For more than 30 years, Arkansas Coordinated Child Effort in State Services (ACCESS Inc.) has worked to combat the rising teen pregnancy rate in Southeast Arkansas.
The agency is still fervent in its efforts to reach as many pregnant and parenting teens as possible as it seeks clients for its newest service, the Thrive Home Visitation Program.
Funded by the Arkansas Children’s Trust Fund, Thrive is a voluntary home visiting program for pregnant and parenting teens and young women up to age 19 that is based on the Healthy Families America model.
Annie Jasper, executive director of ACCESS for eight years, said there are three components to the Thrive program.
One component is the parent support group, which provides participants the opportunity to meet and connect with other young parents.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
“The focus is to normalize parenting experiences, reduce social isolation and help them make meaningful connections with one another,” Jasper said.
The parent child interaction component, Jasper said, provides participants with the opportunity to learn new ways to play and interact positively with their children and support healthy attachment, growth and development.
The third component, the social activity group, provides participants the opportunity to meet young parents in a purely social setting.
“That’s what we provide for them as well,” she said. “When we do our group meetings sometimes we schedule speakers and sometimes it’s just to socialize. It lets them know too that they are not alone in the situation that they are in. And then they can talk about different things that work for their babies, parenting tips and things of that nature,” Jasper said.
The Thrive program, which uses the Parents As Teachers curriculum, also offers assistance and support for completing high school and meeting other educational and/or employment goals; help obtaining assistance and accessing other community resources, as needed; transportation to prenatal and well-baby checkups; and assisting the family in developing and planning goals for themselves and their children.
“We even help them find jobs,” Jasper said. “We take them to the interviews and sometimes even have to take them to work a few times before they get transportation set up.”
Jasper said the agency also has a partnership with Ephesus Christian Bookstore.
“Dr. Margarette Williams has a nonprofit organization, Leaps Initiative, and one of the program that’s under that umbrella, the Academic Technology and Assessment Center, provides career development and job training for us,” she said.
Home Visitors
Home visits are conducted weekly, bi-weekly or monthly, based upon the need of the client and ACCESS currently has three staff members who provide home visits.
According to Jasper, the home visitor provides the key to the success of the program.
Christen Shelton, a 2008 graduate of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, began as an intern with ACCESS and is now employed as a home visitor.
Shelton explained that during parenting classes and group meetings, they talk with the girls about stress, managing money and job training, and that visits with clients sometimes go outside the home.
“We go to the high schools and eat lunch with them. We just try to teach them how to bond and play with their children,” she said.
Karla Brice, also a 2008 graduate of UAPB, and Mary Davis are also employed as home visitors for the agency.
Jasper said she has a “top-notch” staff and that work ethic, loyalty, integrity and confidentiality are the characteristics that make them most effective.
“When they go into the homes (home visitors), they come back and they talk to us — the staff. We talk among ourselves about the situation,” she said. “We don’t put the girls down. We don’t put their business out there. What they tell us stays right here at ACCESS,” she said.
“They (clients) have the utmost respect for my staff. They come up, they visit, they talk with them and they tell them what’s going on in their lives. It’s just amazing the relationships that they have with them.”
Jasper said the agency’s services can be effective in helping to delay a second pregnancy.
“In some instances (the program is effective). It just depends on the person and how motivated they are and how much moral support they get from their parents and others. You know that’s what it takes to avoid a second pregnancy,” she said.
“Our second pregnancy rate is about 4 in 10 girls. If we have 10 girls then, maybe four of those will have a second pregnancy.”
“We work with clients basically for three years … and after that three years they either lose interest or they are beyond the age that we work with. Right now we are trying to recruit to get girls in,” Jasper said.
Jasper said the agency has never struggled with recruiting clients for its services.
“The girls have always been here through word of mouth or through referrals from JRMC, the Health Department, from schools, then from family members and friends.”
She said they also receive referrals through the juvenile justice system.
“We’re just trying to work with as many girls as we can,” she said.
Jasper said there are currently 34 girls active in the program, but the goal is to reach 80 clients.
About ACCESS Inc.
ACCESS Inc., established in 1978, is a partner agency of United Way of Southeast Arkansas. Over its 33-year span, the agency has provided prenatal, parenting and sexuality education classes to approximately 5,000 pregnant and parenting teens up to age 19. During 2011, the agency served approximately 620 area teens with prevention education information. Approximately 100 to 120 pregnant and parenting teens up to age 19 were provided with home visitation, parenting enhancement, counseling services, pregnancy prevention strategies, referrals and emergency baby care.
ACCESS, Inc. distributes diapers and formula to clients on an as need basis only. A clothes closet is also housed in the ACCESS building for the children of the clients, in which it serves.
ACCESS, Inc. also has a health education program which reduces the risk of pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases in teens through the implementation of at least one of the programs that has been proven to work by the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Ga. The programs are Making a Difference (abstinence-based), Be Proud Be Responsible, and Making Proud Choices. The Health Education Program is presented to area schools, church youth groups, and other organizations that serve youth in Jefferson County.
ACCESS Inc. also has a Health Education Lending library that loans videos, parenting curriculum, and prevention type materials to the community.
For more information about the Thrive program or any ACCESS services contact Jasper at 870-535-1302.