When we tell others about the mission of Madonna’s Center - to serve teens who are
“with child” and without essential support - it often brings to mind the typical
services of unwed mothers. Usually, people instantly think Madonna’s Center is a
crisis pregnancy counseling center or a maternity home or an adoption agency. We
do not offer any of these kinds of services. Why not? Because we serve teens who
have already made the decision to be the parent of their child. We do not enter
into their decision to keep their baby or not. Some of the teens we serve are pregnant
with their first child, while many others have a newborn in arms or a toddler in
tow.
Also, we serve teen dads, along with teen moms. We serve unwed parents, along with
married ones. We serve teen parents who are in school, some who have dropped out,
some who have a place to live, others who are homeless, some who are working and
others who are not. Some are trying to become fully independent, while others try
to rely on persons who cannot adequately support them. All of the teen parents we
serve have in common the need for temporary basic support while they are working
towards self-sufficiency, and raising a child. The daily challenges and seemingly
insurmountable obstacles of all of these teen parents
are the foundational premise behind all of our services.
Madonna’s Center is continually being built upon four cornerstone programs – A Way Inn,
Visitation Volunteers, Mia Mama! and Joe’s Place, which are purposefully developed
to fulfill the unmet physical, emotional and financial needs of teen parents and
their children. Together, these programs help them to secure and maintain a more
stable, safe living environment, achieve educational goals, and/or gain employment
opportunities.
The kinds of services provided by Madonna’s Center are not available to teen parents
otherwise or else they are not eligible to receive services yet through government
agencies, local social services, community organizations, or church groups.
We do not provide any kinds of support that can be readily obtained through other
local resources. However, we do help teen parents identify and access any other
helpful services within Clackamas County or the Portland-Metro area through referral
processes and networking efforts.
Madonna’s Center has intentionally created and designed its services to be teen
user-friendly and flexible, in order to meet their individual needs and specific
circumstances. Some teen parents only need help one time, others need it here and
there, while others need it every week for a few months, until they are able to
handle things better on their own. See what teen parents have said about our services.
Our services can be summed up into a famous quote of Mother Teresa, who said to
“Do small things, with great love” or to put it another way, we do small things
to make a BIG difference in the lives of teen parents within the local community.