Mary's Path

Believing in the value of every life, Mary’s Path empowers vulnerable teen mothers in foster care and their babies to create lives of dignity, hope and self-sufficiency. Our North Star – the guiding principle for all that we do – is that the moms and babies we serve always come first. We are guided by what serves them best.

History: Mary's Path was founded in 1985 to provide a safe home for pregnant and parenting teens who lacked family support. After purchasing a house, Mary's Path opened its doors in 1994 to six pregnant teens supported through case management. In 1997, two new homes were built at its current location, licensed for 16 teens and 12 babies at any given time. Today, Mary's Path is nationally accredited by the Council on Accreditation and licensed as a Short-Term Residential Therapeutic Program (STRTP) facility by the State of California. Mary's Path provides safe housing, trauma-informed and healing-centered mental health therapy, and other supportive services for up to 40 teen moms each year from the foster system across Southern California. More than 90% are survivors of Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC).

Programs and Services: All programs and services are trauma- and evidence-informed, delivered in a supportive, nurturing environment that is healing-centered and culturally respectful of each teen mom's diverse background. In addition to safe housing, services include trauma-informed therapy, parenting skills coaching and child development support, life skills mentoring, academic support and job readiness training, access to medical and dental care, and aftercare services.

Mary's Path also supports the babies of its teen moms, helping ensure regular medical check-ups alongside the coaching on child development and parenting skills. On-site, high-quality, developmentally appropriate childcare is provided while teen moms are in school or at work. Staff may also assist with more difficult processes, family finding, substance use disorder counseling or taking steps toward reunification for those separated from their babies.

Public contracts support roughly 80% of Mary's Path's operations, with the remaining balance provided through philanthropic support.

For 40 years, Mary's Path has provided safe and stable housing, where pregnant and parenting teens from the foster care system can find healing and hope for a better future. Our doors are open to approximately 40 pregnant and parenting teen moms a year.

2025 Accomplishments:
• Safely housed 27 teen moms and 13 babies.
• Provided nearly 6,000 hours of trauma-informed therapeutic services, including Individual Psychotherapy, Crisis Intervention, Intensive Care Coordination, Intensive Home-Based Services, Medication Management, and substance use disorder counseling.
• Ensured that 100% of teen moms consistently attended group and individual therapy sessions; attended school (two graduated high school and one enrolled in college this year); accessed medical/dental resources for themselves and their babies; and attended parenting/life skills workshops.
• 100% of teen moms who were pregnant delivered a healthy, full-term baby (three in 2025–2026).
• Completed nearly 1,000 hours of advanced professional development, licensure and recertification training, and clinical supervision, over and above STRTP licensing requirements.

Current Goals:
• 100% of all teen moms will be assessed within 72 hours of admission using Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) and Youth Outcomes Questionnaire (YOQ) tools, resulting in an individual service plan developed in partnership with each teen mom.
• As scheduled in individual service plans, all teen moms will consistently attend individual and group therapy sessions, medical and health appointments, and parenting classes. "Consistently" is defined as attending at least 75% of scheduled sessions, appointments, meetings, classes, or workshops.
• 100% of teen moms will have help ensuring their babies receive regular well-baby medical check-ups, including all required vaccinations. Of those who are pregnant, 100% will give birth to a healthy baby.
• At least 80% of teen moms exiting Mary's Path will have planned departures and will be offered aftercare services for at least six months.
• 100% of all staff will complete required STRTP professional development requirements and any identified additional specialty training necessary to ensure each teen mom's needs are met.

Aftercare Services: A case manager that is 100% dedicated to Aftercare, and the associated direct expenses needed for successful implementation of this program. All counties have discontinued funding aftercare, necessitating private funding support of this program. $280,000

Specialty Staff Training: Advanced training for high acuity mental health needs continues in response to increasing CSEC victimization and ongoing training in trauma-informed care is provided across the organization, including residential and administrative staff, not just mental health staff. $150,000

Child Development: Additional staff to help ensure greater consistency and continuity of care for babies and allows for greater frequency of individual coaching and mentoring and group classes and workshops. $110,000

Other: Support is needed for costs not covered by public contracts, including the above as well as baby equipment/supplies, transportation, and activities to boost morale and facilitate social connections. $75,000

Mary's Path is located in central Orange County. Annually, Mary's Path provides up to 40 teen moms from the foster system and their babies with a safe place to call home. While housing and services are provided in Orange County, teen moms are referred and placed by Social Services departments primarily from, Orange, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside and Imperial counties.

Our hearts are full of gratitude as we celebrate the 27 teen moms and 13 babies who called Mary’s Path home this past year, including three healthy babies born to teen moms residing with us. Our houses continue to be full of special baby firsts—first smiles, first teeth, first steps and words. It’s always a joy to watch the little ones grow and thrive. We also celebrated many wonderful milestones for our teen moms—two high school graduations, one college enrollment, and two first jobs.

Mary's Path is a special place, filling a unique niche in the care of teen moms from the foster care system. We remain one of only four facilities in the State that has the expertise to work with these teens and address their complex needs. Compared to teen mothers living in other circumstances, those in foster care are more likely to experience substance misuse, depression, anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and suicidal ideation. They also face the same challenges that all foster youth face – incomplete schooling, unemployment, and homelessness.

And they are all learning to become mothers.

Mary’s Path recently added new programs to its continuum of support. New trauma-informed services in Maternal Mental Health, Child Development, Family Finder, and Substance Use Disorder Treatment ensure more comprehensive and compassionate care for our teen moms and babies. We also reinstated our equine therapy program with new partner Otra Mas and 100% of our teen moms participated this past year! We continue to offer our teen moms other evidence-based alternative therapies like art, poetry, and journaling.

It is thanks to supporters like all of you that we can continue to change two lives at a time. Our work is far from over as we work to enable each teen mom to create a life of dignity, hope, and self-sufficiency for herself and her baby. Together we can accomplish our vision that these vulnerable teen moms become loving, caring mothers and raise happy, healthy children.

I am honored to conclude my first year as the Chair of the Board of Directors for Mary’s Path and excited as we begin the new fiscal year. Since my appointment to the Board almost six years ago, I have witnessed Mary’s Path grow firsthand and am humbled to be able to help steward that growth.

As Board members, we are responsible for serving as ambassadors to our community, helping our stakeholders understand the complex needs of the teen moms that we serve and ensuring that programs and services not only meet these needs but are also trauma-informed, healing centered, and culturally humble. We continue advocating for public policies that benefit foster youth and survivors of commercial sexual exploitation including educating the community about the continuing, exponential rise in commercial child sex trafficking throughout the Southern California region. Most importantly, we work hard to ensure that Mary’s Path has the funding and support that it needs to continue to change two lives at a time. We are proud of our committed and skilled staff, who work daily with the teen moms and babies at Mary’s Path to support their healing and help them begin to build healthy and purposeful lives for themselves and their new families.

Mary’s Path continues to be creative and resilient, constantly seeking to improve, update, and enhance its service models to meet the very complex needs of our teen moms and their babies. A heartfelt thank you to all of our supporters.