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The potential of maternity group home programs to address the numerous problems facing pregnant and parenting teens rests in the range of services they provide to their residents. Pregnant and parenting teens and their children have a wide variety of needs. One of the most basic needs that maternity group homes can address is that of secure housing. Homes can go well beyond that, however, to offer a substantial amount of adult supervision and provide a structured environment for their residents with a set of rules all must follow. Maternity group home programs also can provide a comprehensive array of support services to their residents, both to address their immediate needs and to prepare them for independent living and self-sufficiency in the longer term.
In this chapter, we describe what life is like at the maternity group homes in our study and what these homes offer their residents. In particular, we discuss the types of services provided by maternity group homes and how these services are delivered to residents. We address the following research questions:
Probably the most fundamental need filled by maternity group homes is that of housing. Even if the other benefits of living in a maternity group home were found to have no longer-term effects on residents, the homes still succeed in the goal of providing a temporary place for pregnant and parenting teens to live. Maternity group home programs use a variety of different types of facilities and typically teach residents to take responsibility for maintaining the space, so that they will be better prepared to live on their own some day.
Types of Facilities. Maternity group home programs use two basic housing structures:
The majority of the maternity homes visited are congregate facilities, although many networks include some facilities in which residents live in individual or shared apartments. Table III.1 shows the number of congregate and apartment-model facilities in the sites in this study. Approximately 80 percent of the 43 homes in these sites are congregate facilities.
| Program(State) | Number of Homes | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Congregate | Apartment | Total | |
| GCAPP Second Chance Homes (Georgia) | 8 | 0 | 8 |
| St. Andre Group Homes (Maine) | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| Teen Living Program (Massachusetts) | 15 | 5 | 20 |
| Teen Parent Supportive Housing Services Collaborative (Michigan) | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| Teen Parent Program (New Mexico) | 3 a | 2 | 5 |
| Inwood House Maternity Residence (New York) | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Friends of Youth Transitional Living Program (Washington) | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Total | 34 | 9 | 43 |
| GCAPP = Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention.
a One home in New Mexico is primarily congregate but also includes three apartment units. In this table, we categorized this home as a congregate facility. |
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| A SAMPLE FACILITY |
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| The Community Action Agency maternity group home is housed in a large, recently renovated, former single-family home in a residential neighborhood in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The main floor of the house is devoted to space for residents. There are five bedrooms-one for each resident family-and three bathrooms (one of which has been modified to be accessible to people with disabilities). Residents share a large living room, dining room, spacious kitchen, and laundry room. There is also a courtyard. The house has a smaller upstairs area, which is allocated for the home's staff. This space includes a few office cubicles, a full bath, and two sofa beds. |
Because of the expense associated with new construction, few programs are fortunate enough to have facilities built specifically to serve as a maternity group home. Programs take advantage of a wide variety of types of preexisting facilities, including former single-family homes, apartment buildings, motels, rectories, convents, and nursing homes. By far the most common settings, especially for congregate homes, are buildings that were originally large single-family houses. Almost half of the homes visited for this study are in buildings that were once single-family homes. Apartment-model programs are sometimes in such settings as well but more often are housed in former apartment buildings. These programs typically fill an entire (small) apartment building; but in some cases, they have only a few units in a larger building. For example, one program in Massachusetts shares an apartment building with other residential programs operated by the same parent organization. One program in New Mexico is housed in eight units of a much larger regular apartment complex.
Apartment-model homes tend to be somewhat larger than congregate homes, but most maternity group home programs are quite small. Half of the homes we visited have the capacity to serve no more than six resident families each, and only two of the homes we visited can serve as many as a dozen at one time. In addition, since this study focused on larger maternity group home programs, it is possible that the homes in these programs tend to have greater capacity than those in programs not visited.
