Fristers

Fristers is dedicated to helping teen and young parents build healthy and stable lives and families through educational classes and workshops, mentoring, case management, and the support of a caring community.

Driven by her own experience with teen pregnancy, Ali Woodard, President and CEO, founded Fristers in 2008 to provide much-needed support for adolescent mothers. “Fristers,” a name derived from the phrase “friends and sisters,” later expanded to include programming for children, fathers, and young parent couples. Since inception we have impacted more than 5,000 young parents and children in Orange County, increasing mental health, educational, and economic outcomes, and helping to prevent domestic violence, child abuse and neglect.  With Fristers support, young parents are graduating high school, enrolling in college and vocational training, securing and maintaining employment, and learning how to be responsible, caring parents, children are improving their developmental, social, and educational gains, couples are building healthy relationships, and families are being strengthened.  

Serving Orange County, California since 2008, Fristers is a faith-based organization that supports the youngest and most vulnerable families in our communities. Using an innovative, two-generation model of care they address the unique challenges faced by adolescent parents and their children, aiming to break cycles of poverty and abuse, and build healthy and stable lives, families and futures.

Family is almost certainly the most important influence in a child's life. From their first moments of life, children depend on parents and family to protect them and provide for their needs. Yet adolescent parents are not equipped for this role.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, only 50% of teenage mothers receive a high school diploma, leading to high rates of unemployment, poverty and reliance on public assistance. They are often isolated with little to no support, and face increased risk for postpartum depression, domestic violence, child abuse and neglect. Many teenage fathers have been the product of teenage pregnancy themselves. Many have grown up without a father in their life. They often deal with complex identity changes, experience significant financial hardship, require legal advice for maintaining contact with their child, need male-tailored parenting advice, and need healthy relationship skills to improve the relationship with the child’s mother. Children born to adolescent mothers are likely to have fewer skills and be less prepared to learn when they enter kindergarten, have behavioral problems and chronic medical conditions, higher rates of foster care placement, be incarcerated at some time during adolescence, drop out of high school, give birth as a teen, and be unemployed or underemployed as an adult.

Teenage pregnancy costs U.S. taxpayers about $11 billion per year due to increased health care and foster care, increased incarceration rates among children of teen parents, and lost tax revenue because of lower educational attainment and income among teen mothers.

Greater Orange County

We want to reach every vulnerable young parent in Orange County to provide the education and support that will lead them into a healthy and productive life, full of hope for their future and hope for the future of their child.  As I look back on these past years, I know we have made significant strides in this direction. This is due to our incredible team of board members, employees, interns and volunteers, our church and school partners, donors and supporters, and the community of businesses, restaurants and agencies that have come alongside us in fulfilling our mission.  But we can't stop now. There are thousands of young families in need that don't have a Fristers in their community. We have programs that work. We can help. As you review our profile, I hope you will be enlightened to the tremendous need for our organization in Orange County, excited by the growth we have experienced, and motivated to help us not only continue, but expand our work throughout the County. Do you know what Fristers stands for? Friends and sisters. Fristers is a community of people helping people. It's not charity...it's human investment.