They are moving ahead with their lives by finishing school, acquiring job skills, and learning to be good parents. Second Chance Homes provide alternatives to the environments of violence and hopelessness in which so many teen mothers grow up. Second Chance Homes residents make social connections with community volunteers, social workers, and other young mothers. Second Chance Homes also build relationships between communities and teen mothers. Members of church groups invite the young families into their homes for Sunday dinners.
Local businesses offer part-time and summer jobs.
Through these interactions, teen mothers learn to deal with a world beyond the neighborhoods in which they grew up. In making these new connections, teens expand their own life options-and those of their children. Early Signs of Success State-run Second Chance Home programs are still fairly new, but already there are signs of success. In New Mexico, less than 1 percent of Second Chance Home residents have become pregnant again while living in the homes. And in Massachusetts, more than half the teens who have left the program have made measurable progress in school, have learned to manage a personal budget, have brought their children's immunizations up to date, have learned appropriate parenting techniques, and know how to avoid repeat pregnancies.