For Teen Parents: Keeping Hope Alive (Printer Friendly Version)

LYFE, Living for the Young Family through Education, is a program for adolescent parents and their babies, sponsored by the New York City Dept. of Education. It began in 1982 and is currently available throughout all five boroughs in academic high schools, alternative programs, schools for pregnant and parenting teens and GED programs.

LYFE supports the educational goals of young parents by providing developmentally appropriate, educationally based childcare for infants and toddlers, and enhancing parent-child relationships. LYFE centers are staffed by certified early childhood teachers, educational and family paraprofessionals and certified social workers.

The LYFE social worker provides an array of comprehensive services to meet the needs of young parents. S/he acts as a liaison with school and community based programs. S/he provides individual, family and group counseling for the teen parents who wish to continue school. This intervention increases the likelihood that a young child will have the necessary positive nurturing, and that the teen parent will have a rewarding parenting experience.

The LYFE social worker is often seen as a surrogate parent by the teen's family, and often models the type of parenting behavior expected of the students. Social workers often provide an array of non-traditional experiences to broaden the horizons of the teen parent. Activities such as incorporating dance, theater, poetry writing and reading, planning family-style holiday occasions, and taking teen parents on out-of-state college tours are just some of those experiences which can be a “first” for the teen, and can have a tremendous impact. If the teen has never traveled out of state, or never thought that college was an option, the experience of visiting a college campus out of New York can be life changing.

The social worker assists teen parents in making a smooth transition to post-secondary education, maximizes the employability skills of the parent by supporting the pursuit of a sustaining career and assists in finding childcare placement after LYFE. Some of the other less obvious challenges that might confront the teen parent include immigration problems, homelessness, the death or chronic illness of the infant, and domestic violence. The social worker sometimes places him/herself at risk with angry boyfriends, parents and administrators as they work to keep teen parents and babies in school and safe.

Without social work intervention through the LYFE program, the trajectory for teen parents is to drop out of school. Many high school administrators encourage this, and offer no plans for alternative education or childcare. LYFE social workers inform teens and administrators of the teen's rights and responsibilities, and often act as advocates to help the teen obtain those rights.

LYFE is a highly successful and satisfying program for the participating student and staff. Teen parents could be permanently homeless, beaten, deported, unschooled and without services or hope without the LYFE social worker. LYFE gives life.