Pregnancy center has a rebirth

Still helping women who didn’t expect to be pregnant

By Pat Hatfield
BEACON STAFF WRITER

posted Apr 3, 2009 - 1:32:18pm

Central Florida Pregnancy Center in Deltona reopened in March, after an eight-month closure for reorganization and renovation.

The center was founded in 1992. It had to shut its doors at the end of June this year, because there was no funding.

Grants had dried up, and the center was no longer being paid to teach abstinence in Volusia County public schools.

Now, the 501(c)(3) organization, reopened at 689 Deltona Blvd., is funded mostly through donations and fundraisers.

“It’s been a long, arduous waiting period,” Center Executive Director Jessica Errico said.

Sort of like the waiting period before giving birth. Helping pregnant women is what the center does. Errico and the staff also help moms after their babies are born.

Most of the clients are women who got pregnant by accident rather than design, and don’t know what to do.

Many feel “shipwrecked,” Errico said. They feel abandoned and panicky, with nowhere to turn.

“Women need to know there’s hope,” she said.

The center aims to be a lighthouse, helping women chart a course through rough and rocky seas.

The center will provide support whatever a woman decides. It will not assist with abortion referrals, but will continue counseling services afterward, if a woman decides to abort her baby.

Advocacy is offered from a Christian viewpoint. Help is offered without judgment, Errico said, from the pregnancy test forward.

Errico wants to be sure women have explored all their options, including raising the child or planning an adoption.

“Babies bring unexpected blessings,” she said.

Adoption should never be thought of as “giving away” the baby, Errico said. Phrases like “giving up” a baby to adoption are outmoded. A woman is planning her child’s future, she said.

Along with counseling and emotional support, the center offers parenting classes. Pregnant women can earn maternity clothing, baby clothing, and baby supplies like linens and diapers by attending parenting classes.

Central Florida Pregnancy Center also helps women find other resources, such as the ultrasound van that parks outside the center 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on Mondays.

And the baby’s father is not forgotten.

The center helps men deal with the emotional fallout of an unexpected pregnancy. The baby’s father is often in crisis, too, feeling he can’t provide for or protect his baby, Errico said.

Volunteers who work at the center are screened and take 18-20 hours of training.

Center hours are 9:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays, and noon-8 p.m. Tuesdays. It will soon be open on Thursdays, too.

A fundraising “Walk for Life” is planned for 8:15 a.m. Saturday, May 2, at Deltona Alliance Church, at 921 Deltona Blvd.

Errico said she’s talked to a lot of people who think the center is funded by the “Choose Life” license tags. It is not.

For more information on services or the fundraiser, call Errico at (386) 574-5894.

— pat@beacononlinenews.com

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