If you build it, they may not be able to get there: The challenges of mentoring teenaged and low-income single mothers through an undergraduate service-learning course
This essay grows out of the experience of teaching a Women’s Studies service-learning seminar entitled “Single Motherhood in the Contemporary U.S.: Myths and Realities.” It identifies the challenges that arose as the professor and her students sought to support the mission of the Family Development Research Program, a grant-funded program designed to provide a variety of mentoring services to teenaged mothers. The article identifies obstacles activist teachers and students are likely to encounter as they partner with social service workers to create ambitious, sustainable programs for young and low-income women. Among the topics discussed are the challenges of bridging class divides, addressing space and funding needs, and dealing with transportation and liability issues. The students designed and implemented a broad range of programs that were useful not only to the teen mothers, but also to several other groups of low-income single mothers, such as those residing at a local homeless shelter and those participating in a PA Department of Welfare-sponsored program. The essay concludes by noting how valuable partnerships between a college and multiple social service agencies can be when one is attempting to build and sustain programs that depend on grant funding. The closing words are given to two teenaged single moms, who speak of the important role these collaboratively designed support programs have played in their personal and academic development.
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If you build it, they may not be able to get there: The challenges of mentoring teenaged and low-income single mothers through an undergraduate service-learning course
Byrd, D. (2007) "If you build it, they may not be able to get there: The challenges of mentoring teenaged and low-income single mothers through an undergraduate service-learning course." Journal of the Association for Research on Mothering 9 (1): 111-24.