:: St. Ann's Infant & Maternity Home

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Volunteers enhance the mission of St. Ann’s through direct and indirect service to the children and young mothers in our various programs. These include:

Children’s Residential Program provides temporary care of infants and children in crisis situations such as family emergency, abuse or neglect.
Teen Mother-Baby Program offers residential care for single, pregnant young women and for adolescent mothers and their babies.
Day Care Center developmental program for infants and young children up to age five, plus a summer program for older children through the third grade.

What do individual volunteers do at St. Ann’s?

Volunteers provide a wide range of services, from feeding babies to updating mailing list. Most of our volunteers work directly with our children and young mothers. However, after a consultation with the Director of Volunteers, specific duties are arranged to match a volunteer’s interest and skills.

Are volunteer groups welcome?

Yes. Volunteer groups often provide valuable experiences for the children at St. Ann’s. Adult/youth groups, clubs, service organizations and church groups can host parties for the youngsters, sponsor various outings, provide entertainment, or help directly with such services as tutoring, painting, redecorating units, or stuffing envelopes.

Does St. Ann’s have an auxiliary one can join?

Yes. St. Ann’s is blessed by the good work of two groups of women who’ve given many yeas of volunteer service.

The Ladies of Charity of St. Ann’s volunteer their service to help the Children’s Residential Program.
The Seton Guild is a fund-raising and service organization assisting those in our Prenatal Program and Adolescent Mother-Baby Program.

Call 301/559-5500 for information about joining either of these groups.

What are the requirements for volunteering?

Since St. Ann’s cares for children and young mothers who are often in delicate and confidential situations, we require mature and discreet volunteers. We also have established the following minimum ages for volunteering:

Age 16 for volunteers working in the Day Care Center.
Age 18 for volunteers working in the other three programs.

In addition, certain clearances must be made before a volunteer can be accepted for active service, including:

Criminal Background Clearance (Maryland State Family Law Article S-560 to S-568).
Recent Physical Examination, including PPD Test (or chest X-ray if test is positive).
Three Personal References form Non-related Persons (such as clergy, School or employer).

These requirements are necessary for the safety of the children, as well as the volunteer’s own protection. St. Ann’s Director of Volunteers can assist interested persons in securing these volunteer clearances and test.

How does a volunteer apply?

At present, our volunteer ranks are full and we are not accepting new applications until at least the end of August 2009. Please check back at that time. However, if you are interested in helping in St. Ann’s Development Office with duties such as marketing, events, fundraising, etc., please contact the Director of Development.

St. Ann's Expands Teen Mother-Baby Program

In the past six months demand for our Teen-Mother Baby Program has been particularly high. The calls come in at all hours. And as heartbreaking as the circumstances are for each of these mothers, it is equally tragic not to be able to help.

While each story is different, these girls are almost universally victimized by poverty and abuse – often suffered at the hands of those closest to them. St. Ann's program helps to meet the special challenges of a teenage girl facing the fear and uncertainty of becoming a mother.

St. Ann’s has an on-site high school – making a diploma a priority. St. Ann’s provides pre-natal care and post-partum support – guaranteeing a healthier start for both mom and baby. Most importantly, St. Ann’s has role models and structures in place that foster stability over chaos and love over fear. For these young mothers, time at St. Ann’s cements the bonds between mother and child and begins to dissolve the bonds of poverty, abuse and neglect.

In the next few months, we will be renovating available space in our facility for use by our Teen-Mother Baby Program. This renovation will open up 8 additional places for teen mothers and their newborns. This good news will not stop the phone from ringing, but it will allow us to say “yes” more often and help get more of these young mothers on solid footing.

Your donation will help St. Ann's reach out to more of these at-risk young families.