephanie, dropping outof high-school had marked the beginning of a difficult period in her life.“When I was 17 and stopped going to school, I lost all direction. I wouldjust stay home all day and smoke weed,” she says. Within a year and a halfof dropping out, Stephanie was pregnant with her first child. And withinanother year, she was pregnant with her second.Reflecting on that difficult period, Stephanie remembers feeling stuck:“After I dropped out, I had always told myself that I would go back to school,go to college and make something of myself. But when I got pregnant, itpaused everything. I became extremely depressed because I had to put allmy plans to the side and be a mom first.” To add to the stresses of youngmotherhood, the father of her children was highly abusive. Stephanie knewit wasn’t healthy to stay with him but, since she had nowhere else to live,she stayed.Fortunately for Stephanie, things wouldn’t remain so bleak. Not long afterhaving her second child, she was introduced by a family member to MariaJose Villagran. Maria Jose is a <strong>Roca</strong> staff member that helps high-risk youngmothers get their lives back on track. Maria Jose explained to Stephaniethat she had the power to achieve everything that she always wanted - itwould take time and hard work, but her goals were still worth pursuing. Atfirst Stephanie was skeptical but, when Maria Jose explained what <strong>Roca</strong>could offer, Stephanie accepted.First, Maria Jose made sure Stephanie got out of her boyfriend’s houseand the relationship. Maria Jose helped Stephanie find a place to liveand helped her enroll in GED classes at <strong>Roca</strong>. With a stable place to liveand the support of <strong>Roca</strong> staff, including free childcare while she attendedclasses, Stephanie attained her GED within months. But that was onlythe beginning for Stephanie. She began attending <strong>Roca</strong> programming inculinary arts, cosmetology, Microsoft Word and Excel and she later enrolledinto <strong>Roca</strong>’s youth leadership corp., Youth Star.Now, at 22 years old - with a job through <strong>Roca</strong>, a GED, two healthy childrenand the support of <strong>Roca</strong> staff members - Stephanie feels a redeemedsense of hope about life and a true sense of accomplishment for whatshe has been able to overcome. This year, she plans to enroll in Bunker HillCommunity College and major in business and culinary arts.“I feel extremely positive about the future,” Stephanie says. “Everything isslowly coming into place. Before, I was so afraid that I would amount tonothing. Now I’m extremely optimistic because <strong>Roca</strong> is putting me on theright path to achieve life goals.”
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