Baby's First Home - A residential program for homeless teen mothers and their children
Baby's First Home is a supportive transitional housing facility that plans to provide shelter and supportive services to teen mothers and their children.
About You
Location
Project Street Address
Project City
Project Province/State
Project Postal/Zip Code
Project Country
Your idea
Field of Work
social justice/human rights
If Field of Work is “other” please define in 1-2 words below
Year project started (or projected start date) (yyyy)
2008
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Project URL (or link to any media coverage)
What is the primary problem your venture is trying to address and how are you addressing it (or planning to address it)?
The Institute for Children and Poverty (“ICP”), which researches issues of family homelessness and also provides services for homeless families in New York City, recently released a report called “Children Having Children: Teen Pregnancy and Homelessness in New York City.” In its report, ICP concluded that nearly half of all homeless families in New York City were headed by women who were teenage mothers. The report surveyed 337 homeless women residing in New York City shelters, finding that 32% of these women were homeless before the age of 18 and 42% of them had been homeless more than once. The report also found that children of homeless teenage mothers were three times more likely to experience homelessness numerous times and 60% more likely to be removed from their parents care and placed into foster care.
BFH recognizes that there is a distressed population of young women with children who are no longer welcome in their family homes, have aged out of foster care, and are left to support themselves and provide for their child(ren) without the tools to do so. As shelter and food are their main priority, they often drop out of school and work low-income jobs just to survive. As a result, they end up struggling to survive for the rest of their lives.
The program, Baby’s First Home (BFH), will be a supportive housing unit for 5 mothers (17-21) and their children. We have a 6-unit building in Elmhurst, Queens that will provide shelter to 5 families and a live-in social worker. By offering counseling services, educational and vocational training, health education, and other supportive services, we plan to help mothers build independent lives and stable futures for themselves and their children upon completion of our program. We hope to reduce homelessness and poverty for a targeted group of women and children.
Name Your Project
Baby's First Home - A residential program for homeless teen mothers and their children
Describe Your Idea
Baby's First Home is a supportive transitional housing facility that plans to provide shelter and supportive services to teen mothers and their children.
Innovation
Project Description
Baby's First Home is a supportive transitional housing facility that plans to provide shelter and supportive services to teen mothers and their children.
Unique and different
We plan to make our services unique and different by partnering with New York University and using student volunteers/mentors to create a strong youth volunteer corps in conjuncture with our program. We also plan on focusing on empowering teen mothers by rewarding them for fulfilling their responsibilities as mothers and reinforcing heir good behaviors by exposing them to a vast array of cultural and education experiences available in New York City.
Project plan
Our main focus for the next 6 months is to raise over $200,000 to support the program in its first year and to continue to build our network of supporters and other pregnancy service providers.
We are currently applying for multiple grants and planning large fundraising events.
Partnerships
We have many successful partnerships in the New York area. We created most of our partnerships by contacting organizations that currently serve teen mothers and asking those organizations to connect us with any resources that may be helpful to fulfilling our mission.
One of our most successful partnerships is with a well established residential program for teen mothers and their children on Long Island, NY. We work closely with them to understand the day-to-day functions of a housing unit, the challenges we might face in working with this population, and to decide what we will do differently in our own program.
We have also built successful partnerships with a pregnancy counseling center and the national director of the Baby Safe Haven alliance. The pregnancy counseling center has agreed to run a pregnancy resource center in partnership with our organization and when our program is open it will also be considered a Baby Safe Haven site.
Impact
Impact
We hope to reduce poverty and homelessness for a targeted group of a women and children.
Effectiveness
Our project has inspired many youth and women. Our residential program is not yet open, but our organization will help reduce homelessness and poverty for teen mothers in Queens, NY.
How do you engage and impact the community?
We impact the community by providing housing for a desperate population of women who would otherwise be caught in a vicious cycle of poverty and homelessness. We will also engage the surrounding community by asking them to make in-kind donations and volunteer their time teaching workshops and working with the children in our facility. We hope that these volunteer experiences will impact community members by inspiring them to make a lifelong commitment to serve their community.
How do you measure this impact?
