[All quotations are from emailed communications publicly posted and available online at PCC Talk.org.] The first order of business at a crisis pregnancy center is persuading women to walk through those doors in the first place, and there are some creative solutions to that problem. The Catholic-sponsored CPC in my home town moved into a building next door to a clinic that provides abortion care, painted its signs with the same colors and style of lettering as those of the clinic, and shamelessly offers callers appointments for the "pre-abortion counseling required by state law." But for CPCs less fortunately situated, there are ways.
You may notice ... that the name of our ministry is Choices Resource Center.. ... As our [executive director] at the time stated, "We want to redeem a good word- choices". ... When we changed the name, we had a huge spike of [abortion] vulnerable clients. A huge spike of women who thought they were being offered a choice? A Virginia CPC's slickly produced web site inspires confidence, but its director of clinical services seems unsure that their procedures are yielding maximum results.
I'm interested in knowing how many of you do the pregnancy test before you give your client information about her options vs those of you who give the pregnancy test after sharing options. Please share ... your success rates for both. A client services director in Ontario shares her own expertise: "We do the pregnancy test after discussing the options. Otherwise, particularly for the negative test client, they are quick to leave and we haven't had a chance to really connect with them and give them all the information." But the executive director of a Care Net affiliate in New York state shows them all what expertise really is.
We do the test after we have gathered information. First we get the info on our intake sheet. This gives us an idea of what's going on in her life. It also gives us the opportunity to begin forming a rapport with her. We then do the test, and then according to the results, do counseling from there. We have "packets", an abortion, adoption, negative test, and parenting test packet. We get out the packet according to her story and test result and then may throw in some sexual integrity also. This is the Care Net assessment tool for determining what type and degree of attention a new client can expect to receive.
ASSESSING THE CLIENT'S ABORTION-VULNERABILITY And the legal vulnerability of CPCs now retooling as medical establishments in order to perform ultrasounds is another topic much on their minds. How fortunate for CPCs that Focus on the Family is standing by to help smooth out the bumps.
Other major anti-choice players are on call 24/7 as well. A regular presence is Carole Novielli, a Life Dynamics International researcher who also produces Life Talk, a program hosted by LDI president Mark Crutcher, a notorious anti-choice operative who dreams of "an America where abortion may indeed be perfectly legal, but no one can get one."
[K]eep passing the word about our New website: www.DeathRoe.com Get everyone you know who was born after Jan 22,1973 to post their picture and their views on being a Death Roe Survivor on our "WALL" - we are getting lots of pro-choicers looking at the website now and it migt (sic) change someone's mind. Along with the everyday ills that CPC administrators are heir to - understandably pressing concerns such as "secondary virginity" and whether to remove their religious tracts from the waiting room so as not to frighten away "abortion-minded" women - they seem to spend an inordinate amount of time figuring out how to expand their marketing and maximize their income from potential donors. After all, $1,000 gifts from Wal-Mart can't pay all their bills, and their grant writers don't work for nothing. Pastor Ken Freeman of Last Harvest Ministries, Inc., an abortion-focused organization based in a Dallas suburb, offers all 550 members of the forum his expert assistance in "harvesting" love offerings.
AUTORESPONDERS PLUS ... is a powerful $400 application that allows you to build quickly full HTML / plain mail campaigns with unlimited sequential follow up mail. For example, on http://freemetolive.com we offer a sign up for a 40 day sequence of emails called WHO AM I IN CHRIST as well as a helpful 7 day sequence called WHY I CAN'T FORGIVE MYSELF.
Our guest speaker was Scott Klusendorf, founder of the Life Training Institute. ... I first heard Scott on a Focus on the Family broadcast. I was so gripped by his speech that I pulled my car over to the side of the road to concentrate on it! When it comes to volunteer training, many CPCs simply use a collection of DVDs from Care Net, but other training programs have a share of the CPC market as well. Who could resist a quick and easy online course that pays off with a certificate from a theological seminary?
We ... use the Heidi Group's (Carol Everett) online training program, which includes video sessions, and we provide them with a workbook. ... Upon completion, they receive a Certificate from the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (which gives some credibility in the counseling room). They also have Board Training, Fundraising Training, etc., with Certificates for each after submitting your completed tests. ... I have had "Client Advocates" complete it within 2 week's time. Even in a center where "Client Advocates" aren't accredited by a Baptist seminary in the space of a mere two weeks, non-Christian volunteers need not apply.
