Lifeline Family Center offers hand-up to young mothers
For the past 11 years Lifeline Family Center in Cape Coral has offered a two-year residential and educational program for young women who are involved in a crisis pregnancy.
The program is designed for teens and young women 15 to 22, as well as their children under the age of 2.
Overall, the center serves 12 mothers and 24 babies in a new center that was built in the Cape.
Besides offering support for the care of the child, it also allows the young women to participate in career training or to go back to school for their high school diploma or advanced degree.
19-year-old Sheree Boudreau entered the program in January of 2006. She had attended Gulf Coast High School in Naples but decided to move into the center when she discovered that she was pregnant with her son Josiah, who is now 2.
“I got pregnant at 17 and at the time I wanted a life better for my son than what I had and I made the decision to move into Lifeline because they offered me the chance to better my life for myself and my son,” said Boudreau.
The center has a number of available rooms where mothers stay with their children, and only share a bathroom with other residents. They take classes, buy things that they need and spend a large majority of their time at the residence.
Once at the facility, Boudreau had to go back to school and complete her general educational development or GED. At the same time she took some of the classes offered at the center including parenting and character classes, as well as life skills classes in budgeting, sewing and smart living.
Boudreau chose to receive her advanced education from High Tech Central in Fort Myers to be a certified nursing assistant, and she is currently working at a clinic on Santa Barbara in the Cape.
Recently, she moved out of the family center with approximately $3,000 that the center helps each of the young women to save. And after they finish the program at the center they are on their own.
“You use everything Lifeline has taught you and do everything you have to do for your children,” said Boudreau.
According to the Florida Department of Vital Statistics, in 2005 there were more than 20,000 births to teenagers aged 15 to 19 in the state of Florida. And in Lee and Collier counties, there were 1,179 births to teenagers of the same age.
The center runs entirely off of donations from the community, and asks residents of Cape Coral and Southwest Florida to support their programs.
For more information, visit lifelinefamilycenter.org.