Different populations of pregnant and parenting teens may benefit from different types of facilities. Congregate homes, which tend to be smaller and more communal, may be the best arrangement for less mature teens who need more attention and supervision. Larger, apartment-model homes may be more appropriate for older, more independent residents. Some programs deliberately vary their structures (or take advantage of the natural variation in the available facilities) to provide different types of arrangements for different types of residents or to help young mothers gradually make the transition to independence. For example, the network in Massachusetts includes both congregate homes and some apartment model homes, and network staff place residents in the type of home that will best meet their needs.
Resident Responsibilities. Regardless of the type of facility, maternity group home programs take steps to encourage residents to take responsibility for the facilities in which they live. Such policies serve dual purposes: (1) to keep the facilities clean and well maintained, and (2) to help prepare residents to one day live independently in their own homes. Programs use two methods to accomplish this, requiring residents to pay rent and to assist in the upkeep of the facilities by performing household chores.
Most maternity group homes require residents to make some financial contributions to the home (discussed in Chapter II). One goal of such policies is to give residents experience in paying monthly rent, which they will have to do when they leave the home and live independently. Staff also mentioned that charging residents rent during their stay in the maternity home allows staff to serve as a credit reference when residents apply for their own apartment.
Residents of maternity group homes are also required to perform standard household chores, typically including cooking and keeping their own rooms or apartments clean. Practicing such tasks helps prepare teens for living on their own, when they will be responsible for keeping their own homes and feeding themselves and their children on their own. For example, staff at one St. Andre home in Maine said that having residents take turns planning meals and going grocery shopping with staff — in addition to cooking — provide valuable opportunities for staff to teach hands-on lessons about nutrition and price comparisons. Although programs often have staff to maintain the facility and may assist the residents in preparing healthy meals, putting some of the responsibility for such everyday tasks on residents also saves money on housekeeping and kitchen staff.
Specific chore assignments vary, depending on the type of facility. Residents of congregate-model maternity group homes are typically responsible for cleaning their own bedrooms individually but share responsibility for preparing group meals (sometimes including shopping for food) and cleaning common areas. Shared duties typically rotate among the residents in most congregate homes — for example, a particular resident might be responsible for cooking one week, washing dishes the next week, tidying the living room the following week, and taking out the garbage the next week. Teens living in clustered apartments usually are responsible for preparing meals for themselves and their children and are required to keep their own apartments clean. Residents of both types of homes — congregate homes and clustered apartments — must typically do their own laundry, and homes often have schedules for the use of laundry facilities. Some programs have set specific times when assigned chores must be completed.
Many pregnant and parenting teens have had little structure in their lives prior to entering a maternity group home. One of the functions group homes can fill is to provide such structure. To this end, maternity group home programs provide adult supervision and establish a set of rules by which residents must live. Adult staff are on hand to provide general supervision, informal counseling, emotional support, and nurturing to residents, as well as to enforce program rules and offer other support services.
Level of Supervision. In response to the great need of teen parents for support and supervision, maternity group homes typically are staffed round the clock.[1] Most of the homes included in our study have staff on site 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to provide general supervision and other services to their residents. One exception is one apartment-model home in New Mexico, which provides almost constant staffing but does not guarantee that a staff person will be present at all times. The home has only four staff members and attempts to schedule them so that someone is available during the hours that residents are home. However, there may not be any staff on site during school hours, when residents are generally away from the home. The Friends of Youth homes in Washington each have a resident manager who lives on site and is on call during the night, but these staff are allowed to leave the home while on call as long as they go no farther than 20 minutes away.
Nevertheless, there is some variation in the level of supervision provided even among homes with 24-hour staffing. Some programs require overnight staff to remain awake at all times, while others do not, instead having staff who sleep in the group home. For example, both Friends of Youth homes in Washingtonhave resident staff who live — and sleep — in their own apartments on site. Some other homes, such as the St. Andre homes in Maine, have shift staff who do not live on site but who can sleep on sofa beds in the group homes during their overnight shifts. In contrast, most of the homes we visited in Georgia, Massachusetts, Michigan, and New York specify that staff remain awake at all times while on duty. Some homes go a step further, such as one in Michigan that has a minimum of two awake staff on duty at all times.
