Homeless Teen

Homeless Teen parents Homeless teen parents often struggle with little or no knowledge about a support team. Many teenage mothers are not necessarily able to remain at home with their parents, either for reasons of overcrowding in the home, abuse and neglect, or financial difficulty. They may not have family, friends, or other resources available that enable them to meet the basic needs for themselves or their children. Teenage mothers who are unable to live at home with their families are vulnerable on many fronts. Most definitely! They encounter all of the demands of parenting and being a teen, and often face the additional need for stable housing. Without other supports, these teenage mothers are likely to experience periods of homelessness, spend time in foster care, or rely on welfare for assistance. Teenage pregnancy has become the biggest issue not only in the US, but also all around the world. Nowadays we can see pregnant teen girls everywhere. As we say teenage girls, we mean girls at the age of thirteen up to sixteen; and this problem is a growing problem in America. Teenage mother’s often drop out of school and end up on welfare, barely able to support their child. With some teenager’s their bodies that give birth are not ready to handle the stress of childbirth. Why do teenage girls get pregnant? The answer is: there are many causes of teenage pregnancy. A teenage girl may become pregnant as a result of many different situations. Some teenage girls become pregnant while involved in long-term dating relationships. Other girls become pregnant after hooking up, or as they call it: “a one night stand”. And, some girls may become pregnant as a result of a rape situation. The lack of education on (Agarwal, 2008) safe sex be it from parents, schools, or otherwise, is a cause of teenage pregnancy.(Agarwar, 1008) Many teenagers are not taught about the methods of birth control and how to deal with peers who pressure them into having sex before they are ready. The lack of safe sex education is just one cause of teenage pregnancy. Lack of parental guidance and supervision is a major cause of teenage pregnancy. Most teenage mothers have not been educated about sex due to lack of communication between the teenager and her parents. Girls, who have suffered sexual abuse at some point in their lives, are more likely to become pregnant. Younger teenage mothers may face additional challenges as a result of their age. They might not have family or friends in which they can stay with. These young mothers may also experience difficulty in finding a place in which to live with their children. For instance, homeless shelters, battered women’s shelters and transitional living programs may not always accept teenagers who are under the age of 17, nor do these programs generally accept young children. Further, placement in foster care does not always ensure that the mother and child will remain together—the placement of both the teenage mother and her child together is contingent on the availability of a trained foster care provider or group home that is willing to take both the teen and her child. Young mothers who are homeless come up against many of the same hurdles, as young mothers in foster care, including poverty, barriers to education and other supports. Their primary need is housing. One study indicates that 80 percent of minor mothers who are homeless are unable to find long-term stable living arrangements, and could be in need of a Second Chance Home or similar arrangement Teen Pregnancy Statistics, Prevention, and Facts. Among existing Second Chance Homes networks, there is tremendous variation in how the programs are run and how they are funded. Massachusetts, for instance, operates a statewide network of homes, which is run by two state agencies: the Department of Social Services and the Department of Transitional Assistance. Each program is different in structure and approach, but all of the programs offer stable housing and supports to young mothers and their children who do not have a place to live. Some programs maintain emergency beds for teens who have an immediate need for housing and who have no alternative place to live during the assessment period. These beds are typically for teen mothers who are in need of short-term residence. The state covers most program operating costs and pays providers for services. These services are only available to teen TANF recipients. (HUD>GOV U.S. Department of housing and urban Development). The biological fathers of the teens’ first children had numerous barriers to successful parenting and economic stability and therefore are not a reliable source of support. Some of these fathers were to young ot support their child, or some had problem that they were dealing with themselves. According to the teen mothers, 59 percent of these fathers had experienced problems with substance abuse, violence, or crime, including 34 percent with alcohol, 29 percent with drug use, and 30 percent with violent behavior. Forty percent had been involved in criminal activities, including 18 who were in jail during the study month. Twenty-five percent of the fathers were five or more years older than the mothers, including 5 percent who were more than 10 years older. Half of the fathers were unemployed when the baby was born. At month 30, 46 percent were known to be working, 24 percent were unemployed, and the mothers did not know the employment status of 30 percent. Less than half were known to be high school graduates at the time of the baby’s birth. Paternity had not been established for 27 percent of the firstborn children, and 80 percent of the fathers not in the household 30 months after MFIP application paid no child support. Twenty-three percent of all the fathers had had no contact with the child for at least a year. (Minnesota Department of Human Services). The absence of a father figure in the home brings about a chain reaction of dilemmas. The emotional problems that children suffer because there is no father in their life can be potentially hazardous to their future. Many children tend to be effected mentally because these powerful emotions have the potential to do permanent damage in a child 's life. “Children may experience sadness and depression, aggressive behavior, frequent illness, difficulty in school, eating problems, and sleeping disorders.” Many children also suffer from various social difficulties and self-esteem problems that come along with living in a one-parent household. The pressure that children raised by teenage parents go through is tremendous. Children who don 't have fathers present in the home often feel unloved. “There is no trauma as excruciatingly painful as parental rejection and there is probably no worse of a way to wreck a person 's life”. Some males can be affected differently by the absence of a father than females are. A boy needs a male role model in his life so that he can learn how to become a man. “Children who don 't have good role models often choose negative, unsavory characters to mold themselves after. These children become susceptible to many of the dangerous risks associated