Nine months into the global pandemic, Anne Teschner shares an update on some of the triumphs we at The Care Center have witnessed and challenges we still face. After you watch the video, we hope you’ll join us in investing in the brave and intelligent women of The Care Center by making a donation here. We are so grateful for your support at this critical moment in history.
A full transcript of the video is below.
Anne’s remarks:
Hi I’m Anne Teschner, the Executive Director of The Care Center. As we all take a collective deep breath and think about the year ahead, I wanted to share with you an update on some of the things going on here at The Care Center. If you’re watching this, you probably know that The Care Center is a small but mighty education center here in Holyoke, Massachusetts that works to get young mothers to and through college.
Despite the tremendous obstacles we have faced this year, there are some unbelievable triumphs that I want you to know about. First, thirteen women graduated from Bard Microcollege Holyoke, while parenting and studying in a pandemic. This represents the program’s largest graduating class and proves that college success is possible with the right supports in place. Four of these graduates are already on to a bachelor’s degree program.
One alumni, Corey, is at Mount Holyoke and is studying education and psychology and you’ll be learning more about here soon in an update we’re going to provide you. Then, there’s another Care Center alum, Denise, who just this year has received her Master’s degree in social work and bought her first home. Four HiSET students, high school-level students, have passed their exam already this year. So the degree of hard work and perseverance going on around here is pretty astonishing and I wanted you to know about it. We’re so proud of them all for doing this hard work in the middle of a pandemic.
And we’re doing all we can to support these women, including opening new housing. So in two months, a little less than two months, ten families will be moving into Roque House, an affordable housing and arts complex for young parents and their children.
In these times of great financial uncertainty and hardship, The Care Center is counting on you. We need you, our community, to invest in the young women of The Care Center. Your investment will grow in ways you never imagined as these brave and intelligent young women reach their goals.
Care Center women are standing on our shoulders. We cannot let them down now. Not when they have reached beyond the narrative set for them, reach beyond their sense of what is possible, and continue to serve their families, their communities, and now the nation. They have risked everything to do what they are doing and we must keep being partners in that effort, particularly in these times. These are the future leaders right with us now.
I ask that you support The Care Center during these times at a level that is beyond what you have done before. So much is at stake and so much is to be gained. Please visit The Care Center website to make a donation today. Hold on. Be well. We will get through this together and stronger on the other side.