Some networks have a continuum of staffing intensity, to meet the needs of different types of teens. These networks include some homes with full staffing and others with lower levels of supervision for residents transitioning to independence. Massachusetts’ network includes two types of maternity group homes — congregate homes with 24-hour-awake staffing and apartment model homes that are not required to have awake staff overnight. Massachusetts network staff place residents in the type of home that will best meet their needs. The network in Detroit, Michigan also offers different levels of supervision, requiring most homes to provide 24-hour-awake staff but including one home — targeted to serve slightly older and more mature residents — that does not have awake staff at night.
House Rules. One of the purposes of adult supervision is to provide structure by establishing and enforcing rules under which maternity group home residents must live. Homes often impose numerous restrictions and obligations on residents, both to provide needed structure to the lives of those living there and to teach them responsibility and skills they will need to be self-sufficient once they leave the home. Rules are typically documented in handbooks given to all residents when they move into the home; some homes also require residents to sign a “contract” promising to follow the rules. Although some homes are stricter than others, typical rules include restrictions on the comings and goings of residents and visitors, mandatory activities and schedules, and prohibitions on certain behaviors.[2]
Maternity group home programs generally monitor the comings and goings of their residents and guests and often place limits on their movements. Most homes have curfews, but the specific times vary. Weekday curfews ranged from as early at 7:00 p.m. to as late as 10:00 p.m. in the homes in our study. Curfews often are an hour or two later on weekends than on weekdays, and some homes offer their residents weekend passes under certain circumstances. In most cases, a curfew simply means that all residents must be in the home by the specified time, but a few homes impose a mandatory bedtime. In one New Mexico home, for example, residents had to be in their own bedrooms with the doors closed by 9:00 p.m. Some homes have both a building curfew and a set bedtime — for example, one home in Maine requires residents to be in the home by 8:00 p.m. and in their rooms and quiet by 10:00 p.m. Some other homes have earlier bedtimes for residents’ children.
In addition to curfews at night, some homes require residents to let staff know where they are when they leave the homes during the day. Some homes use sign-in sheets to keep track of where each resident is at all times. In one New Mexico home, residents must give an address or phone number of their destination each time they leave the home.
Some homes place additional restrictions on residents’ movement. For example, due to state rules concerning minors in custody, residents of maternity group homes in the network in Georgia cannot typically leave the facility without being accompanied by a staff member. Residents of one home in New Mexico are not generally allowed to leave the premises by themselves, due in part to the home’s remote location and in part to the fact that many of the residents are in the child welfare system.
In addition to restrictions on leaving the home, some programs maintain schedules that residents must follow while they are there. Fixed meal times are common, and some homes have requirements that residents be engaged in some sort of productive activity at certain times. Some homes give their residents wake-up calls or require them to be dressed and downstairs for breakfast at a certain time. Residents of one home in Michigan, for example, typically receivewake-up calls at 7:30 a.m., are expected to dress and get ready before they go to the kitchen, must talk to their assigned case worker before 9:00 a.m., and spend the next three hours in designated “constructive time” (often devoted to attending school or employment outside the home).
Most maternity group homes require residents to attend at least some program activities, which range in frequency from a few times a month to as often as several sessions per week. The most common type of required program activity is attendance at classes on parenting and life-skills topics (discussed in detail below). In addition, some homes hold mandatory house meetings or other group activities. One of the most intensive schedules found in our study is a home in New York whose residents must attend seven mandatory group activities per week — including classes on independent living skills, childbirth, caring for an infant, health, and substance abuse prevention; a special workshop, and a house meeting. Besides group activities, many homes require residents to attend individual case management meetings or therapy, most often weekly. Some homes in Maine also require all residents to participate in some type of support group not affiliated with the home (a requirement intended to help them learn to access outside services and connect with some kind of group that they will be able to continue after they leave the home).
