Ray's vision of home for teenage mothers continues to blossom

The Mocha Mama's Coffee shop: in front of Mountain Home Montana on South Avenue West in Missoula provides job training for the teen mothers living at the home.
BILL SCHWANKE/Missoula.com

By BILL SCHWANKE of Missoula.com

Several years ago Gypsy Ray made a decision that has impacted her life and the lives of many others.

Having grown up in Missoula, Ray went to the University of Montana to major in accounting but changed her mind after two years.

"(I) realized I would have a tough time changing the world from behind a desk," Ray said.

While thinking about becoming a probation officer, she discovered social work as another possibility. During an internship program, she realized she wanted to work with young children. That, in turn, led to working with teen moms, and Ray saw a huge need for housing.

"I was working for about six years doing home visiting and meeting young moms in very terrible places," Ray recalled. "In buildings, in cars and things like that, and (I) really saw the need to build a home."

Mountain Home Montana sprung to life seven years ago as a place for teenage mothers facing homelessness either through becoming too old for foster care, having lived on the streets for most of their lives or being abandoned by their families, among other things.

The facility on South Avenue West actually serves the entire state as one of only two facilities in Montana serving teenage mothers. Ray, the executive director of the program, said only about 50 percent of the young women using the facility actually comes from the Missoula area.

Located close to Community Medical Center on an acre donated by a Missoula resident, the Mountain Home facility has six bedrooms, four bathrooms and a lot of common areas including a kitchen, dining room and play room, plus staff offices.

Each mother has her own room.

While the national and Montana teen pregnancy rates have gone down since 1990, Ray said the drops have been miniscule. She said about 11 to 12 percent of all pregnancies are teen mothers.

"That's too high," Ray said.

The Mountain Home Montana program is voluntary, meaning the mother has to be invested in it.

"If you want to live in this program and comply with our rules you can live here," Ray explained.

The mother must be from 14 to 19 years of age, and pregnant or already parenting. Ray said the biggest requirement is that it's a drug- and alcohol-free program. So far Mountain Home Montana has worked with other agencies to get help for clients struggling with addictions.

In addition mothers in the program must go to school, do chores, abide by a curfew and meet with professional counselors and social workers. That includes prenatal care professionals and well-baby checkups for their children.

"We believe that if our moms can get their basic education . . . either a high school diploma or GED . . . they're gonna have that much better of a chance to succeed after they move out of the program," Ray said.

There also are parenting, life skills and childbirth classes at the home. This fall Mountain Home Montana will start doing its own chemical dependency program.

In 2006 the program had 75 referrals. With just six beds that obviously means there is a large waiting list, so young girls are turned away on a regular basis.

"Rather than building a big facility - which is what we've hesitated to do because we like to keep the home model where it's very much run like a family - we're actually interested in helping other communities start programs like this," Ray said.

While some of the young mothers have families outside the facility, Mountain Home Montana also provides group activities such as baseball or football games through the generosity of Missoulians.

Ray said six also seems to be a magic number in terms of the young mothers supporting each other.

"The older moms are typically further along in their development and able to offer support to their younger roommates," Ray noted. "But also being able to serve both pregnant and parenting teens in the same home is really exciting because the young moms who are pregnant have no idea what's coming and get the chance to watch other moms model parenting."

Ray said clients often help each other with babysitting, chores, cooking and even homework.

After the first three years the Mountain Home Montana staff conducted a follow-up study through the UM social work department and plans to do another after 10 years of operation.

"The thing about the work that we do . . . is that you're really gonna see progress in baby steps," Ray said. "Having moms have healthy babies is a really important outcome for us. Having moms finish school is a healthy outcome for us.

"We're not expecting necessarily to have our moms in law school in the next four years," she added.

One goal is that the young moms move into their own apartments when they leave the program. After six months Mountain Home staff visits them to see how things are going.

Ray said about 90 percent of the clients who move out end up in their own apartments. Some don't succeed and others move into their family home.

One thing Ray finds gratifying is that about 70 percent of their former clients take the time to check back in with Mountain Home Montana on their own.

The facility also is adding in a transition program to make the change go more smoothly for clients when they leave.

"It's really about keeping them in housing and keeping them with their baby and meeting their goals," Ray explained.

Looking back to the beginning of the program Ray said the expectations were to provide a home and support with parenting, what she now calls "very naïve goals." What they learned was that about 70 percent of their clients were struggling with addiction and the number of girls who needed the service was so high.

"We didn't really anticipate the relationship we were gonna build and the family (atmosphere) we were gonna create," Ray added. "(And) how much they would need us for the long term. Lessons learned, for sure."

The staff at Mountain Home Montana has grown from six to 20 as programs have been added.

In addition to the home itself there is the Mocha Mommas Coffee Shop in front of the building staffed by the teen mothers as a job-training program.

Besides Ray there is a house manager who is working toward a master's degree in social work and a case manager with a bachelor's degree who advocates for the clients and helps them get connected and keep meeting their goals.

The rest of the staff makes it possible to have someone in the building 24 hours a day. Many of them are students at UM. Some are former clients who return and try to give back.

Ray also boasts about her 11-member board of directors which was created before the home opened. She was part of that original board in 1998 and applied to be executive director from that position.

"They are a very involved board of directors, definitely not the rubber stamp kind," Ray said.

Mountain Home Montana gets some federal funding from HUD grants - about half of the total - and recently became a United Way agency. So roughly half of its funding comes from private sources.

Mountain Home Montana executive director Gypsy Ray: shows one of the rooms used by teen mothers staying at the facility in Missoula.
BILL SCHWANKE/Missoula.com

Mountain Home's major fundraiser is the annual Festival of the Trees. The home also does smaller fundraisers throughout the year.

The coffee shop opened in 2005 and helped overcome babysitting and transportation barriers for the teen moms.

"They learn everything from cashier and customer service to coffee preparation and inventory, opening, closing," Ray said, noting that the program was started through a donation from a former client's father.

On average - out of six teen moms at the facility at any given time - only one of the fathers is around, and is usually young as well. Ray said nationally fathers in teen pregnancies tend to be at least four years older, meaning it's not appropriate to have them around.

Many of the teen mothers are abandoned by the father.

"If he is involved, we do encourage him to come to our parenting classes and life skills classes," Ray said, "and be as much a part of his baby's life as is appropriate."

As for the future, Ray said the Mountain Home Montana board has plans to build apartments and a community center on the remainder of its property to provide an easier transition for clients.

"We think that will increase the success rate of independent living," Ray said.

Another goal is to continue to pursue helping other communities start their own programs.

"We are very blessed because a home and land was given to us," Ray pointed out. "That would take a lot of fundraising . . . if we had to do that all over again.

"But I do believe . . . that kids should stay in their own communities and that's (why) I'd like to see some of the major cities in Montana duplicate the type of program we're running," Ray went on. "And if that means we do it or we help them do it, it really is my goal."

For more information: 541-HOME (4663) or http://www.mountainhomemt.org

AUDIO LINK - Click here to listen to the entire interview about Mountain Home Montana.