with children who are being raised by teen moms”. (Public Health Nurse, Minnesota Visiting Nurses Agency). Locally there are few resources serving homeless teen moms and their babies. One such resource is Life Haven on the east side of St. Paul. Life Haven is a temporary shelter providing a safe and nurturing environment for homeless pregnant women and women with young children. They are committed to assisting them in developing skills to help them to live independently. Life Haven serves 20 families at a time. Over 150 families are sheltered annually, including 250 children. Almost 90 percent of the families entering Life Haven move out into permanent housing in the community. It is our goal to end homelessness, one family at a time. This 90 day short term housing is for 16 and 17 year old moms and children who are homeless. Parenting and life skills training and case management services provided. This program gives teen mom a second change to have a stable place for them and their child. Although it is a short-term program it gets them off the streets and helps them strategies for living a productive life www.lifehaven.org[->0].
Another resources that serves our teen moms and pregnancy teens is Minnesota Organization On Adolescent Pregnancy, Prevention and Parenting (MOAPPP). This is a member supported organization. It provides resources for parents, teens, educators, health care providers, youth workers, media professionals and policy makers. This organization gives teens resources on housing, health care, GED programs. Education and supportive services, and Parenting and life skills.
It also has case management and family support services for teens. This is a wonderful website to gain knowledge about our youth, it will also help me help me with my big buddy group. moappp@moappp.org[->1] Minneapolis Public Schools also offer support; they enrolled 650 pregnant and parenting teenage girls in the 2005-2006 school year. This does not include contracted alternative schools or private or charter schools. At some time during 2006, 1,564 Minneapolis pregnant or parenting teens and 942 suburban pregnant or parenting teens received public assistance. Out of these families, 60 percent received cash assistance and other benefits while 40 percent received non-cash assistance only. In 2006, 858 pregnant Minneapolis teens and 1,066 postpartum Minneapolis teen mothers were on Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) while 496 pregnant teens and 587 postpartum teen mothers in suburban Hennepin County received WIC. www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/dhfs[->2]. The following paragraphs really fit higher up before you detail community resources. The age of a adolescent is somewhere between 10 and 19 years. Getting pregnant at this age can be life threatening. Mortality rates are four times higher for a pregnant teenager in the age bracket of 15 to 19, than for women aged between 25 and 29 years. The unborn child is at increased risk too. For girls falling into the age bracket of 10 to 14, it is even worse. Should they have live births, the infant is likely to die soon or face serious health challenges. Children born to such young parents often display retarded psychosocial development and malnutrition effects. Anger against society is taken out on the child and physical abuse is possible. (Agarwal, 2008). “Decreasing teen pregnancy has been a constant battle for the United States in the past few years. America has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the western part of the world despite not being the leader in sexually active teenage. Here in the United States we do not educate our children enough on having safe sex. Our children end up learning on their own and eventually end up having a child from the lack of knowledge they have. They also take away from their own lives, because a child raising a child is a big task for anyone to take on. Abstaining from sex and learning more about sex is a good way to increase awareness and prevent pregnancy.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, "teen pregnancy has decreased by 28% since 1990 due to the education on pregnancy and the literature passed out in schools www.guttmacher.org. Traditionally parents have taught their children about having sex, but now with families always on the go it is hard to focus attention in this area. Most parents rely on sex education in school to help increase a teenager 's knowledge about sex and pregnancy. I think that this knowledge should start as soon as a child is able to understand how their bodies work. It should be taught in stages so that by the time they are ready to have sex they will have enough information in their lives to make the right decision. It’s no secret that teenage pregnancy is a common thing to see these days. However, with a little communication and education, the number of teenage girls who become mothers can be reduced. My Action plan that I have decide to implement into action will consist of building a buddy group for girls. I live across the street from Wilder Park, where I am involved a lot with community meetings, and I have currently been speaking to one of parker managers and asking if I could form a teen pregnancy prevention groups with the community girls and boys. I feel boys should be just as educated in this awareness as teen girls. He agreed that it would be a good plan for our community children. I have two neighbors that agree on Friday nights they could help me pull this off. My plan is to recruit teens starting in the middle part of May. I have a meeting on May second to meet with some of the park managers about what I plan to do with the teens on Friday night and what I will need to do to bring this to light. I plan on making some posters me a two neighbors and go door to door and give them out. I am hoping my first teen meeting will be May 20th, 2011. “Pregnant and parenting teens want to be successful parents but live in such chaos that they can’t see a different way to live. They face overwhelming responsibility and often lack adult support, which has them lurching from crisis to crisis unable to make progress. When surrounded by caring, supportive adults, however, they are able to move forward and make good decisions.” (- Public Health Nurse).

Bibliography
Agarwal, Abhishek.” Effect on teenage pregnancy”. E Public Health Nurse, Minnesota Visiting Nurses Agency.n.d. zineArticle 2008.
ASK.COM. (2009). “Teen Pregnant”. public health nursing (2009).
Homeless Resources. Minnesota: United States of Education, 2004. Housing of urban Development. Minnesota: Hud.GOV. 2005. Project Northland. Lakeville ,mn: Farmington, 2004.
Institute, Guttmacher. "U.S Teenage Pregnancies." 2010.
"U.S TEENAGE PREGNANCIES." 2010.

[->0] - http://www.lifehaven.org
[->1] - mailto:moappp@moappp.org
[->2] - http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/dhfs

Bibliography: ASK.COM. (2009). “Teen Pregnant”. public health nursing (2009). Homeless Resources. Minnesota: United States of Education, 2004. Housing of urban Development. Minnesota: Hud.GOV. 2005. Project Northland. Lakeville ,mn: Farmington, 2004.