| BALANCING VARIOUS RESPONSIBILITIES |
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| Home staff recognize how busy young mothers are and try to create a balance between program activities, the responsibilities of motherhood, and often school or work. However, some suggested that there is a tradeoff between providing a rich and intensive set of services to address all of residents' needs and adding too much to their already busy lives. For example, some homes limit the number of mandatory meetings to just three or four each month to avoid overwhelming residents. Other homes prohibit or discourage residents from working. Exceptions from requirements for residents to attend school, for example, are often made for some period of time immediately after a baby just born or reunited with a parent. Still, some residents complain that their schedules are too busy. |
In addition to these requirements, homes often prohibit their residents from engaging in behaviors considered undesirable or dangerous. It is common for homes to have rules against fighting and being disrespectful of other residents or staff; also, homes often have rules governing child safety. They commonly prohibit the use of alcohol and drugs, and many ban smoking, at least indoors. Residents typically are forbidden to engage in sexual activity on the premises and are discouraged from doing so away from the home as well.[3] One home in New Mexico even has rules against dating. In a few other homes, residents who become pregnant again would have to leave, typically due to limits on the number of children.
In part to enforce their prohibitions against sexual activity, maternity group homes typically place some restrictions on visitors, especially overnight guests. Many homes have set visiting hours. These may be narrow ranges — such as allowing guests in the home only for a few hours each evening or on weekends — or they may simply be intended to prohibit guests from staying overnight. In addition to restrictions on time, there are often restrictions on where visitors can go in the homes — many congregate homes allow visitors only in common areas. Some homes limit the number of guests a resident may have, and some restrict who can visit. For example, in some homes in the network in Georgia, visitors of teens in state custody must be approved by their child welfare worker, and visitors of other teens must be approved by their parent or guardian. A few homes do not allow male visitors on the property at all. One home in Michigan does not allow any visitors inside the house, for safety and confidentiality reasons, and does not allow any males to enter even the yard. Some homes also have restrictions on telephone usage.
| A SAMPLE SET OF RULES FOR RESIDENTS |
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| At the Federation of Youth Services maternity group home in Detroit, yelling and using disrespectful language is not allowed. Curfews are set at 9:00 P.M. on weekdays and 11:00 P.M. on weekends, although residents over 18 can sign up to be away for the whole weekend. Visitors are allowed only during set hours and are not allowed in the residents' bedrooms at all; residents can meet with their visitors in the home's common areas only. Residents must attend three weekly group activities (life skills, parenting, and a house meeting) and regular therapy sessions with the home's social worker, either individually or in groups. They are also required to attend school, unless they have graduated, in which case they may either attend community college or find jobs. Each resident is assigned a different chore-such as cooking or cleaning a particular common area-each week. Each must also keep her own bedroom and bathroom clean and is assigned a day to do her laundry. |
Enforcement of Rules. Effective enforcement of these rules requires both determining when a rule is broken and administering the appropriate consequences for any violations. Homes have developed a variety of methods for monitoring compliance with different program rules. In addition, maternity group homes often define positive incentives to encourage residents to follow the established rules, as well as negative consequences for violating them. To ensure consistency and so that residents know what to expect, these incentives and consequences typically are set forth in the handbook given to all residents.
The primary means of monitoring adherence to program rules is observation by staff. For example, staff on duty pay attention to whether residents engage in prohibited behaviors and whether they are following any set schedule. Staff also monitor attendance at mandatory program activities and may make calls to find out if residents missed a scheduled appointment off-site. Staff conduct regularly scheduled or random checks to ensure that assigned chores were completed.