We will measure the impact by keeping in contact with the mothers that have graduated our program and monitoring their success in building independent and stable lives for themselves and their children.
We will also accept critical feedback about our program from our residents and our mentors.
Obstacles
We face skepticism as a youth run organization and we have a small team that must raise a very large sum of money to operate effectively.
This Entry is about (Issues)
Sustainability
Financing source
(or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)
We plan to finance our organization through a combination of fundraising events, grantwriting, corporate donations, and individual donations.
Aside from financial sustainability, how do you plan to grow and sustain your project?
We plan to grow our project by expanding the services we can provide and eventually expanding the number of housing units we can provide. We plan to sustain our organization by training our staff to run the organization successfully and emphasizing the importance of passing leadership responsibility into capable hands. Our Board of Director will play a large role in making sure the organization is sustainable.
Finance details
We need to raise $200,000 to operate our residential program in its first year. We currently have $11,000 and a year to raise the rest of the money.
Creative funding
Our current seed money was granted to us as winners of the annual Be A Changemaker Challenge at our university.
Other non finance needs
We need a large group of reliable volunteers and any in-kind donations ranging from food to beds to office supplies.
The Story
Motivation
We are a team of young women who have witnessed the results of teen pregnancy and homelessness in our daily lives. Amanda witnessed mothers struggling to survive and provide for their families while volunteering in Bellevue Hospital. Jessica saw teen mothers, who were ostracized at school and subsequently dropped out while working at an inner city public school. Fiorella was a homeless teen mother who struggled to balance finding shelter for her children while pursuing her education to try and make a better life for her children.
When we met we were all motivated to do something because of the same pressing social issue. We knew we had to create this program and that there was a reason the three of us met.
Awards
We are winners of the 2008 NYU Reynolds/Youth Venture Be A Changemaker Challenge Grand Prize.
Broader context
Our project is not just a student club for social change, it is a massive project. It will be a shelter for teen mothers and their children with a huge budget and a full staff. Our project contributes to the youth lead social change movement because it proves that youth can tackle big projects and make social change just like anyone else in a community.
Ongoing
We hoe to always remain involved with the venture through its board of directors, even though the staff and executive director may change.
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Comments
Hi Amanda,
Your project is very inspiring. I hope to see this Baby's First Home open soon. I'm curious about two things:
1) How long can each family stay at the residential program? Do you set a time limit?
2) If you don't get the $200,000 right away, can you start incrementally by helping one or two families?
Charles
Hey Charles,
Thank you so much for all of your support. We have been working hard to make this mission and dream possible. Just this past summer we received our 501(c)3 tax-exempt status and will spend the upcoming year primarily focused on planning big fundraising events.
1) Baby's First Home will be a structured 2 year program for each accepted resident. Upon entering Baby's First Home. there will be individualized program goals set for each young woman depending on her current situation. By the end of two years each resident must have established some basis of financial savings, have pursued an educational or vocational tract, and have made plans for future housing. As a residential program, our job is to provide our young women with all the resources needed to reach both program and personal goals. Progress will be reviewed each week and if certain criteria are not met, then that resident's placement will be reevaluated. We have found that two years provides ample time to build the independent and stable lifestyle that each resident will be striving for. However, we will continue to support these women as long as they are making an effort and are willing to receive our help.
2) Our building is currently occupied by tenants who will continue to live there until we are financially stable to pursue Baby's First Home. In order to establish a sustainable and dynamic program, we feel it is important to focus its start-up goals, in their entirety, rather than rushing into the opening of Baby's First Home. The programs most vital components are the many in-home services and workshops it will offer, all of which will only be possible when the building is fully open for remodeling. We also value the sense of community that will be established in bringing the residents in together. We understand that to receive media attention there must be action present and hope that with our fundraising events we will be able to provide it.
Hi Amanda,
has your team thought a bit more about how you can become more sustainable in the future? Are there specific projects your teen mothers can work on to start generating income for example?
