Helping a teenage mother rebuild her life
At the young age of 13, Natasha Mercado’s life veered into an uncertain and frightening future. She had just delivered her first child.
Natasha Mercado, enjoying family time with her children (l to r) Pierre, Charlize and Jaron at the Parkville Family Center
“I was so young. I was very depressed. I shut everyone out, and I didn’t want to go to school. I didn’t want people to treat me differently,” Natasha remembers.
Despite the support of those closest to her, it felt like no one could truly ease her burden.
But fortunately, help was available in her neighborhood.
Natasha entered the Teen and Young Parent Support program at the Parkville Family Center, a program of Family Life Education. Over the next several years, she learned how to take care of her baby, and how to deal with peer pressure.
Natasha’s determination to further her education is good not only for her, but also bodes well for her children’s futures.
As she got older, she was able to focus more on her own career development, taking classes in interviewing and resumé writing.
“I was very shy, but the program helped a lot with my self-esteem,” said Natasha.
The Parkville Family Center is one of six family centers in Hartford created and supported by the Hartford Foundation’s Brighter Futures Initiative.
Each family center is “a hub of education, nurturing and connectivity in the neighborhood,” said Joyce Bosco, Circuit Rider for the Brighter Futures Family Centers and former director of the Southside Family Center. “They provide a range of services and connect residents to other community-based resources,” with the continuing education of the child and parent as the cornerstone.
“Family centers serve over 1,000 families per year because of the critical funding and technical assistance provided by the Hartford Foundation,” Bosco said.
Independent evaluations of the family centers, which are conducted twice a year, show that families who participate in the centers:
- are better able to meet their family’s basic needs,
- more appropriately nurture and parent their children, and
- are more connected to their community and the other individuals who live in it.
Moreover, children who participate at the centers demonstrate significant increases in their social skills and their ability to work with other children and with adults.
Now 22, Natasha keenly appreciates the benefits she received from participating in her family center - both in terms of her child-rearing abilities and her own personal development.
Family Life Education hired Natasha as a program assistant through AmeriCorps in 2009, and she learned valuable job skills. This internship, which paid her a small living allowance, was her first paying job.
“It was a really good experience for me to know what it was like getting into the workforce and getting up early,” she said. “Now I crave being in the workforce.”
With help from family literacy programs, Natasha earned her GED in 2008. She now attends Capital Community College, where she hopes to major in accounting.
“Natasha’s determination to further her education is good not only for her, but also bodes well for her children’s futures,” said Bosco, “because a mother’s level of education is one of the most important determinants of a child’s success in school.”
In 2009, Natasha and her daughter Charlize both provided testimony at the Children in Recession Task Force Hearing, at the Legislative office Building in Hartford, sharing their personal experiences and the benefits and opportunities they received from being part of the Brighter Futures family centers.
Last March, through a collaboration with Family Life Education and NextGen Leaders, inc., a PeaceJam affiliate, Natasha and other young mothers met Nobel Peace Laureate Adolfo Pérez Esquivel and presented their Call to Action project on teen pregnancy prevention to the region’s youth.
Natasha also now serves on the Parent Advisory Board for the Parkville Family Center.
With new-found confidence, this once-shy girl has discovered her voice. “I’m so much more outspoken,” she said. “I’m not afraid. I can do it on my own.”