Columbia, SC (WLTX)- For the past 22 years, The Nurturing Center has been reaching out to pregnant teenagers to offer them the support they might not get at home. A large part of their success is because of a woman the girls call, "Miss Betty."
Betty Browne says she knows how to relate to the girls, because 40 years ago, she was one of them. "I had a child at 15," Betty said, "Back then, there was no place for girls to go for help. And my mom had eight kids. She was too busy herself to help me."
At The Nurturing Center, Browne and other workers make it their mission to teach young women how to be mothers. "We cover everything from bathtime and bottles to finding a job and time management and birth control," Betty said.
But one of the most important lessons they teach is to break the cycle of teen pregnancy. Betty says, "The children of teen moms are more likely to become teen parents as well. We want to change that. We want them to finish high school and go on to college or a technical school. We want them to achieve more for their children."
To get help from or donate to The Nurturing House you can visit their website at http://www.thenurturingcenter.org/.