Romina
Hey Romina,
One of our most challenging and important obstacles in establishing Baby's First Home is the development of a sustainable program. As young entrepreneurs we know that eventually we will move on to other ventures and will only be able to do so if we are confident that Baby's First Home can survive on its own. Although many organizations of our kind rely only on donors, grants, and corporate sponsorship each year, we feel that this is not stable enough. As of now, our most valuable asset is our building. It is a 6 unit space that will be able to house 5 families and one live in house manager. However, we will also be able to add an extra floor. We are going to use this floor as transitional housing that will offer affordable rent to young mothers that already have a financial basis and just need access to services. We will also be renting out space in the basement to the Boro Pregnancy Support Center which is currently located in Flushing, Queens, but will be looking for space in the near future. We have estimated that these combined sources of income will provide us with half of the total annual budget. Eventually, we hope to pursue the possibility of buying another space that we can use as more transitional housing. In doing so, Baby's First Home will be entirely self-sustainable.
If you have any more questions or concerns please let us know! Thank you for your time and interest.
Our programs are designed to encourage the personal development of children and youth while working to strengthen and support healthy relationships among family members. We believe that all youth deserve a chance to discover and put to use their inherent strengths and talents in order to become successful, contributing adults. Our approach is to promote positive, healthy child and adolescent development by fostering responsibility, resiliency, and respect for self and others. Safe housing, counseling, and appropriate referral and follow-up services are delivered in an atmosphere of positive regard and care.
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Brukewilliams
SuperBabyGuide
Bruke,
Thank you for contacting us! As a youth-led organization we need a lot of help, advice, and expertise to accomplish our mission. We see that you have experience in this field and would love the opportunity to meet with you. If you are interested, please contact us by emailing araposo@babysfirsthome.org. Your support is deeply appreciated.
Amanda Raposo
Baby's First Home
i am 20 year old
i have no were to live
i am preganant
i am single mother
this is my first kid
i need help right now
please
i am in need for me my child and i
Hello,
I know you must feel very lost right now, but everything is going to be just fine. Although Baby's First Home is not opened yet, we are in contact with other residential programs and services that are. We will need more information from you to figure out how to help you in the best way possible. Please email me at araposo@babysfirsthome.org with your name, date of birth, current address, and any other information you might have such as a telephone number, social security, and public assistance number. Through email I will provide you with my number and any other contacts that will be able to help you as soon as possible. Be strong. You are going to be okay.
With love,
Amanda Raposo
Baby's First Home
Dear Amanda:
Your project even in its nascent stage sounds very promising! I am wondering what the curriculum will be for the young mothers to transition OUT of homelessness. The key will be that these women gain the skills to earn above the minimum wage to be able to support themselves and their children.
All the best to your project!!
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Tyler Ahn
Changemakers
You are absolutely right about the key in transitioning young mothers out of homelessness. We need to provide them with a basis of skills, knowledge, and empowerment to build independent lives for themselves and their children. Here is our vision:
BFH intends to hire a full time s licensed social worker with a Master of Social Work to live at the Home and provide counseling for the Home’s residents. New York University’s Silver School of Social Work will provide BFH with unpaid interns who will receive field placement credits. Clients will receive counseling services based on their individual needs with an emphasis on family and social development services, mainly focusing on school, career and lifestyle choices. Each Mother will be expected to attend a weekly individual counseling session and achieve weekly goals, as well as a group counseling session including every Resident in the home.
BFH intends to offer educational and vocational assistance, including health education to the Residents. These services will be provided based on the needs and interests of the Residents. BFH will utilize outside volunteers with expertise in certain educational and vocational topics to come to the home and present weekly workshops. These workshops will include specific classes focusing on topics such as writing a resume, going to a job interview, information on pursuing higher education while parenting, looking for affordable housing in New York City, health and nutrition for mothers and children, and other topics that may benefit the Residents and their families.
What makes us most innovative is our emphasis on women's and youth empowerment. Peer mentoring from NYU and leadership training through Youth Venture will be a huge asset to BFH. We will also take advantage of the many educational and cultural resources that NYC has to offer. Upon completion of the program, we not only want our residents to have received necessary skills, but also the education and cultural awareness necessary to provide them with determination to succeed and strength in character.
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