In the News...

Program Aiding First-time Mothers Passes House

Monday, April 19 2010

The Pueblo Chieftain
By: Patrick Malone
April 17th, 2010

DENVER — A bill that shifts dollars from administration to direct help for first-time mothers passed unanimously in the House on Friday.

  One full-time administrative position will be cut from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to free up $227,000 that will be used to add nurses in the Nurse Home Visitor Program under SB73, sponsored by Rep. Buffie McFadyen, D-Pueblo West, and Sen. Abel Tapia, D-Pueblo.

  It is funded by tobacco settlement money and already has been passed in the Senate. The bill now awaits the governor's signature to become law.

  Presently, 150 first-time mothers in Pueblo are receiving the program's services through the Pueblo Community Health Center, and 350 Pueblo mothers have been identified as possibly benefitting from it, according to testimony in a Senate committee.

  Teen mothers involved in the program have been far less likely to have a second child by the age of 20 than their peers outside the program. Nurses work directly with them and provide guidance that has moved them forward in education, discontinuing unhealthy habits and leaving abusive relationships.

  "This bill reduces by one the employees the state uses to administer the program and puts those savings into direct services so we can reach more mothers in a program that's been around for 10 years and has been proven to work," McFadyen said.