In our training class for Abstinence Education we have a volunteer that is Islam AND she has signed our documents saying she agrees with our Statement of Faith and Statement of Principles on all sheets (3 total) except one where she marked no that she believes the Bible is not the only book that preaches the words of God. A Canadian CPC's client services director had had the same "problem."
My prospective volunteer signed the statement of faith but answered "no" to the question "do you consider yourself a Christian" and then n/a to all further questions about faith. ... After prayer and consultation with my director ... I ended up outlining our mission statement and explaining that as a Christian ministry funded by believers, all of our volunteers had be willing to minister according to the gospel, which she was unable to do as she did not identify herself as a Christian. ... I carefully documented this phone call "just in case" but that was over three months ago, and I never heard back from her. With hefty contributions from Focus on the Family, and with a massive infusion of our tax dollars as well, CPCs across the country are "going medical." Medical clinic conversion not only enables CPCs to qualify for more public grant money, but it means that they can perform ultrasounds, both as bait to get women through the door and as a means of dissuading "abortion minded" clients - the only women they really care about seeing in the first place. But the addition of licensed medical personnel to their staffs has presented a whole new set of problems for some CPC directors, because the focus of medical personnel is so darned medical. Maybe their pesky medical ethics are the reason that some CPCs don't want their licensed medical staff anywhere near their "patients" when it comes time for "options counseling."
I find that our nurses are more concerned with the "medical" than the counseling. For example, we have a client intake worksheet that the CAs work through-it is a guided session to assess abortion vulnerability and provide abortion education. I recently found out that our nurses were skipping this and going directly to the medical history because "that's what they are really here for." He might refuse to tell women that abortion causes breast cancer, too. A CPC Resource Coordinator in GA is having some problems with her own center's Earn While You Learn program. Her clients just aren't working hard enough on their own salvation.
We are in the process of limiting our EWYL program to increase our ability to minister to our target clients. We are trying to raise the bar--to make our clients ... work a little harder for the things we've been giving out fairly easily. That question set off a lively thread, after the executive director of a CPC in New Hampshire whose clients also earn their "Mommy Money" and "Baby Bucks" said "I don't get it."
I don't understand the "abuse" of the system I hear expressed so often. If they happen to get an extra dozen diapers or a layette because they got some extra bucks somehow (perhaps the [boyfriend] came to the class and got a few extra bucks), is it considered abusing the system? Several colleagues hastened to enlighten her.
I would only accept a bulletin that had their sermon notes written on it in their own handwriting, and I would ask them to summarize what they learned
We require that the pastor sign the bulletin. This proves that she/they were there.
We require our clients to bring in their sermon notes along with their church bulletin. Low-income pregnant women are just so ungrateful.
They only show up when they want to, they don't take responsibility, you know they are only there for the vouchers, and they seem to miss the whole abstinence concept because they show up for repeat pregnancy tests after you have poured your heart out to them to STOP having sex until they are married. They don't get it.
We have had people take advantage of our EWYL volunteers by constantly not showing for appointments etc, and have decided to fine them in order to teach them responsibility. So much for simply giving away diapers to women who can't afford to buy them. That would just be ... wrong. Almost as wrong as lying for Jesus about your faith-based activities in order to get your hands on the taxpayers' money.
Crisis Pregnancy Centers Unplugged | 1 comment (1 topical, 0 hidden)
Crisis Pregnancy Centers Unplugged | 1 comment (1 topical, 0 hidden)
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Left Behind: Eternal Forces: Installments of Jonathan Hutson's Talk To Action expose series
on the "Left Behind: Eternal Forces" video game have been viewed by up to 1/2 million people. See our site section featuring Over 35 original articles covering the controversial "Left Behind: Eternal Forces" video game that has provoked a boycott by a coalition of religious groups and a letter writing campaign urging Walmart to stop selling the game. Media inquiries click here(image: detail from Francoise Dubois' rendition of the Bartholomew's Day Massacre reveals the actual nature of religious warfare)
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