Marys Shelter

Mary’s Path’s mission statement is: “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 and Overview: Mary’s Path was founded in 1985 to provide a safe home for pregnant and parenting teens who lacked family support. Funds were raised to acquire a house, and Mary’s Path opened in 1994 to six pregnant teens who were supported with case management. In 1998, two new homes were built at its current location, licensed for 18 teens and 12 babies at any given time. Today, Mary’s Path is nationally accredited and licensed as a Short Term Residential Therapeutic Program (STRTP) facility by the State of California. Licensed for 16 teens and 12 babies on any given day, Mary’s Path provides safe housing, trauma-informed and healing-centered mental health therapy, and other supportive services to up to 40 teen moms each year from the foster system. 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 and nurturing environment. Mary’s Path also ensures that all programs and services are healing centered, and culturally respectful of the diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds of each of its teen moms. In addition to safe housing, services include trauma-informed therapy; parenting skills coaching and child care; life skills mentoring; academic support/job readiness; access to medical/dental care; and after-care services.

Mary’s Path also supports the babies of teens. While residing at Mary’s Path, all teen moms are assisted with ensuring regular medical check-ups for their babies, and are provided on-site high quality, developmentally appropriate child care while they are in school or working part time. Staff may also assist with more difficult activities, such as initiating adoption processes or taking steps toward reunification for those who may have been separated from their babies.

Public contracts support roughly 80% of Mary’s Path’s operations, with the balance supported by charitable grants and individual donations.

Accomplishments:

*Safely housed 30 teen moms and 25 babies during the 2024-2025 fiscal year.
*Provided more than 6,200 hours of trauma-informed therapeutic services, including Individual Psychotherapy, Crisis Intervention, Intensive Care Coordination, and Intensive Home Based Services.
*Ensured that 100% of teen moms consistently attended group and individual therapy sessions; attended school (three graduated high school and two enrolled in college this year); accessed medical/dental resources for themselves and for their babies; and attended parenting/life skills workshops.
*100% of teen moms who were pregnant delivered a healthy, full-term baby (eight in 2024-2025).
*Completed more than 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 the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) and Youth Outcomes Questionnaire (YOQ) tools, resulting in an individual service plan.
*As scheduled in their individual service plans, at least 75% of all teen moms will attend all their individual and/or group therapy sessions; attend all their medical and health appointments; attend all their parenting classes; and demonstrate their commitment to Mary’s Path’s parenting guidelines by signing, and adhering to, its ‘Safe and Healthy Parenting Policy” standards.
*100% of teen moms will have help to ensure that their babies have 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 the teen moms exiting Mary’s Path will have planned departures and will be offered after-care services 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.

The following represent most pressing needs and estimated costs for 2025-2026.

Aftercare Services: Case manager and direct expenses needed for successful implementation of Aftercare services provided to teen moms up to two years once they exit Mary’s Path. $245,000

Specialty Staff Training: Due to increasing CSEC victimization, advanced training for high acuity mental health needs (depression, Substance Use Disorder, and PTSD) is required. $120,000

Helping Teen Moms Feel at Home: Staff plans a full range of life activities leading to better outcomes for all. Activities include family outings to the zoo, personal wellness activities, or simply throwing a birthday party for their baby. $127,000

Alternative Therapies: Mary’s Path has seen positive outcomes from equine, art, poetry, and yoga therapies, such as building patience and trust, self-regulation, and caring for others. $60,000

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 Los Angeles, Orange, Imperial, San Bernardino, and Riverside counties.

Our hearts are full of gratitude as we celebrate the 30 teen moms and 25 babies who called Mary’s Path home this past year, including eight healthy babies born to teen moms residing with us. Our houses were full of special baby firsts—first smiles, first teeth, first steps and words. It’s been a joy to watch the little ones grow and thrive. We also celebrated many wonderful milestones for our teen moms—three high school graduations, two college enrollments, 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 are 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.

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.

It has been an honor and a privilege to serve as the Chair of the Board of Directors for Mary’s Path for the past four years. During my tenure, I have witnessed Mary’s Path’s tremendous growth first-hand and am humbled to be a part of the organization’s Board to help steward that growth.

While statistics continue to show a rise in teen pregnancy in the foster care system in California, there is also significant growth in ways to combat this epidemic. We continue to develop new programs to add to our continuum of comprehensive and compassionate trauma-informed services to help facilitate each teen mom’s healing journey. We are also working hard to increase awareness about the commercial sexual exploitation of children, including advocating for state legislation that benefits foster children and those that have been commercially sexually exploited. 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.