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Life Options Academy, Inc. (LOA), a 501c3 not for profit corporation, helps New Mexico teen moms transform their lives and break the cycle of poverty and abuse that teen parenting perpetuates. Life Options Academy Baby Shower! Click Here to View the Life Options Academy Open House Video!!! Read about Life Options Academy and Exhib-it!,
The Sobering Facts
Consider the following risk factors for teenage pregnancy
Life Options Academy is one of only three residential homes in New Mexico for homeless teen mothers and their babies. We provide a residential home (McLeod House), which houses the following programming: Hope Chest, a life skills program; On Track, an education and career mentorship program; therapy, parenting skills, social support, and instruction through the use of community volunteers; and the Sisters Program, a continuum of care program for teen mothers (including those who are not residing at McLeod House) that provides vocational/educational programming, case management, therapy, and a social community. Life Options Academy was actually founded in 2004, but it was a program within a state-run facility. The state provided the direct service staff and facility and Life Options Academy developed the programming and provided collaborators and the larger vision. In November 2007, we were notified that the facility in which the program was operating needed to be used by the state for other purposes beginning in January 2008. This sudden announcement could have meant the end of Life Options Academy – but instead, it was the beginning. Our CEO and board of directors kicked into high gear and the agency secured a house in a middle-class residential area. In February 2008, we held our ribbon cutting at McLeod House, so named for a generous local businessman who bought the property so that the young ladies and their babies who are in our programming have a home. (See the Ribbon Cutting Video on this site!) We are in the midst of a capital campaign that will enable us to secure the deed to the property. We believe that the eventual impact of girls is most significant when they are mothers. We are dedicated to educating teen mothers in appropriate life skills and propelling them along a path of education, as well as to maintaining a focus on delaying subsequent teen pregnancies: investing in the future of our girls and babies now, thus reducing a future burden of indigence later. The paradigm for our residential community at McLeod House is based on a comprehensive theoretical framework that includes women’s psychological development, trauma, and asset building. We use evidence-based practices developed in the fields of health, behavioral health, juvenile justice, and education to facilitate the development of the teenage mothers and their children who reside in our home. Life Options Academy uses a gender-responsive curriculum and group therapy model that creates an empowering environment through site selection, staff selection, program development, content, and material that reflects an understanding of the realities of our clients’ lives and is responsive to the issues of the teenage mothers. As a best practice for preventing substance use, preventing child abuse and neglect, and developing healthy family functioning and relationships, interventions are designed to not only create healthy connections but also to introduce protective factors. All of the young ladies in our program are economically marginalized and need significant training to help them enter and stay in the workforce, becoming self-sufficient in the process and able to transition out of the residential home. We work to create better living environments for our teen mothers by providing them with the skills and knowledge they will need to improve their lives and end the cycle of poverty for themselves and their child. We use several proactive strategies to address the root causes of teen pregnancy and focus on change. Our main strategy is education. A lack of education is commonly cited as a risk factor for teen pregnancy, and that transfers into a vicious cycle as the teen mother fails to complete high school, resulting in long-term unemployment or poorly paying job options, and research has shown that her own child is more likely to become an unwed teenage parent. Preparing these young women for their future is equally important. Without a sense of future plans and dreams, young women from low socioeconomic backgrounds have little incentive to delay childbearing. Our signature On Track program helps young mothers meet measurable milestones via one-on-one guidance and direction with the intent for the teen mothers to begin the next step in their education, and/or secure employment on a promising career path. This program is differentiated from others because, while the young ladies are typically given advice on educational paths or career tracks, many require more intensive assistance to actually pursue and persist on the journey toward these goals. In our program, the mothers receive an assessment of career interests and educational abilities and one-on-one guidance in career and education options. Often a stumbling block to even beginning an education, we walk each client through the laborious bureaucratic steps of financial aid applications, registrations, and purchasing books as well as job site visits. Our mentors work with the young women, teaching computer skills, tutoring, designing creative job searches, and providing critical emotional support. More importantly, the mentors establish accountability while the young women develop confidence and the skills for success and self sufficiency. The entire On Track program is individualized—which is why it’s working. In addition to our On Track programming, we provide relevant life skills education, called Hope Chest It is offered in various means such as workshops, presentations, discussions, appropriate reading and multi-media information and/or special event trips. The topics covered within the Hope Chest program are: daily living skills; alcohol and drug awareness; counseling; educational and vocational planning; employability skills; health; housing; interpersonal relationships; legal issues; money management; nutrition; parenting; personal safety; religion and spirituality; sexuality (including abstinence and pregnancy prevention); social/leisure time; communication; diversity; creativity; and art and music appreciation. The residential home itself is our “school house” where everything these young women need to know is taught on a daily, hands-on basis. From cooking and cleaning to reading, math, and budgeting, learning these skills within a supportive yet real life atmosphere encourages the long-term use of these skills—absolutely essential to the young women’s success once they leave our program and move to an independent living situation. For more information on our program or to make a referral, please contact 265-5522. PO Box 30732, Albuquerque, NM 87190 Web space donated by Critical Networking (www.criticalnetworking.com) |
The mission of Life Options Academy is to help New Mexico teen moms transform their lives and break the cycle of poverty and abuse that teen parenting perpetuates.