Programs / Community Outreach

Parents Too Soon provides a holistic array of services for moms (ages 13 to 21) and children who are already homeless or at-risk for homelessness because of unstable living situations stemming from poverty and abuse. Clients in Parents Too Soon are generally referred by current New Moms’ clients – our priority population is the teen mom who is not living with immediate family and therefore at greatest risk of having an unstable living situation.

The core of the Parents Too Soon program involves registration in one of three Parent Support Groups we offer weekly to assist these moms in developing life and parenting skills, and achieving educational milestones. Clients entering the program are committing to taking responsibility for themselves and their children and are held accountable for developing and implementing a plan of action that can achieve self-sufficiency.

Within the first month of program participation, the client meets with her case manager several times to determine together what services the client feels she needs based on her own self-assessment. Together, they develop an individualized service plan that identifies a number of personal, educational, and employment-related goals for the participant to meet.

In addition to attending her weekly support group where life skills issues are addressed through presentations by community-based speakers, each client meets twice a month with her case manager in the client’s home. The purpose of these meetings is to conduct comprehensive case management, consisting of reviewing the client’s service plan, noting her accomplishments since the last meeting, and defining next steps in the action plan.

All Parents Too Soon clients can participate in the Rising Star Career Readiness program and while they are involved in New Moms’ programs and activities, their kids participate in the New Kids Enrichment program. In 2005, we served 87 moms and their 100 children through Parents Too Soon.