to want to volunteer with teenage mothers.

[GetOrfMoiLand]

Put this in AIBU as a response to the other thread that is in this topic.

This is something I have been thinking about for a while actually.

I was a teenage mother years ago, dd is 15 now. I have been very lucky in that I have a good job, dd is happy, so am I etc. I was thinking about offering to volunteer for x hours a week either in a teenage mother's hostel/school for pregnant teens, to show that being a young mother is not the end of the world, go to work and develop a career it's not too late etc.

Mind you I work FT and I have no experience of youth work, so perhaps I am being arrogant to assume that anyone would want me .

Has anyone any experience of this and would be able to give some advice before I google for places in Gloucester.

Thanks

Irt's funny you should say this Getorf, that thread had me wanting to do something similar!

Do-it.org and Timebank are both nationwide volunteering databases. I've checked both this morning and there's nothing local to me helping teenage mums but you may have more luck.

btw I volunteer for Barnardos as a family support worker, maybe they have volunteer vacancies in your area? Barnardos covers lots of families with a range of problems, I'm sure teenage mums aren't unknown to them. Theres a three month training period, just one morning a week, and regular refresher courses.

I work for Homestart. We run support/toddler groups for young/teenage mothers.

We also visit them in the homes.

You could always contact your local branch and offer your services. We don't require our volunteers to have any experience other than teh type you get from life.

I've been thinking about becoming a Teenage/Young Mother Specialist Midwife. I had one when I was pregnant at 16-17 and she was utterly amazing - she was a teenage mother herself and she had a good insight into it and some of the help and advice she gave me was fantastic.

There is a charity called Straight Talking which you may find helpful. They do schemes to help curb teenage pregnancy by getting teenage parents to go to schools and talk to other teenagers about what it is like. They might not have a scheme in your area but you can contact them. www.straighttalking.org/

Thanks very much everyone - that is exaclty what I was hoping for

I would love to do this too. I've looked into it before, but don't know if I have enough time to commit to it with work and now being an older mum too.

Will have another look though.