Marys Shelter

Core Programs: Housing, Mental Health Therapy, and Supportive Services

Residents are provided safe housing and supportive services. Using a case management model, Mary’s Path provides a comprehensive and compassionate continuum of trauma-informed programs and services to up to 40 pregnant and parenting teens and their babies with a safe place to call home. *Trauma-Informed Therapy facilitates healing from the impact of abuse, abandonment, and violence. Mary’s Path provides therapy services and counseling on site to develop customized treatment plans in response to the scope of trauma experienced by the teens. Resulting trauma includes depression and anxiety; in recent years, there has been a significant increase in higher acuity diagnoses, such as schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder, eating disorders, feelings of extreme guilt, substance use disorder, and bipolar disorder. Treatment may include one-on-one counseling, group therapy sessions, and alternative therapies such as equine, art, poetry, and yoga. *Parenting Skills Coaching uses an evidence-based curriculum comprised of weekly prenatal and parenting classes. A Parenting and Child Development Coordinator teaches the teens practical skills such as feeding an infant, soothing a crying baby, and installing a car seat. Soft skills development is also part of the curriculum, including building healthy relationships, communications, active listening, and becoming a nurturing person. *Life Skills Mentoring allows residents to learn how to live in a family environment and begin to build/rebuild a support system via connections with their friends, family (as appropriate), and community members. In addition to workshops, residents further develop life skills including work and study habits, how to be a good roommate, budgeting, goal-setting, and resumé writing. *Academic Support and Job Readiness helps to ensure high school completion, continuation to college (if desired), workplace skills, and exploration of potential career paths. Attending school is required for every teen while living at Mary’s Path. In partnership with Orange County ACCESS (Alternative, Community, and Correctional Education Schools and Services), Mary’s Path operates Mary’s Academy, an on-site year-round high school. Teen moms may opt to attend Foothill High School in Tustin, CA instead of attending Mary’s Academy. For teen moms who want to continue to a post-secondary school, Mary’s Path will coordinate a tour, enrollment and orientation at Santa Ana Community College or a local four-year university. On-site child care and preschool ensure that children of residents are cared for while they are at school. *Access to Medical and Dental Care facilitates optimal physical health. Mary’s Path’s Medical Coordinator assesses the medical and dental needs of each teen within 30 days of their placement at Mary’s Path and facilitates linkages to providers in the community. Most, if not all, of these teens have never had regular medical and dental care and do not have a medical home. *Aftercare Services helps facilitate successful transitions to independent living. More information regarding Aftercare is provided in the next section. The budget figure provided below reflects the total organizational budget, inclusive of all programs and services.

Aftercare Services

Aftercare helps to sustain healthy behaviors learned at Mary’s Path and facilitates housing stability and mental and physical health when teen moms exit Mary’s Path, as when they exit, their needs do not stop. Aftercare services provide support to ensure that teen moms maintain healthy behaviors, are good parents, have access to the resources that they need, and do not become re-victimized. Aftercare clinicians and case managers assist each exiting teen to develop a transitional living plan to address their goals and review housing options; obtain any required documents such as birth certificates for their babies, social security cards, and driver’s licenses or state identification cards; identify both community resources and public benefits to support independent living; and create a formal Aftercare plan 30 days prior to the planned exit. Mental health and case management services are provided for up to two years following an exit. Los Angeles County has stopped all funding of Aftercare services, and other counties have significantly scaled back support.

Professional Development

To provide the highest quality programs and services that will facilitate positive outcomes for the teen moms who call Mary's Path home, Mary’s Path seeks to ensure a rigorous curriculum of professional development and training for its staff with a focus on best practices in trauma-informed care and support. Trauma-informed care and support is based on recognizing and understanding the impact of trauma on the survivor’s physical, psychological, and emotional well-being. Annually, all Mary’s Path staff are required to complete 40 hours of professional development and training to comply with STRTP regulations. These costs are covered by Mary’s Path’s public contracts. Twenty (20) hours can be completed in-house with content created and delivered by senior staff and consultants with approval from Community Care Licensing, California Department of Social Services (CCL). The remaining 20 hours must be completed externally by vendors approved by CCL. As mentioned previously, in recent years, Mary’s Path has seen a significant uptick in high acuity mental health needs, including but not limited to eating disorders, Substance Use Disorder (SUD), and PTSD, primarily due to the increase in CSEC victimization, requiring additional staff training to ensure that both residential and mental health staff are equipped to meet the complex trauma that each teen mom is experiencing. Professional training topics include behavioral management approaches, social-emotional development, recognizing SUD, “When Survivors Give Birth”, safety, civil rights, sexual and reproductive health, diversity and inclusion, and best and promising practices for working with CSEC survivors. It is also become necessary to bring trainers in to Mary’s Path to provide professional development to all staff at one time rather than sending a small group off-site as training workshops become available. Training on working with CSEC survivors, or diversity and inclusion, as examples, is needed for all staff. The costs for these more advanced training and professional development opportunities are not covered by contracts. The budget below represents incremental costs for the specialized training and professional development.

Child Development and Child Care Program

Mary’s Path provides on-site child care for the babies and young children of its teen moms while they are in school or work, and when they have health or therapy appointments. Staff are versed in best practices in child development and early childhood education to ensure a strong start for each child. Additionally, recognizing the impact of trauma on early childhood development, all child development/child care staff have undergone specialized training in trauma-informed care. The program is under the supervision of Mary’s Path’s clinical director. Each baby's developmental progress is assessed through the evidence-based Ages and Stages Questionnaire. A baseline assessment is created and screenings repeated quarterly. Results are shared with each teen mom. Activities are suggested and goals are set to facilitate positive developmental outcomes for each baby. Outside referrals are made as needed to the Regional Center and other resources. The Child Development and Child Care Program is also coordinated with the Parenting Skills Coaching described in Program 1, Core Services: Housing, Mental Health Therapy, and Supportive Services, to ensure that the teen moms build parenting skills that are aligned with the care that their babies are receiving through the Child Development and Child Care Program. The below budget represents program costs that are not covered by contracts of a total 2025-2026 budget of about $220,000.