Hope Cottage has received notification from the Office of the Governor, Criminal Justice Division that it will receive $120,000 over 3 years to launch a new program working with teens who are parents or at risk to become parents. The goal of the program, called Teen Mentoring and Prevention (TMAP), is to ensure that teen parents, pregnant teens and at risk teens know how to avoid behaviors that can lead to incarceration, child abuse, neglect and a life of poverty.
“In September 2009, the Dallas Morning News stated Texas has the highest repeat teen pregnancy rate in the entire U.S. and Dallas is the number one city for repeat teen pregnancies in Texas.”, says Hope Cottage CEO, Sonyia Hartwell, MSSW. “Teen pregnancy causes girls to end their schooling, places a strain on social services and reinforces a cycle of poverty. Researchers have concluded that teen pregnancy will increase in the coming decade and the biggest loser in this equation is the child born to and raised by teen parents. These children are at a high risk to be in poor health, drop out of school, experience higher levels of incarceration and become teen parents themselves, thus perpetuating the problem.” Hartwell continues, “This funding is instrumental for Hope Cottage to expand its scope of services to the community and launch new initiatives to support the organization’s mission of building and nurturing strong families.”
Hope Cottage is the oldest nonprofit, nonsectarian adoption agency in Dallas. Since 1918, Hope Cottage has been nurturing and building families through education, counseling and adoption services.
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