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April 28, 2009 · Texas has weathered the recession better than most states, but non-profits that provide important social services are losing funding from foundations and government programs. Seton Home in San Antonio is one such organization that has had to make tough choices to keep their doors open.
Mother’s Day is just around the corner. It’s a time to honor the women who nurtured and cared for us when we were most vulnerable – giving us the tools we needed to be successful and balanced human beings. Being a mom is perhaps one of the toughest jobs around – and it’s even more difficult for teen moms and their children.
Seton Home is a place for teen moms who decide to keep and parent their children despite the enormous challenges that face them. Girls as young as 12-years-old can come here when they’re pregnant, have their children and live here with them here until the age of 20 – learning the skills necessary to be responsible parents on the outside world. Margaret Starkey is the executive director of Seton Home.
“What we’re trying to do is make sure that they finish school and then go on to get some kind of trade – go to college – so that they can later on make enough money to where they can support their family without relying on welfare,” said Starkey.
The facility can house up to 40 moms and their children. It has a licensed daycare onsite where professionals watch the kids while the moms finish their high school education. They live together in community learning how to care for their children. Nearly sixty percent of the girls are referred to the program by State Child Protective Services from places all over Texas. Seton Home also has contracts with county juvenile systems – so the state depends heavily on the program and reimburses Seton Home only a fraction of what it costs to care for the girls. That’s why Margaret Starkey was alarmed when her organization lost nearly three hundred thousand dollars of government money it depended on.
“I ended up having no choice, but to really immediately look at where we could cut expenses. Within a couple of weeks we ended up reducing staff by five full-time positions and two part-time positions,” said Starkey.
Those positions cut included a full-time night manager and a staff therapist who helps the girls deal with a wide range of emotional issues. Tiffany Walker is the full-time therapist who got to keep her job.
“We’re in such intense work loads and it’s so nice to have someone to bounce things off of and to support each other and when you lose that it’s really really hard,” said Walker.
The money that Seton Home lost came from a non-profit called the Texas Pregnancy Care Network based in Austin. For several years they have been contracted out by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to distribute state money to teen pregnancy programs considered alternatives to abortion. Vincent Friedewald is the executive director.
“Seton Home was an organization that came on very early in the program at a time when the funding level was the same as it is today – but when there were much fewer providers,” said Friedewald
By providers – Friedewald means care givers that signed up to receive funding from his program. Seton Home had been receiving a sizable portion of the Texas Pregnancy Care Network’s 2.5 million dollar budget, but Friedewald says more organizations have signed on – without an increase in base funding from federal and state governments.
“So the first priority is not to let up at all in terms of our recruiting efforts. We need to make sure that women across Texas have access to similar types of services that people have at Seton Home. Remember Seton Home – yes – takes a lot of clients and provides great services, but they are just one of many providers that potentially could provide services across Texas,” said Friedewald
So the demand for funding is higher, but the supply has not increased – so someone needs to take a cut. But San Antonio State Representative Mike Villarreal says it shouldn’t be Seton Home. He says the state depends so heavily on the program that officials should find ways to keep it funded.
“There is almost no state oversight on this organization, the Texas Pregnancy Care Network. We have serious concerns – I have serious concerns about why we need to go through them – why we need an intermediary,” said Villarreal.
Villarreal proposed several pieces of legislation that would mandate the Texas Pregnancy Care Network allocate forty percent of its funds to maternity facilities like Seton Home, but those bills failed to survive the appropriations and budget debates in the legislature. While the discussion continues in Austin, Margaret Starkey is still facing financial huge obstacles. But despite the hardship, she says Seton Home will continue to help those teen moms who want to keep and parent their children.
“When you’re 13 – 14 – 15 and you don’t have any kind of family support that you can go to – then I just feel that we have an obligation to help those young moms,” said Starkey. |
