DANIEL TYLER GOODEN / L’Observateur / October 14, 2000

LUTCHER – Fourteen and one half percent of all pregnancies in St. JamesParish are teen-age pregnancies. That’s what the St. James ParishDepartment of Human Resources found out and what drove officials into action.

After hearing that figure and receiving a memo soliciting proposals for funding requests, immediately the department pulled together its supervisors and wrote a grant for the purpose of reducing the number of teen pregnancies in St. James Parish, said Rachel Louque, planner for DHR.The grant, from the Department of Social Services, Family Planning, would pay $75,000 to form classes, once a week, for males and females who are at high risk of becoming teen-age parents.

If DHR receives the grant the program will begin gathering candidates in November, with the first sessions starting in January. Twice a week, threehours a day, teen-agers will meet at the Head Start classroom at Lutcher High School to discuss obstacles of abstinence, delaying sexual experience and personal responsibility.

The key part of the program is the establishment and focus on a support system around the teens and pre-teens, involving family and peers to help the teen-agers. The whole family will be educated along with the youths. Theparents will be given the education and emotional support to become a mentor and role model for their child, said Louque.

“This is open to the entire family,” added Louque. Day care services will beprovided during the after school sessions, and parents are invited and encouraged to attend.

Outside sources, members from the St. James Parish Hospital, SunriseHuman Development, DSS and other agencies, will be an important part of the sessions. The groups will present different topics relative to teen-agepregnancy that they see or deal with on a regular basis.

“We’re really stressing outside trips,” said Louque. As part of the program,the teens and their families will travel to the bowling alley or dress up for dinner in a nice restaurant.

The program will start out with about 15 kids.

“Our goal is to keep it small and to get their trust,” said Louque.

Partially a pilot program, Louque hopes it will expand over the next few years to include sessions in all parts of the parish. The program is for the wholeparish, but it’s hard for the west bank kids to make it over sometimes, added Louque.

The program opens a whole new door for the Department of Human Resources, being the first program for youth. “We’re hoping this will leadinto whole new directions for us,” said Louque.

Boys and girls, ages 11 to 19, will be invited to the sessions. The targetedteens include at risk youth with poor school performance, low attendance records, drop-outs, those behind a grade level or more, juvenile offenders, current teen parents and anyone referred by social service agencies and the school system, said Louque.

The sessions will be run by a program manager, who will report to the special programs supervisor, Sheila Clayton. Both Human Resources Director DianeBrathwaite and Louque will continually evaluate the program.

“We’re hoping to get funding from the state, but if not we’ll look at other sources. This is a solid project,” said Louque.The state will inform the DHR by Oct. 18 on whether it received the grant ornot.

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