PROBATION OFFICERS WHO ARE MOTHERS HELP TEEN MOMS
ENHANCE PARENTING SKILLS

Essex County Juvenile Court Probation Officer Kristen Daly interacts with teen mom and her baby at Mothers Helping Mothers Program.

Recent national statistics show that teenage pregnancy is on the decline. This trend, however, does not reflect the reality of a group of young girls in Essex County who participate in a newly-formed Massachusetts Probation Service program called “Mothers Helping Mothers.”

Mothers Helping Mothers is the brainchild of Essex County Juvenile Court First Assistant Chief Probation Officer Carol Joyce Clark, a mother of two, who decided to create the group for the teenagers.

“This population is not assertive and they tend to be a very needy group,” said Clark, a 30-year Probation employee. “While the welfare system has programs in place, this younger population of girls does not reach out and use these resources. Mothers Helping Mothers builds new roads between the community, agencies, and the court.”

Two Essex County Juvenile Court Probation Officers lead each of three sessions in Haverhill, Lawrence and Salem. The pregnant teens, mostly 17 and under, are referred into the program through Essex County Juvenile probation officers. The girls typically enter the court system via a delinquency, care and protection and/or CHINS (Children In Need of Services) case. Some referrals to the group may come through the Department of Social Services (DSS), the Department of Youth Services (DYS), private counseling agencies and/or the public schools. Probation Officers Staci Gergely and Kim Lawrence run the Salem session. Kristin Daly and Marta Mendoza, probation officers, oversee the Lawrence group. Clark and Kerrin Costello run the Haverhill session.

“We’re still Probation Officers but we bring different talents to the job,” said Clark. “The Probation Officers are seen as role models and mothers.”

Clark said the program is not incentive-based. “The girls seem to get a lot out of it. It is very rewarding for the young mothers and their children,” she said. “Some mothers travel long distances to get here and they do it on their own.”

Each week, there are speakers who address a range of parenting and educational issues. One week, the groups may discuss pregnancy care or appropriate daycare. There is also information on how to obtain a GED, participate in job training, and a presentation by the Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) on child support services. There is self-esteem and substance abuse counseling. The local library provides the mothers with children’s books.

The Mothers Helping Mothers Lawrence group recently held a graduation ceremony for the court-involved teenage mothers in a small room located in a church basement. The recent graduates ranged from a shy seventh-month pregnant 13-year-old who barely spoke above a whisper to a 17-year-old who is pregnant with her third child. The teen, whose four-year-old daughter is not in her care, had brought along her gregarious one- year-old son who toddled around the small room.

One of the graduates, 16-year-old Ashley, spoke about how she learned things she did not know before. “I learned about eating healthy and the different types of birth control,” Ashley said as she cradled her two-month-old daughter, Amaiah.

Another teen mother, Caridad, was unable to attend her graduation from the program last session because she was in the hospital giving birth. She attended this graduation in support of the other teen mothers with whom she has developed a camaraderie. “I like coming here. I like getting out of the house.”

One of the teen mothers, who had stopped going to school, was gently chided by Probation Officer Kristin Daly, “What are you doing?”

Smiling sheepishly, the teen said, “She knows me. I am close to her. I went back to school.”

It is this type of bond and access to resources, Clark said, that helps teen mothers look beyond their situations and consider a more hopeful future.