When new moms, newborn babies and families need help, numerous organizations are there to support them.
As Avera strives to live out its mission to create a positive impact in the lives and health of persons and communities, it forms partnerships with organizations that support families with basic needs such as food, shelter and education.
“Wellness in our communities goes far beyond health care itself,” said Lindsey Meyers, Avera Vice President of Public Relations. “It includes basic needs, like clean clothes and a warm bed. Avera supports several nonprofit organizations who work with families in these areas.”
These partnerships span many areas of need, often called social determinants of health, including transportation, food, housing and mental health care. Programs and services for women and children can often span several of these areas, whether it’s helping expecting mothers, women suffering from domestic violence or victims of human trafficking.
Consider this:
- Women are overrepresented in low-wage jobs, according to a report by the National Women’s Job Center
- Women and children represent the fastest growing segment of the homeless population, according to the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists
- About one in four women experience intimate partner violence, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
These challenges can put women and their families at higher risk for injury, health risk and create other challenges to success.
Empowering Women and Children with Services and Safe Spaces
“The help of Avera health care providers makes many differences,” said Sandy Lown, Executive Director of the Teddy Bear Den, an organization that helps pregnant women, kids newborn to 2 and new moms with incentives. “We wouldn’t exist without the support of our partners.”
The Teddy Bear Den enrolls moms-to-be so they earn points for completing prenatal exams and other wellness goals. The points can be used to buy items for the child, from diapers to infant-safe sleeping cribs and mattresses. The group has helped more than 34,000 women, and now almost 1,500 are enrolled and using the points they earned to help their young kids.
The Teddy Bear Den is just one group among many that use Avera support and put it to use in helping families. Other organizations include:
- Pierre Area Referral Service (PARS): This group began as a legal aid program in 1974, and since grew to provide Hughes and Stanley counties with emergency assistance, referral help and food pantry efforts.
- The Compass Center: As a grassroots group that started helping people in 1975, it helps people with crisis intervention, counseling and advocacy, be they children, adolescents or adults.
- Call to Freedom: Established in 2016, it provides holistic, wrap-around services for individuals impacted by sex and labor trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation. Through its continuum of care model, its focus includes dignity, person-centered care and empowerment. Call to Freedom operates Marissa’s House, a 12-unit supportive home available for women and young children in the Sioux Falls area.
- Children’s Home Shelter for Family Safety (formerly Children's Inn): More than a century after it began, this agency’s mission keeps growing, from shelter for victims to robust advocacy programs and efforts to help South Dakota orphans.
- Safe Place of Eastern South Dakota: Formerly known as the Mitchell Area Safehouse, this group’s 2021 name-change reflected the eight-county region it serves. The name epitomizes its work; it is a “Safe Place” for victims of domestic violence, sexual violence and human trafficking.
Pathways operates four programs 24/7/365. Sometimes they are finding a room for a mom and kids. Other times they’re helping someone navigate a job application. Jesse Bailey, Executive Director of Pathways in Yankton, said the face-to-face nature of this interaction works.
“Any individual or family we can help get on a better path makes the community better overall,” Bailey said. “Those small changes add up over time, with many people, all of whom can use our help to start in a new direction.”
How Avera Community Partnerships Make a Difference
When someone is sexually assaulted or a victim of sex trafficking, the lifelong complications and challenges can be immense, starting with the first visit to a clinic. Getting victims the care they need starts with education. Avera is in a unique situation; its providers are often the first people to interact with victims of abuse.
“Our Avera partnership, especially within its emergency rooms and urgent care clinics, takes training and response seriously,” said Becky Rasmussen, CEO of Call to Freedom. “The needs of people who are trafficked are complicated, and these health care professionals work alongside our team to understand these complex needs.”
Rasmussen said it adds up, when Call to Freedom or other agencies help those who need them.
“We aim to meet the needs of people impacted by human trafficking,” she said. “They might be an unhoused family or a scared young mother. What they need, to survive and thrive, is never the same situation. That’s why we are here to provide services. And we have support from organizations like Avera.”
Other entities that have a focus on broader issues also help individuals on basic levels. Pathways has various programs for young families, where it can explain life skills such as nutrition and financial wellness. “We focus on daily needs – food, safety, shelter and more,” said Bailey.
The same rules apply with the moms The Teddy Bear Den supports. The care expecting mothers get need ends up multiplying the overall effect.
“Doctors ensure these moms are getting to their appointments and earning their credits, and that in turn, helps these kids,” Lown said. “Healthier kids do better in school and in turn, it benefits their neighborhood and their community.”
Collaboration is important to make an impact in these complex needs.
Learn more about Avera’s community partnerships.
