Options for Youth graduated its first class of Subsequent Pregnancy Program (SPP) participants at Simpson Academy on June 15. At the end of the first year of the new North Lawndale program, participant outcomes were exceptional.
Among the 25 very young mothers who participated in the North Lawndale Subsequent Pregnancy Program, there were no second pregnancies during the program year. All nine of the participants eligible to graduate received their high school diplomas in June. One SPP participant was Valedictorian and another was Salutatorian of the 2017 graduating class. The guest speaker for commencement was a former SPP graduate, who is currently enrolled at Notre Dame, working toward her JD degree.
In September, 2015, Options for Youth funding was abruptly cut by the State of Illinois. The OFY Board and staff made the strategic decision to not abandon these young mothers, but to rebuild the Subsequent Pregnancy Program one site at a time, beginning with North Lawndale. North Lawndale was chosen to be the first new site because teen birth rates there are among the highest in the city of Chicago. Each year, one quarter (24.3%) of the babies born in North Lawndale are born to 15- to 19-year-olds. This high proportion of teen births in North Lawndale suggests limited access to reproductive health information and services to young people growing up in this community.
With generous support from the Steans Family Foundation, the Chicago Community Trust, and the Allstate Insurance Company, the new North Lawndale Subsequent Pregnancy Program was begun in November, 2016.
