Changing the Woman, Saving the Child Barbara Thomas
Barbara Thomas is Executive Director and Founder of the North
Baton Rouge Women's Help Center (NBRWHC)
In 1992, my husband and I started a crisis pregnancy center in Baton Rouge,
Louisiana to provide services to teenage girls and women in crisis due to
unplanned pregnancy, and to address other related crises such as lack of food,
shelter, clothes, etc.
Among the many programs offered at the center are:
A Shepherding Parent(s) Program, which provides temporary
or long term housing for displaced mothers. It also allows mature individuals
to volunteer their homes to temporarily house a pregnant client who has no place
to live.
A GED Program which allows pregnant teens, young mothers with
children to continue their education as oppose to dropping out of school. Clients who
take part in this program can receive their high school equivalency diploma or improve
their basic skills in reading, math or language.
Extended Discipleship Programs provide young women with the nurture
and encouragement needed to mature in all aspects of her life. Our Share Support
Group, which uses the Free Me To LiveBibie Study , Let's Get You Equipped, Heart to Heart, and the Young
Married Support Group provides a group atmosphere suitable for women in distress
as a result of life's dominating problems.
A Baby Basket Program, which provides maternity clothes, baby
clothes , and food to expectant mothers.
These programs provide total support to the woman so she can cope with her responsibilities in positive ways. They literally equip the client with what she needs to
feel good about herself and have her baby. NBRWHC's goal is to offer alternatives
which will assist her in a decision to have her baby.
We have adopted a slogan around our center that says, "We Are Changing
Women From the Inside Out." In order to save the child, we must save the woman.
We must try to meet her at her point of need. If we say that we are pro-life, let us show
it in our actions.
