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Teen Pregnancy and Parenting

by Tarah Doyle, M.A./CAGS School Psychologist

Teen pregnancy rates are on the rise for the first time in 15 years, up 3% in recent years, according to the most recent data from the National Center for Health Statistics.  Fittingly, teen pregnancy has been in the headlines as of late, from an alleged “pregnancy pact” between 17 teens in Gloucester, Massachusetts to the very public pregnancy of former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s teenage daughter. [More]

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Resource Organizations » Teen Pregnancy and Parenting

14 listing(s), including 1 with hotlines and 6 offering support groups

In Massachusetts

Parents Helping Parents and Parental Stress Line

Since 1972, when the organization was founded as Parents Anonymous Organization of Massachusetts, Parents Helping Parents (PHP) has offered hope and support to thousands of parents. PHP's mission is to promote and support healthy parent/child relationships and break the cycle of child abuse through peer-led, professionally facilitated mutual help groups, which provide a nurturing, non-judgmental environment in which to improve family relationships. The parental stress line is free and confidential and is available to parents 24/7 for support and guidance.

Alliance for Young Families

The Alliance for Young Families was founded in 1979 by eleven Boston-area agencies seeking to improve teen parent services. The Massachusetts Alliance on Teen Pregnancy is the ONLY organization in Massachusetts dedicated to ensuring that state policies and programs effectively address the complex issues associated with teen pregnancy. The mission of the Massachusetts Alliance on Teen Pregnancy is to provide statewide leadership to prevent teenage pregnancy and meet the service needs of pregnant and parenting teens and their children through policy analysis, research, education, and advocacy.

Center for Early Relationship Support, Jewish Family & Children's Services (JF&CS)

The Center for Early Relationship Support is a center of excellence for direct services, training, supervision, and consultation that focus on the earliest parent-infant relationship. Programs include free home visits for new parents, support groups for new parents, specialized treatment for parents with postpartum adjustment disorders, sleep and feeding consultations, services for premature infants, and programs for parents under 21 years old.

Comprehensive School Age Parenting Program

The Comprehensive School-Age Parenting Program, Inc. (CSAPP) is a year-round, school-based nonprofit agency which provides dropout prevention and school retention services for expectant and parenting teen moms and teen dads, and for at-risk high school and middle school youth.

Our success rate has been consistently high for the past ten years with 90% of our youth remaining in and/or graduating from high school annually.

Crittenton Women's Union

Education: CWU is dedicated to helping at-risk youth achieve self-sufficiency through education. Our CHANCES program is an alternative high school education program for pregnant teens in danger of dropping out of school.

Family Support Services: Our Early Education, FLASH, and Healthy Families programs support at-risk families as they move towards self-sufficiency through parenting education, early literacy, and health and wellness support.

Housing: We offer emergency and transitional housing as well as permanent housing search and placement to homeless families.

Family Service of Greater Boston

The vision of Family Service of Greater Boston is to be Boston's premier provider of family development and support services for Boston's poor and working poor families. We achieve this vision through our sustained commitment to programmatic excellence in the areas of family formation, family wellness and family coping skills. By embracing the critical role of "community laboratory," Family Service partners with families by offering services that are innovative, informed by research, practical and support the best of the human spirit.

Father Friendly Initiative, Boston Public Health Commission

The Father Friendly Initiative (FFI), is a "one stop" service designed to reintegrate the father into the family, specifically targeting men who have child support, custody/visitation, or court involved issues. FFI uses a holistic approach and offers a comprehensive case management program designed to accommodate the psychological, physical and social support needs of those men falling within the low to no-income range.

Futures for Young Parents

Futures for Young Parents is a free GED program for pregnant or parenting young people between the ages of 15 and 21 who are receiving Transitional Assistance for Families with Dependent Children. We are a part of the Just A Start Corporation, one of its 15 programs helping meet community needs in the Boston area.

Maria Talks

Maria Talks is a statewide sexual health hotline and website designed specifically for Massachusetts teens covering topics such as pregnancy, sexual violence and GLBTQ. AIDS Action Committee (AAC) developed this website with funding from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH).

Nurturing Fathers Program, Family Nurturing Center of Massachusetts

Offers a structured group that dads can participate in to get a better understanding of themselves and their roles in the family. Each group explores family patterns in fathering, families as a team sport, problem-solving with co-parent, fathering sons and daughters, work and fathering, and many other issues. Each session allows ample time for participants to share their experiences. The groups are facilitated by nurturing fathers once a week for 13 weeks and meet in various locations around Boston.

Parent-Child Home Program

The Parent-Child Home Program is a research-based and research-validated early childhood literacy and school readiness program. The Program successfully strengthens families and prepares children for academic success through intensive home visiting. The Program has a proven record in Massachusetts since 1970 when the first sites opened in Pittsfield, Newton, and Cambridge. Currently there are 34 sites from Pittsfield to Boston serving over 1500 families, living at or below the poverty line, in their homes, homeless shelters, and family child care homes.

Parents Program, Newton Community Service Center

The Parents Program offers teens and adults of all ages a comprehensive network of support services during pregnancy and the early years of child rearing. The program focuses on improving parenting skills, and works to ensure that young people realize their own needs and potential.

The Kayla Rosenberg House provides safe and affordable transitional housing to The Parents Program families who are at risk of homelessness and/or abuse, and who have demonstrated their readiness for independent living. In this environment, parents can work to become financially and emotionally self-sufficient, while they continue their education and/or enhance their job skills.

Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts Counseling and Referral

Each year, Planned Parenthood affiliated health centers nationwide provide high quality, affordable reproductive health care and sexual health information to nearly five million women, men and teens. Planned Parenthood welcomes everyone regardless of race, age, sexuality, disability, or income. In fact, one in four women has visited Planned Parenthood at least once. When clients walk through our doors, they find a dynamic community resource that offers a wide range of medical and counseling services and health care education, as well as advocacy programs.

Teen Parent Nurturing Program, Family Nurturing Center of Massachusetts

The Nurturing Program for Teen Parents brings adolescent parents together with their children for 2 hours a week for 20 weeks. Each session offers teens opportunity to talk about the challenges they face, learn new skills, and practice concrete techniques they can use to reduce stress and handle problems with their children. Participants say that they like having a safe, non-judgmental place to talk about their feelings, find support from other teens, and get ideas that help them cope with immediate problems.

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Additional Sources of Information

• Pregnancy in adolescence: information for parents and educators, by Adena B. Meyers, PhD. Published by the National Association of School Psychologists.

Publications

List of books, articles and other publications on Teen Pregnancy and Parenting.

36th Annual National Suicide Prevention Week, September 5th - 11th, 2010. See Families, Community Systems and Suicide, from the American Association of Suicidology.

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The work of Project INTERFACE is supported in part by the Massachusetts Child Psychiatry Access Project (MCPAP).