How Hannah House Makes a Difference
in Their Lives

My first few months at Hannah House, I was terrible....I hated everyone there, especially the staff members. They would try and try to be nice to me, but all I ended up doing was throwing tantrums like a three-year-old.

       Then one day, I realized that the staff was only trying to prepare me for the real world. I never considered a 16-year-old an adult, but you have to be when you are bringing a child into this world.

        Hannah House taught me so many things about childbirth and actually raising a child. It's hard doing it alone. I'm one of the lucky ones, though. I have loving, supportive parents who have helped me in every way from the beginning...

        I now realize why I was sent to Hannah House. I had a lot of growing up to do. Hannah House gave me a hand into the real world. I actually got a job (started at 6:00 AM) that I actually kept until I went into labor. I even received my GED, which I know that if I wasn't at Hannah House I would never have received. I grew up...

        It has been four years since I left Hannah House, but I still visit every now and then...Hannah House will always stay a part of me.

— Lynda, former resident, from her article published in the December 1998 issue of the Hannah House newsletter

September 2, 2003... My mom was told that she has about 4 months[to live] if she stops drinking. So I talked to her this week and she was shit faced. I was pretty upset, but have come to grips with it...My boyfriend and I have had a pretty bumpy road. He tries so hard to keep the peace that he doesn't say how he feels and...holds it all in until he has a bit of a break down. And I think it is getting hard for him, I mean, becoming an overnight father. He needs more "by himself time" than I do. Zeek [the baby] is a handful lately. He never listens to me. I might even go so far as to say he is a brat sometimes. Where he gets it I have no idea. HA HA I am OK. I want to sit down with you and really go over my budget. I mean, I have, but I want you to look over my plan for money. I need another person's brain, mine sucks...

— Michelle, from an email exchange with her Hannah House case manager, Kim Therrien and used with Michelle's permission and first published in the December 2003 issue of the Hannah House newsletter

Rebecca was one of our Outreach clients, attending parenting education classes, and receiving case management, home visits, and help linking up with community services. The father of her children lived with her, but did not attend parenting classes or meetings with the outreach case manager. She also participated in our Family Relationships group at Hannah House, which works to prevent domestic violence in teen-parented households.

        It was through her participation in the Family Relationships group that Rebecca began to notice the patterns of abuse in her relationship with her boyfriend: alcohol and drug abuse accompanied by physical violence, his isolation of the family by depriving them of a phone and means of transportation, his frequent and extended absences from the home, and his attempts to keep her from developing a personal support system. It was her participation in the Family Relationships group that helped her find within herself the courage and resources to leave the area with her two children and this escape an abusive relationship that had entrapped her for six years.

— adapted from an article by Randy Walker, Executive Director of Hannah House, first published in the December 1998 issue of the Hannah House newsletter

Employers may sometimes be reluctant to hire very young parents because of their relative lack of job skills and experience. To address this problem, Hannah House has worked directly with local small businesses and a few nonprofit employers to develop a business internship model that places clients in jobs where they can learn skills in book-keeping, management, and operations that are much higher up on the ladder than they could achieve on their own or through entry level employment.

        Jenny, for instance, wanted to work in a child care setting. (One of the interesting things about many teen moms is their deep and abiding career interest in childcare and early childhood education.) We worked with the Child Care Center in Lebanon, one of the best and largest in the area, to develop an internship for Jenny there. Jenny worked in various aspects of the business, from the kitchen to the classroom, and "job-shadowed" the book-keeper and administrative staff. In one of our most successful placements, Jenny really came out of her shell and was offered a full-time position at the conclusion of her internship. This experience gives Jenny a tremendous leg-up in breadth and depth of job experience, while enhancing both her desirability among future employers and her ability to negotiate a livable wage. For Jenny, this was an outcome unimaginable without Hannah House.

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