He’s a Feisty Little Guy—Two Years Old and Full of Steam

He’s a feisty little guy—two years old and full of steam. He smiles. He waves. He wants to show you the book he’s carrying. His T-shirt says it all. BIG TROUBLE IN A LITTLE SHIRT, the front of it says.

But the bigger trouble happened to his mother. She was a teenager when Big Trouble was conceived. Perhaps because of abuse, perhaps because of neglect, she was referred to St. Ann’s Infant and Maternity Home in Hyattsville. There, she got appropriate pre-natal care and had a safe place to live before and after Big Trouble was born.

Teenage pregnancies have always been a major social problem, but no agency anywhere has done as much to ease the situation—for both mother and child—as St. Ann’s.
The home celebrates its 150th anniversary in 2010. It was chartered by no less than Abraham Lincoln, in 1863. It offers about 20,000 days of care each year across four programs—children’s residential, teen mothers and babies, community child care and a transitional home for older single mothers who are working toward self-sufficiency.

United Way of the National Capital Area has been a partner of St. Ann’s for decades. Although UWNCA donors provide only about six percent of St. Ann’s annual non-foundation charity dollars, United Way support is “critical,” said Sister Mary Bader, St. Ann’s CEO.

Indeed, 100 yards before you arrive at St. Ann’s front door, you see a familiar red and white sign that says, UNITED WAY—WORKING HERE.
“There’s always a gap,” said Lisa Sheehan, St. Ann’s director of development. “United Way helps us make it up.”

Once upon a time, Sister Mary said, teenage pregnancy was treated in only one way—by quarantining the mother and unborn child and semi-pretending that the pregnancy never happened.

In today’s Washington area, she said, “all of our teenage Moms are victims of poverty.” That can cause families to spiral into drug and alcohol abuse—which increases the likelihood that young girls will lack supervision and self-esteem and become sexually active. Once pregnant, these teenagers often leave school—and only later discover how difficult it is to get a job without an education.

As a result, St. Ann’s runs—and has always run—a full-service high school. While their children are attending day care elsewhere at St. Ann’s, teenage mothers and mothers-to-be are cracking the books. On one recent morning, a music teacher was showing a teenage mother how to navigate the Internet in search of a job. A math teacher was planning lessons. In an English class down the hall, one young mother was reading aloud from a novel.

If United Way donors gave more money, Sister Mary said she’d probably spend it on “unfunded pregnant girls who aren’t referred here through county or city agencies.” She hears from such mothers-to-be “every single day,” Sister Mary said. It’s a testament to how long St. Ann’s has helped such young people, and how well.