Children's Friend

SAM Staff
The professional and knowledgeable staff at the School Age Mothers Program includes the SAM Director, who is a registered nurse and licensed independent clinical social worker, three other licensed social workers, a registered nurse who has many years of experience in maternal and child health and is a certified lactation consultant, and child care staff. All day care teachers are licensed by the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care (DEEC) after completing early childhood education and experience requirements. All staff members have extensive experience working with teen mothers and multicultural families.

Services offered through the SAM Program
Academic Education
SAM offers an alternative school program during pregnancy. The school teachers and SAM staff work closely with the students’ guidance counselors and home schools to assure full credit for the year. Seniors may graduate with their own class and receive their high school diplomas. Classes are small and allow students to continue with their regular school subjects without interruption. Instruction is offered in a friendly, helpful way to meet individual needs.

Health Education
A special time is set aside each school day for classes about pregnancy and parenthood. Students learn how to care for themselves and their children before, during, and after pregnancy and how to develop good health habits. They attend prenatal classes to help prepare for labor and delivery. The health program also includes special films, speakers from the community, discussion groups, nutrition classes, and pre and postnatal exercise sessions. The health coordinator is always available during school hours to meet with students individually to talk about personal health needs.

Social Work and Counseling Services
Licensed social workers are available every day for individual and group counseling to help the teens deal with the emotional issues related to early child bearing. They also serve, as needed, as case managers to help the girls obtain medical care, housing, financial and legal assistance, and day care.

Infant Day Care
After the baby is born, each new mother has a four-week maternity leave from school. When she returns she can enroll her child in the SAM Infant and Toddler Center. The Center is a warm, friendly place, with bilingual (Spanish/English), bicultural staff, where mother and baby can learn about each other and grow together. The staff monitors each baby’s development and answers the young moms’ questions about infant and toddler care. A special early literacy program teaches the students how to read to their children.

“SISTERS”
The SAM teen pregnancy prevention program is called, “SISTERS.” Trained teen parent mentors and SAM staff carry out this program, delivering prevention services to high-risk middle school students in the Worcester Public Schools. Through the SISTERS program, two very important groups of young women are served. Young teenage parents receive training and are engaged as facilitators in program development and delivery. They increase their skill sets and self-esteem. Younger teens see and hear firsthand the challenges of teen parenthood, and learn more about important aspects of personal health and development that can improve their decision making.

Counseling Center Without Walls
The SAM Counseling Center Without Walls was created in the fall of 2002 because SAM staff recognized there was a critical need for mental health services for pregnant and parenting teens who were not enrolled in the SAM program – teens in GED courses, in shelters and in other programs that didn’t have clinical resources. Many of these teens had significant risk factors for mental health problems, but were encountering two barriers that were keeping them from obtaining help: long waiting lists, and the inability of the teen parents to get to counseling because of transportation and child care issues. To overcome these barriers SAM therapists began meeting on short notice with teens wherever it was convenient for them, often at the GED or other programs in which they were already participating. The Counseling Center Without Walls is available to provide clinical services in any teen parent program in our community.

SAM Summer Connection
Since 2008, the SAM Summer Connection program has been offered to keep SAM teen mothers connected and involved over the long summer vacation. The program has been possible due to the support of the Rev. Paul D. Kennedy Fund at the Fallon Clinic Foundation. The teens and their babies are transported to Children’s Friend twice a week for five weeks. They participate in group counseling and parenting classes, learn about early literacy, and take field trips that expose them to new experiences.

In 2009-2010, the SAM Program