Teen Outreach Program
Naomi Dobbs and Ashley Milton
By: Courtney Stone
Being a teenager is difficult. One must struggle with ever-increasing responsibilities and an emerging sense of independence, while remaining under the authority of parents and teachers and the influence of friends. Some teen girls, however, have the additional responsibility of being a mother, which forces them into an early adulthood, complicates their choices for the future, and subjects them to criticism from judgmental adults. Naomi Dobbs and Ashley Milton, two young women in the Teen Outreach Program at Emerson High School, are in this very situation.
17-year-old Naomi Dobbs says she has had a hard life, and she chooses to not elaborate. Her father has been in prison for various crimes since she was three, and she has not had any contact with him until recently. With her mother working two jobs, Naomi did the cooking and cleaning while raising her two younger brothers. She became pregnant with her son Isaiah at the age of 13, and transferred to Emerson a few months afterward. There were a lot of girls, so tomboy Naomi thought she would hate it. Once she settled in, she realized that she would not want to go anywhere else.
16-year-old Ashley Milton, however, says she is from a pretty normal family, in spite of her father also being in jail. Like Naomi, she lives with her mother and cares for her young brother and sister. When she got pregnant, she dropped out of eighth grade. Emerson High School gave her another chance at education. Today, she has a 2-year-old daughter named Lillyana, and she is 8 months pregnant.
Both of these girls face similar difficulties as teen mothers. It is difficult to get jobs to fully support their children because of the childcare they would need while working. The girls agree that the greatest trouble is public criticism, especially from older women who look down on them. Adults tend to pass judgment that the girls are promiscuous and irresponsible simply because of their past mistakes. Ashley had difficulty with being perceived as a "gangster girl who did drugs" because of the way she dressed. She is also the target of more criticism because she is pregnant with her second child. Ashley says that people make judgments about her, but if they truly knew her, they would know that she values her children and her education above all else. She also resents the assumption that she is promiscuous, as she has been with only one boy, and she is still with him.
To many, their pregnancies seem like mistakes, and the girls are aware of this. However, as Naomi emphasizes, "They're only mistakes if you let them be." They both know that their children have brought them to where they are today, and that is not necessarily a terrible thing. As Ashley says, children force you to grow up immediately. Their choices have also led them into Teen Outreach Program – an influential force that has improved their lives.
Teen Outreach Program has taught the girls many valuable life lessons. They are learning the basics of keeping a house and raising a healthy family in addition to finishing high school and planning for the future. The teachers offer encouragement, not condemnation, and they help the girls with college and scholarships. What's more, TOP supplements this with community service to give the girls perspective and to help them make an impact on society. Both Naomi and Ashley enjoyed this aspect of the program, saying that it allows them to help people who are in harder situations. St. Luke's Methodist church has also joined TOP, and both girls work in the church's daycare.
The girls are also making plans for the future, thanks to TOP. Inspired by caring for babies at St. Luke's, Ashley is planning to attend Oklahoma City University and become a delivery nurse. Naomi will graduate from high school soon, a fact that mentions quite often in excitement, and she is considering University of Central Oklahoma or Oklahoma University Health Sciences as her destination for studying to be a physical therapist.
The Women's Foundation of Oklahoma has lent its support to Teen Outreach Program through a grant. Randa Pirrong, the Family and Consumer Sciences teacher at Emerson says that the funds pay for class materials, campus tours and lunches, and community service supplies, such as paper goods for decorating hospital bulletin boards. Randa is very grateful for the grant because it has helped give these girls wonderful opportunities. Some of them will be the first to graduate from high school in their families, and many of them are making great strides in a society that sometimes looks down on them. TOP has also given the girls the support they desperately need; the teachers essentially become family to them. Randa hopes to someday expand the program and include an alumni group to keep in touch with TOP students, and perhaps have them return to inspire other girls as mentors.