To detect any violations of curfews and restrictions on visitors (and, in some cases, to supervise residents’ interactions with their children), homes employ various methods to monitor their residents — especially overnight. Most of the homes we visited have staff on duty 24 hours a day. In some homes, night staff check on each resident during the night — visual checks are made hourly in at least one home in Massachusetts; but in other homes, checks may be conducted only once or twice during the night. Some programs rely on electronic sound monitors to alert them to any problems in resident areas. One home in
| RESIDENTS' PERSPECTIVE ON RULES |
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| Most of the residents we met with are generally satisfied with the amount of structure provided by the maternity group homes in which they live. Although they may dislike one or two specific rules, residents typically understand the necessity of the rules. Some residents are relieved to be in a safe environment-sometimes for the first time in their lives-and many are willing to sacrifice a great deal of personal freedom for the security and support provided by the homes. Still, some residents complain that the rules are too strict. Dissatisfaction is particularly common among residents who are in some way required to live in a maternity group home (such as being sent there by a juvenile justice or child welfare agency). Staff noted that many of the teens have never had to follow rules before, and staff credit dislike of rules as the main reason some residents have very short stays in the homes. It can be a challenge for homes to strike the right balance between imposing necessary structure on residents' lives and allowing them some degree of freedom. Some homes have deliberately relaxed at least some rules to increase resident satisfaction and encourage them to remain in the program. |
Georgia — housed in a facility specifically designed as a maternity group home — sets alarms on residents’ bedroom doors and windows to warn staff if they are opened at night. Some homes have video cameras at each entrance so that staff can monitor all comings and goings of residents and their visitors; this can catch anyone attempting to sneak out after curfew or attempting to sneak in an overnight guest. In some cases, such high-tech methods are used instead of requiring overnight staff to remain awake at all times.
Homes tend to be patient with most violations of program rules. Staff believe in giving residents second — and often third, and fourth — chances, and they recognize that teens will violate minor rules (by missing curfew, for example) every once in a while. The consequences for most offenses typically are short-term loss of privileges — such as suspension of telephone privileges, loss of weekend time off, or the imposition of an earlier curfew — or, possibly, a fine (one home in Michigan charges residents 25 cents for using curse words, for example, while curfew-breaking residents in one home in Washington have to pay a $10 fine or lose a weekend). Some homes have specific penalties for specific rule violations, while others use a points system that determines the level of restriction for each resident based on an overall measure of her behavior over a period of time. Sometime specific consequences are developed appropriate for certain violations — for example, at the Friends of Youth homes in Washington, guests who violate rules covering visiting hours can be banned from entering the home again. Some homes issue written warnings to rule-breakers, and residents may be required to attend a meeting with staff to discuss any violation. Termination from the programs only results in the relatively rare cases of chronic rule-breaking or if a resident poses a danger to herself or others.[4]
Besides the fear of negative consequences for violating rules, some homes use positive incentives to encourage residents to obey. For example, one home pays residents $10 or $15 to attend program classes and meetings, including those that are mandatory. Another home in the same state has a mini-store where residents can spend credits they earn from doing assigned chores, attending scheduled meetings, school/work attendance, and so on. (The home also imposes fines against these credits for violations of some rules.) Staff at another home can adjust residents’ curfews by an hour in either direction in response to their behavior. Some homes have established various levels of rules that allow residents to attain more independence within the program as they demonstrate increasing levels of responsibility. For example, some homes in one state have “phase systems” with different levels of rules for different residents, depending on how well they are doing in the program. Residents of a few homes can qualify for a situation with more independent living — either their own individual apartment within the same facility or a space in a different, less restrictive, facility within the larger network.
All the maternity group homes we visited provide case management services for their residents. While some case management may take place on an ad hoc basis, many homes require residents to attend regular individual meetings with their case manager. Such sessions are commonly scheduled once a week.
Case management sessions often involve setting personal goals and discussing progress on achieving them. At some homes, case managers develop an individual service plan for each resident that includes goals related to parenting, education, health, and family interaction. In addition, case management sessions often involve counseling (although the staff involved may not be licensed therapists) — for example, talking over residents’ issues and challenges.
