It’s life-saving to be able to rely on yourself

Young mother Teagan is in no doubt about where she might be if she hadn’t joined Red Cross’ Young Parents Program. 

“It is life-saving,” she says. “I don't know where I would be, honestly. It's well and good to rely on family and friends but to be able to actually finally be able to rely on yourself, it's life-saving.” 

Teagan came to the program as a 16-year-old mother of two. As soon as Red Cross placed her in an apartment, she started to flourish. After an extremely difficult Year 10, she has thrown herself into further studies, and is working hard to improve her parenting skills and live independently. 

“It’s given me a second chance at life, honestly, and second chance at having a family,” she says, as her bouncing 14-month-old happily plays nearby. 

It would be hard to find a better example of a young person who has transitioned from directionless teenager to a super-motivated young woman. 
 
Teagan has been with her partner Adam since she was 13. Together they’re sharing all the joys, struggles and lessons, not only of parenting, but of growing up. 
 
Adam works full time and Teagan is so driven to build a better future that she is studying two TAFE courses. She puts in a 12-hour day each Monday to study Community Services, and a 15-hour day each Wednesday on a Pathology Collection qualification. Until recently, she also travelled up to two hours by bus to get to Red Cross group sessions each Friday. She’s just applied to study nursing at University next year and is already excited at the prospect of the doors this will open. 
 
Teagan has recently achieved another milestone – gaining her driver licence. Red Cross provided five paid lessons, and she now has her own car, helping her to be even more independent. 
 
Teagan says she still finds it hard to believe she’s talking about going to University, when a few short years ago, during a very hard Year 10, she had resigned herself to a future of work at a fast food outlet. 
 
“I’m a lot more confident than I was. I used to have severe anxiety to the point where I couldn’t leave the house, I could barely leave my bedroom. Now I can pretty much go and talk to anyone. I'm comfortable in crowds. I can go out and socialise. Now I just fit in really well and that’s really probably something since having to be social with the Red Cross program,” she says. 
 
Her case manager Morgan has noticed Teagan’s incredible growth. 
 
“Teagan, today, is motivated to do everything and wants to make sure everything’s done right away. She's a perfectionist. Just doing case plans with her, instead of having a few simple goals that she can achieve over three months, Teagan will want to put everything out there and she’ll want to achieve 50 goals in that time.” 

Teagan says one of the biggest hurdles comes from complete strangers. 
 
“Being a young parent is hard. You get judgement everywhere you go…You feel like you're getting judged constantly but as part of the program you meet all these other people that are in the same boat as you and you realise it's not actually that abnormal and it makes you feel a lot better about it.” 
 
Red Cross’ Young Parents Program in NSW works to improve the ability of parents aged 13 to 25 to live and parent independently. Families can join the service over several years with weekly access to case management, parenting, education and life skills. In 2017-2018 more than 400 parents were supported through the program. 
 
The program’s weekly group sessions provide the young parents with personalised study plans supported by volunteer tutors. Their children are cared for in an adjoining crèche run by other Red Cross volunteers. 
 
The parents have access to a range of supports including case management, home visits, mental health, alcohol and other drug and relationship counselling, parenting and living skills education. It’s provided in a way that recognises their unique challenges as adolescents. 
 
Teagan says the best part of the program has been the opportunity to get her life back on track. 
 
“Mentally, emotionally, financially, the program has all of it. Between, like, financial planning, access to other services when I've needed it, referral to Mental Health Services and like you never need to worry about anything really because you know that all you have to do is call your case worker and they’ll get it sorted.
 
“My caseworker, Morgan, is amazing. I could not speak higher about her if I tried.”