When a tearful and frustrated Mia Alvarado tried and failed to master the fine art of breastfeeding, she turned to a 35-year veteran of the GENESIS teen parenting program, Kristi Carter.
Alvarado knew that Carter would not let her down. “I guess, at that point, I considered Kristi kind of like my second mom,” the 19-year-old Alvarado said last week. Alvarado was 17 when she got pregnant and gave birth to her daughter Sol in August 2020.
Alvarado said Carter was with her offering support during the entire pregnancy and its aftermath, usually through Zoom calls. “I was terrified about having a baby,” Alvarado said. “I went to her for everything because I didn’t know anything about babies.”
Even though Longmont was in the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Carter knew she could only help Mia in-person. Carter got special permission to go Alvarado’s apartment, wearing a hazmat-like bodysuit and an armful of baby supplies.
“I heard Mia crying and I knew I was going to help no matter what,” said Carter, a lactation specialist for GENESIS. “A lot of girls were in the same situation at that time, and I did the same for them. It’s what you do to help anyone in GENESIS.”
GENESIS began as a pilot program in 1989 to help teen parents from their pregnancy through their third year. Its success prompted the Longmont City Council last week to approve an agreement with Boulder County Public Health to keep the program running in Longmont through 2022.
GENESIS serves Boulder County teen parents by providing a continuum of case management services that include transportation to appointments, assistance with accessing prenatal, postpartum, well-baby care and support in parenting practices, according to the GENESIS website.
Alvarado said Carter got her brochures and other information about what to expect while she’s pregnant. The input from Carter helped calm her down.
“I just wanted to let her know that what she was going through was normal,” Carter said.
Carter also helped Alvarado enroll at Olde’ Columbine High School, now known as New Meridian High School, — which has a child care program — and get an apartment in a low-income housing complex after her graduation, she said.
Carter aided Alvarad in getting food stamps and accessing the supplemental food program for Women, Infants, and Children — or WIC.
At the start of 2022, GENESIS had 136 families enrolled in the program representing 266 unique participants — 140 from Longmont, according to a city of Longmont staff report to the city council.
In 2021, GENESIS served 237 families representing 444 unique individuals, the staff report states.
In the future, GENESIS wants to seek an affiliation with Healthy Families America — a home visiting program — that will allow for more funding, the staff report states. “They then seek to expand services to teen fathers in the county who are currently underserved and at high risk for many poor outcomes,” the report states.
Alvarado, who lives in an apartment with Sol and Sol’s father, is sure Carter kept her afloat with her expertise and emotional support. “I couldn’t have survived without her,” Alvarado said.