Referrals are another important part of case management. In addition to the array of services home staff can provide directly to their residents, case managers work to connect residents with providers of other services that the homes themselves cannot provide. Although some homes are themselves able to offer direct services to meet almost all of their residents’ needs, all homes must refer their residents to outside providers for at least some services. In addition to the types of services discussed elsewhere in this chapter, home staff provide referrals to a number of other services — for example, medical and substance abuse treatment and education or training programs. Often, when a teen first enters a maternity group home, case management staff will work to get her connected with various resources and programs, including TANF, food stamps, and Medicaid benefits, school, and day care for their children.
At some homes, residents’ meetings with case management staff may become shorter or less frequent over time. Just before a resident leaves the home (possibly moving into a housing situation her case manager helped her find or apply for), the case manager will often work with her to plan her transition to independent living and arrange for any follow-up services the home may provide. Many homes also offer continued case management services to their former residents.[5]
The constant presence of home staff offers residents many opportunities for informal lessons on the skills needed to parent and live independently. In addition, some of the required chores are specifically designed to give residents a chance to practice these skills. Still, most maternity group homes — and all of those visited for this study — also offer formal instruction in these areas. Classes covering parenting and life-skills topics are one of the most common support services that homes provide, and attendance at these classes is typically mandatory for all residents.
Such classes can look very different in different homes, however. For one thing, the frequency at which life skills and parenting classes are held varies considerably across homes. Some homes require residents to attend several group sessions each week, while others offer such classes only a few times a month. Programs also differ in the specific topics covered, theuse of standard curriculum across a number of networked homes, and the types of staff involved in leading these classes.
Classes cover a wide range of topics, including nutrition, child development, health, money management, resumes, housing search, self-esteem, anger management, domestic violence, family planning, and sexually transmitted diseases. Some homes organize their classes in a single series that combines all parenting and life skills, covering a different specific topic at each session. Other homes offer a few separate series, each covering a different broad topic area (such as one on parenting and another on life skills), so that residents attend a number of different classes each week or month. For example, a common pattern is to hold a parenting class one night a week and a life-skills class another night. Also, some homes have regular house meetings that may include discussion of parenting and life skills topics.
Some networks have selected a single curriculum for parenting or life-skills classes to be used in all their homes. For example, all homes in Georgia’s network use the Minnesota Early Design (MELD) curriculum, specially designed to teach parenting skills to at-risk adolescent parents. The main objective of the MELD curriculum is to reduce incidents of physical and emotional abuse of children. Homes in Massachusetts’s statewide network use the Preparing Adolescents for Young Adulthood (PAYA) curriculum — developed by the Massachusetts Department of Social Services (MDSS), which includes sections specifically for teen parents and is used across the state to teach life skills to adolescents in MDSS care — supplemented by more hands-on lessons and sometimes external speakers. Other homes decide on their own which specific life skills and parenting topics to cover, and in what format.
Some homes rely on their own staff to teach parenting and life-skills classes, while others bring in partners to fill these roles. Homes may have a single partner teach an entire series of classes, or they may use a different partner to lead each session, thus providing residents with access to an expert on each specific topic (and avoiding burdening any one partner too much). A few homes pay partners, but most are volunteers — often employees of other organizations with missions to provide such services. (Types and roles of partners are discussed in greater detail in Chapter IV.)
In order to attend school, work, keep appointments, and engage in other activities, young parents need logistical supports such as child care and transportation assistance. While some programs make referrals to connect their residents with outside providers for such supports, others provide logistical supports directly.
Child Care. Maternity group home staff typically assist their residents in obtaining quality child care for their children. Some staff have ongoing relationships with off-site child care providers. Many homes go a step further and directly provide some limited or short-term babysitting. At some homes, staff will watch residents’ children for a short time when residents need a break. (Most try to keep this to a minimum, since the primary responsibility for caring for their children rests with the parents, not home staff.) Other homes provide babysitting services only at specific times, such as during mandatory program activities. A few homes even provide ongoing regular child care while mothers are attending school or work. For example, one home in Michigan and another in Washington are affiliated with organizations that operate day care centers that are free to residents of the home.
