Pregnant teens often face hardships.
Teenage motherhood is often associated with social stigmas, and as the National Center for Health Statistics notes, it has also been a subject of long-standing concern among the public and policy makers. Unfortunately this social stigma frequently leads to negative outcomes; such as a pregnant teen or a new teen mother being evicted from her parents' home, or her high school ostracizing her. These negative outcomes are precisely why your desire to start a group home for teens and their kids, also know as a maternity home, is a meaningful mission to bring needed assistance to a vulnerable population.
Instructions
1. Determine the need for a facility in the region where you desire to operate one. Check your state's teenage birthrate and talk with agencies you would expect to refer teen clients to your group home, such as your local juvenile court and public school system. Consider how many other maternity group homes are in your area, find out if they are operating at capacity or normally have vacancies. Assess how your temperament, experience, education, and professional network prepare you for the diverse skills that operating a group home requires.
2. Create a business plan that takes important operating details and policies into consideration. Investigate costs for your region such as the costs to rent or purchase a facility. Determine your group home's maximum capacity. Learn the permits and licenses you will be required to obtain by your local, state, and federal regulatory agencies. For example, a group home in North Carolina must be licensed by the state's Department of Health and Human Services, and it is a misdemeanor to operate without a license.
3. Form a corporation through which you will operate your teen maternity home, offer services, and employ qualified workers. A corporation, especially a not-for-profit corporation, will protect your personal assets from the liability of running the home. Not-for-profit status may make qualifying for federal or state grants easier in addition to empowering you to solicit public donations.
4. Determine the services and support your facility will offer and the level of staffing necessary to provide those services. Operating a maternity home for teens raises questions like: how will your teen clients and their babies receive medical care? Your home's proximity to a hospital with a quality maternity and pediatric care is crucial. Similarly, teens are normally high school students and many states have compulsory education laws on the books. Operating a teen maternity home may require you to answer the question of how your teen tenants and their kids will receive an education while residing in your home.
5. Acquire and refurbish a facility for your teen maternity home. Hire staff in compliance with both the employment laws of your state and agency-mandated staffing levels. Get liability insurance. Ensure you fulfill the regulatory criteria to start accepting clients. Begin advertising your services to potential referral partners like juvenile court and school counselors. Accept your first residents.
Tags: maternity home, your teen, group home, teen maternity, teen maternity home, group home, high school