Connecting with Teen Parents in Albany

Pregnancy and birth are significant contributors to high school dropout rates among girls. Only about 50% of teen mothers receive a high school diploma by 22 years of age. Addressing the clear need for targeted student supports, Regional Program Manager of Communities In Schools of Georgia in Albany/Dougherty County, Simone Turner, spearheaded a new program that would help teen parents on their journey to graduation: CIS Teen Journey.

Funded in part by Albany State University’s Stronger Together Project, CIS Teen Journey started serving parents and expecting teen parents last fall. Since inception, the relationships and activities organized by Teen Journey Coordinator, Tiffany Carr, have been uplifting teens and strengthening connections with children and families.

In September 2020, the Southern Black Girls and Women’s Consortium (SBGWC) kicked off a 10-year fundraising initiative to financially empower goals of Southern Black girls and women in the United States through the Black Girls Dream Fund. Powered by four Southern-based organizations led by Black women: TruthSpeaks Consulting, Black Belt Community Foundation, Appalachian Community Fund, and Fund for Southern Communities, and informed by research conducted by SBGWC through listening sessions with hundreds of Black girls and women throughout the South, funding was used to advance programs like CIS Teen Journey, who was granted $25,000 in December 2021 to expand and sustain supports for teen parents in Albany throughout the new year.

“We are radically reimagining how to support Black women and girls in the South,”
said LaTosha Brown, founder of TruthSpeaks Consulting, based in Atlanta, Ga. “Through this new initiative, spearheaded by Black women for Black girls and women, we are breaking the traditional philanthropic model to develop a new approach to fundraising that centers our voices and allows us to play a leading role in shaping our own destiny. This is vision and self-determination in action because if we change the future of the Black girl in the South, we change the South.”