The Edmonton Pregnancy Centre (EPC) hopes to open its Barrhead branch in April.
That is what EPC executive director Norah Kennedy told an audience of more than 50 people during a Jan. 10 information session at Barrhead Elementary School.
The EPC is a 34-year-old Christian-based non-profit agency that provides counseling as well as other services, to mothers dealing with an unexpected pregnancy and is funded entirely through private donations.
“It was started by a group of pastors and laypeople who saw the writing on the wall of what was going to happen in Canada — that the abortion law was going to be struck down and that there needed to be a compassionate and safe place for individuals to have pregnancy tests, hear honestly about all three of their options [keeping the baby, adoption or abortion] and its staff and volunteers to be a companion throughout her journey no matter what option she might choose,” she said.
The organization first announced that they would be opening the Barrhead branch during the Festival of Trees gala in November.
The branch will be located in the mall on 50 Avenue. Although it is a branch of the EPC, Kennedy said it would be run by a local director and have its own peer counsellors. It is estimated the branch’s budget will be about $70,000 in its initial year, but Kennedy said if more money is needed EPC will make sure it is available.
Initially the Barrhead location will run a fraction of the programs that are available in Edmonton.
“Everything we offer in Barrhead will be client driven. To start with, we will offer pregnancy options counseling, but soon afterwards we I imagine we will offer a parenting plus program,” she said. “It will take a lot longer to get the abortion recovery program off the ground because it must be facilitated by post-abortive women. It is a long process because we need to know that they are healed before they can lead anyone else to healing.”
Katherine Nanninga, one of the people who spearheaded the effort to bring the EPC to Barrhead, noted that for those expectant mothers wanting EPC programming not offered locally, transportation would be arranged so that they could access it.
Kennedy said typically the first step for a client who walks through the door of an EPC branch and suspects they are pregnant is to give them a self-administered pregnancy test.
After she confirms she is pregnant, she will talk to a trained peer counselor who will discuss honestly what her options are. Depending on her decision the mother will be directed into one of three program streams.
For those who decide to raise their baby, the centre offers a 12-week program that helps prepare them for labour, as well as teaching general life and parenting skills.
However, Kennedy noted that before a client begins any program, they are informed EPC peer counsellors, while trained, are not professional counsellors, that it is not a medical clinic and that they do not refer for abortions and that everything they say will be kept confidential and that it is a Christian organization.
This is repeated multiple times throughout the process.
“We let them know that if they are pregnant and it is an unplanned pregnancy there is no such thing as an easy choice. Each choice represents a loss and we will not sugar coat any of the choices,” she said.
For every week a soon-to-be-mother attends, she earns points towards a gift card at a local business that can be redeemed for the larger items she will need to care for an infant, such as a crib, stroller and car seat. The centre also has a variety of gently used maternity and children’s clothes available for program participants.
For those who choose to give their child up for adoption they are referred to the ‘Birth Mother’s Journey.’
“We help the mother through the entire process, not only the adoption, but the inevitable grief that will follow. We will be there as long as she needs us,” Kennedy said.
For those who opt to have an abortion, the EPC has an abortion recovery program.
“Most women who choose to have an abortion believe it will be a quick fix. That they can go have an abortion, that no one will ever know they were pregnant and they can go on with their life,” she said, adding that is rarely the case. “Feelings of sadness will start to overwhelm them. They often experience feelings of shame, anger and sometimes a deep sense of betrayal that their partner wasn’t willing to join them in parenthood. They often cannot bring themselves to tell anyone that they had an abortion and that it is causing them deep, deep pain.”
Another program EPC offers is the Community Education Program, an abstinence-based sexual education workshop aimed at Grade 7 to 9 and CALM 20 students, which is made available to schools free.
The last program EPC program Kennedy touched on is for people who have been sexually abused or exploited, called Steps to Sexual Health.
“And that is about 95 per cent of the clients that we see,” she said, noting the EPC sees clients from all walks of life. “We see people who come from good homes, girls from the street and those who have been terribly abused and you can’t understand how they survived . . . but Jesus said go into the world, go into places that aren’t pretty or comfortable and love and that is what we do. And that is what we will do here in Barrhead.”
