Any parent can tell plenty of war stories about the trials and tribulations of caring for a newborn or a toddler but imagine you're a single teenage mom trying to juggle the acts of child rearing and completing high school.
Even Wonder Woman would need some help.
For more than 20 years, the Prince George and District Elizabeth Fry Society (EFS), in partnership with School District 57, has been running a young parent program to address those very challenges. While young mothers work on getting their Dogwood diplomas in one room, their children are getting the supervision and some early education of their own in a daycare next door.
Kayla Turcotte and Shady Dack, both 19 years old and mothers of two-year-old boys, are beginning to feel like they have a future as they near the end of the time they've been diligently going to class and learning parenting skills.
"I'm actually getting something done," Turcotte said. "I've been able to finish my Grade 10, 11 and pretty much my Grade 12 in a year and a half."
Both had trouble fitting into the usual high school environment and soon found themselves dropping out and getting pregnant.
"I found high school very hard to concentrate in," Dack said. "In high school there are so many different groups and drama and here we're just a bunch of girls."
At EFS, the scene is much calmer and they can work at their own paces. Along with the reading, writing and arithmetic, they also get help with parenting and other lifeskills.
"If we have any questions about parenting, they'll always have a good answer," said Dack, who noted a child psychologist was brought in the other day to talk about strategies to get toddlers to sleep.
The program is for teen moms with children four weeks old to three years old. The school district provides a teacher, a youth care worker and a teaching assistant and EFS supports an infant and toddler daycare, two outreach workers and a family development worker. The daycare is large enough for a dozen children who are under the eye of three daycare workers.
There are currently 68 participants who come in on various days and for varying hours.
Ruth Mason has been the teacher since 1997 and finds the job rewarding.
"I've always been interested in teen moms," she said. "There's a real prejudice against teen moms and I think they should have every opportunity to get their education."
Some have no more than a Grade 7 education and battle substance and poverty issues and just a lack of confidence, but once they get themselves into a stable situation, they're great learners, Mason said.
"It's really hard for them, it's not a party, and yet they can laugh," said Mason, whose pupils range from 14 to 19 years old and are on individualized programs. It's much like teaching in a one-room school.
While the moms are working on their courses, the children are also learning some skills of their own - notably sign language as a way to let moms know what they need without having to cry and scream as youngsters still developing their verbal skills are wont to do.
The provincial government recently announced an increase of the per-pupil subsidy EFS and the 43 other agencies who deliver the program to about around the province receive by $150 to $1,000 per month effective March 1.
It came as welcome news for program coordinator Shannon Smith.
"It recognizes the fact that we have a highly specialized service and supports us in continuing to provide that service at a high quality," she said.
Teen moms and social agencies responsible for delivering the program across the province welcomed the increase but the opposition NDP made much of the fact the increase was announced in front of a location in Victoria that nearly closed nine months ago because of a 43 per cent cut to their budget.
A second location in the area didn't survive the initial cut and has since closed, they noted. Programs have also been shut down in Smithers and Terrace.
In all, the program costs the province $1.7 million a year. There are 815 program-designated childcare spaces across the province. In 2009-10, about 400 were occupied by children whose parents were in the program and the rest were filled by other children in the community.
"To have high-quality health care for children under the age of three is a very challenging thing in Prince George," said Smith. "And they have the opportunity to have not only great childcare but childcare providers that can support them in any childcare issues or any childcare challenges that they're experiencing."