Homes in the Georgia network do not provide child care directly, but, because most residents of the Georgia homes are in state custody, the homes do pay for the use of regular day care centers while teens are attending school. In some other states, maternity group homes rely on the fact that teen mothers receiving TANF can get vouchers to pay for child care while they are engaged in certain activities such as school.
Transportation. Some maternity group homes provide transportation for their residents, and typically have vans for this purpose. Homes often limit rides to types of destinations they consider necessary — for example, school, medical appointments, grocery stores, and group outings. Some go beyond this, also driving residents to and from such destinations as parks and malls. Homes in remote locations, such as one in rural New Mexico, may have no choice but to drive residents everywhere they need to go. Homes in the Georgia network must typically do the same, in part because the high level of supervision required by state law generally requires staff to accompany the residents when they leave the home.
Homes without these restrictions often encourage residents to learn to navigate and use the public transportation system in the area, so they will be experienced at doing so when they move out on their own. Such encouragement is especially common at homes in locations where the public transportation system is good, such as in large cities. These homes often assist their residents with transportation costs. Some provide bus tickets or subway passes for residents. A few homes will pay for occasional cab rides home late at night or in case of emergency. Two Washington homes operated by Friend of Youth help pay for gas for those residents who own cars.
The services described above are provided — in one way or another — by most of the homes in this study. Besides these common program features, some maternity group homes provide additional support services. These include mental health and educational assistance to current residents, follow-up services to former residents, and outreach to the fathers of residents’ children.
Mental Health. Some maternity group homes offer mental health services to their residents. A few homes have contracted with psychiatrists to provide therapy for residents; others have licensed therapists or masters-level social workers on staff. The homes we visited in Georgia and Maine tend to place the greatest emphasis on providing mental health services to their residents. Residents of the St. Andre homes in Maine are required to meet with their home’s social worker for at least an hour each week. The social workers at the St. Andre homes also assess the need for mental health services among new residents, and the homes contract with psychiatrists to make house calls for individual appointments. The homes in the Georgia network also make individual therapy available to residents on a weekly or biweekly basis. Some Georgia homes have licensed therapists on staff or use staff of their parent organization, while others contract with a therapist to provide these services, which are paid for out of the group home budget. In Michigan, an organization that formerly operated a maternity group home now provides mental health services — including clinical therapy, infant mental health, and psychological evaluations — to the remaining homes in the network. One home in New York has a clinical psychologist on staff half-time, but staff there noted that many residents were reluctant to see the psychologist.
Residents of other homes are referred to external providers for mental health services. For example, none of the homes in the New Mexico network have staff members trained to provide mental health counseling. Residents of maternity homes in the Massachusetts network are referred to therapists covered by Medicaid. However, staff in some sites noted that mental health services — while important and greatly needed by residents — are expensive and not always available to low-income families outside the homes.
Education Assistance. A few homes provide some type of direct assistance with residents’ education. One large home in New York offers GED classes in a large classroom on-site for residents who are unable to enroll in regular schools in the area. It is somewhat more common for homes to offer tutoring services to their residents, sometimes provided by home staff and sometimes by partners. In one home in New Mexico, for example, tutoring is available to residents seven days a week, and tutoring abilities and subject area coverage are considered when hiring staff. One Michigan home contracts with an external social service organization to provide on-site tutoring to residents twice a week. Some homes in Georgia’s network offer a fixed guided study period on weeknights and will check residents’ homework, and one Georgia home has a special education teacher provide weekly tutoring services on site. Some homes also have computers that residents can use for their schoolwork.
