Newsletter December 2004
"A Day in the Life"

       One of the questions always asked about our residential program is what a typical day is like for the girls who live here. Although some of the residents at Hannah House come to live here during their pregnancy, this article will focus on a young mom - let's call her Sarah - who has already given birth and who lives at Hannah House with her infant son, whom we'll call Logan.

       Each mother in our program is responsible for the care of her child except when she is at work, in school, in our GED class, or out at an appointment. That doesn't mean our residential counselors won't help out with child supervision if the mother needs a short respite. But mainly, the mom does the parenting.

       Sarah and her baby are up early to get ready for the day. The baby is changed, clothed and fed before being dropped off at our Day Care Center. Sarah must find time to take a shower and get herself ready for the day. She is also responsible for seeing that Logan has all the things he will need at Day Care: a change of clothes, extra diapers, and any medication he may need. Then Sarah may walk down to catch the bus to work. Or, if she is in school, she'll have to catch a 7:00 AM school bus.

       If she's working on her GED instead, then two mornings a week she'll be in a classroom at Hannah House, working with a volunteer tutor. After GED class she may go to her volunteer or paid job. Residents are expected to be out of the program, involved in a job or school, at least 20 hours a week and no more than 35 hours a week. Included in this time is their once a week counseling session and any medical appointments.

       The school or workday ends around 3:30 in the afternoon, and that's when the activity in the house really increases. There are groups three afternoons a week that Sarah and the other residents will participate in. So on those days, she returns to Hannah House, checks in on Logan at Day Care if time allows, and goes to group. If it's a parenting group, she'll get to bring Logan to the first part of the group. One of the main goals is to teach young mothers to read their baby's cues and to respond appropriately. As Logan bonds with Sarah, reacting with gurgles and smiles and reaching hands, this reinforces Sarah's own behaviors that evoke such responses from her baby. In this way, the parent-child bond - a learned skill in human as in all animal species - is established and strengthened.

       After the group, Sarah will pick up Logan from Day Care and begin the evening activities. Each week, a different resident will have the responsibility of cooking dinner, and this week, it's Sarah's turn. Sarah will have created the menu the week before and will have done the food shopping with assistance from one of the staff; in this way, she learns the skills she'll need to run her own household. Some residents have the chores of setting the table or unloading the dishwasher. After dinner, other residents will clean off the table, load the dishwasher, and sweep the dinning room and kitchen floors. These chores rotate on a nightly basis.

       On a "normal" night at Hannah House, it can get pretty hectic. Imagine dinnertime: possibly six residents and their babies and two staff are sitting around the dining room table. We also have college interns doing their practicum at Hannah House, and they would join the meal also. Everyone is eating, talking, and the babies are verbalizing or fussing. It can get pretty loud.

       Sarah and the other girls have until 9:00 PM to finish their chores. At the same time, the six girls share their own phone line - and you know how teenagers are about phones! This can lead to some interesting discussions about who's been on for how long and who gets the next turn and who will watch what baby while mom is on the phone.

       At 10:00 PM, it's time for Sarah to go to her own room, which she shares with Logan, for the night. If she needs staff for any reason or wants to get a snack downstairs, she can "buzz" staff on the intercom. Residents who have earned higher privilege levels may not have a curfew and can decide when they go to their room. Of course they're still expected to meet all their parenting and programmatic responsibilities the next day, no matter what time they went to bed. That, too, is part of learning to make their own decisions and living by them.

     Yes, Sarah has a full schedule and busy life at Hannah House, what with parenting, school, work, parenting, chores, parenting - and, yes, growing up.

— Randy Walker, Executive Director

Adapting to Difficult Times

       The Hannah House Board of Directors has set an ambitious fundraising goal for 2005 and the Hannah's Chairs event is a pivotal piece in its success. As reported in our Annual Report this past September, Hannah House is presently facing a financial crisis. This is in a large part because the per-diem rate we receive for our residential program has only increased 11% since1995 while our residential program costs have increased 68.9%. Taking this crisis very seriously, the Hannah House Board of Directors has approved a budget for 2005 that makes some very tough decisions programmatically and staffing-wise.

       For the first time in our history, Hannah House will experience some layoffs and streamlining of services. We hope that these changes are temporary in nature and that our funding issues can be worked out. By going through the appeals process regarding our rate setting, increasing our fundraising efforts with events like "Hannah's Chairs", and doing the best we can to ensure our expenses don't exceed our revenues, we will continue to provide our services to pregnant and parenting youth for years to come. If we don't make these changes and continue to experience such losses as we have for the past three years, Hannah House will be out of business in two or three years.

       I am presenting these serious issues to you because we feel it's important to be up-front and honest about our situation. The community response to our Annual Report and Valley News articles by Jim Kenyon and Lindsay Stoddard have been dramatic. Thanks to all of you for you support. We will continue to do everything possible to continue providing the parenting education, advocacy, vocational training and all around support to the parenting youth among us.