More common than these forms of direct assistance are educational requirements for maternity group home residents. Many homes require residents to actively pursue formal education while residing in the group home. These requirements may be for full-time or part-time activity, and educational requirements can typically be satisfied in a variety of ways, including attending regular or alternative high schools, GED programs, and community colleges. In some cases, the goal of such requirements is to encourage residents to complete high school, while in others it is simply to engage in some type of productive activity. Some homes allow residents — particularly those who have graduated from high school or earned their GED — to pursue employment rather than attending school.[6] However, other homes even require continued education of those who have completed high school.
Follow-Up Services. Many maternity group homes provide some type of follow-up or “aftercare” services to young mothers for some period of time after they leave the residence. Most often these services consist of ongoing case management for about six months after their departure, typically provided by the same staff who did so during their time in the home. Some homes attempt to contact former residents at specific intervals (such as at six months, and then one year, after their departure) to check on them.
A few homes offer some material assistance for young mothers now living on their own. For example, one home in Michigan pays the security deposit and first month’s rent for residents after they leave the home, in addition to helping with grocery shopping and checking in periodically for six months. Some maternity homes in Washington have relationships with a partner organization that provides free furniture and household items for former residents setting up their own households, and one Washington home presents its residents with $1,000 upon completion of the maternity group home program.
Services for Fathers. Some homes provide support services to family members of current residents, particularly the fathers of their residents’ babies. The Massachusetts’ statewide network has a father outreach program that not only encourages fathers to participate in their children’s lives, but assists the fathers in finding employment and other services. Each home in the network has a designated father outreach worker (paid through a special federal grant from ASPE that has recently ended) to contact fathers and provide case management services to them. One maternity group home in New York also offers case management and other services to fathers.
Maternity group homes are intensive, comprehensive support programs for pregnant and parenting young women and their children. The homes visited for this study provide an extensive array of services to the families living there. At the most basic level, all the homes provide secure housing and extensive adult supervision and structure to their residents. They also offer a core set of other support services, including parenting and life-skills lessons and case management. The homes commonly assist their residents in connecting with a variety of outside services and provide logistical supports — such as child care and transportation assistance — to enable them to access additional services outside the home and to attend school, work, and other activities. In addition to these common services, some maternity group homes strive to offer additional services on site, such as mental health services, educational assistance, follow-up services for former residents, and services to the fathers of residents’ children.
Through these intensive programs of comprehensive services, maternity group homes have the potential to benefit disadvantaged young mothers and their children in both the short and long term. As will be seen in the next chapter, however, the cost of providing these services, particularly intensive supervision, can be high.
[1] The high level of supervision in the homes in this study is, in part, by design, since, as discussed in Chapter I, our definition of maternity group homes excluded programs that did not provide substantial supervision to their residents.
[2] In some cases, the strictness of program rules may be related to the specific population served.For example, homes that serve younger teens may have stricter rules than those serving older residents.In addition, some homes serve primarily residents who are in state custody or on probation, or who are required to live in the home as a condition of retaining custody of their child.Because these populations may be considered to need more supervision, the homes that specialize in serving them may have stricter rules.
[3] However, many staff recognize that some residents will be sexually active regardless of any rules against such activity.Homes often include lessons on pregnancy prevention in their life-skills curricula.
[4] Even when a resident is evicted from one home, she is not necessarily barred from other homes in the same network.In Massachusetts, for example, where the state is obligated to place every eligible teen parent, residents who violate program rules can be moved from one home to another until they find a situation that works.
[5] In addition, a few homes provide outreach case management services to other nonresidents, typically pregnant and parenting teens living in other settings who are (a) eligible for, but not interested in, the residential component of the program, or (b) unable to live in the home due to capacity limitations or eligibility requirements.Most of the maternity group homes in New Mexico’s state network provide case management services to nonresident pregnant and parenting teens.In some other sites, the homes themselves do not offer services to nonresidents, but their parent organization does.
[6] Some homes encourage volunteer work for those who are not ready for a regular job.One home even hires residents who have completed high school as interns and pays them minimum wage to perform clerical duties.
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