Editor’s Note: This is the second of a series of stories about the Lawrence County and Laurel school districts’ Safe School/Healthy Students project.

Check any school district in Mississippi and you’ll probably find several young girls who are expecting a baby or are already a mother.

Now that they are mothers, their lives are not the same as other high schools girls. For some, in addition to attending school and doing homework, they work part-time jobs to have money to care for their child and are often up late nights to care for the needs of their child.

“A lot of these girls want to be good mothers, but they’re still young and they just don’t know how,” said Josie Alford, a youth educator in the Lawrence County School District. “They need someone to show them how, to give them a little encouragement.”

That’s one of the objectives of the Laurel and Lawrence County school districts’ Safe Schools/Healthy Students Project. The two school districts are partnering with law enforcement and juvenile justice entities and public mental health agencies to create safer and healthier learning environments for students in pre-school through 12th grade.

Alford, who works in Monticello, is one of eight Safe Schools/Healthy Students staff members in place to address a number of issues confronting students, as well as school districts. Staff members consist of professionals from both Jones and Lawrence counties.

The Lawrence and Laurel school districts’ Safe Schools/Healthy Students Project, is funded through a $1 million grant from the federal Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative. The primary partners in the project are the Laurel and Lawrence County school districts. Jones and Lawrence County Law Enforcement, Pine Belt Mental Healthcare and the Southwest Mental Health Complex.

“We have come together to discuss what things we can offer the school districts in developing safe school sand healthy students,” explained Lindsey Blackledge, project director. “We brought together a good mix of people to have us get this moving in the right direction.”

Elizabeth Kilgore of Laurel, who has years of experience in working with expectant and youthful mothers, serves as the project’s early childhood community liaison.

“We very rarely see a teen who doesn’t want to be a good mother,” said Kilgore. “They don’t know how and you have to teach them skills needed to raise a child.”

Kilgore and her team plan to work to increase the number of teenage parents enrolled in Family Literacy Programs such as Parents as Teachers (PAT) or Adult Basic Education by 20 percent each year.

Kilgore said they will go into the homes of program participants to talk to them about prenatal care, educate them about parenting and help them understand that they are the first and best teacher for their children.

“They are key to the child’s socio- and emotional development,” she said.

Alford said Safe Schools/Healthy Students also want to encourage teen mothers to stay in school. “We want to help build their self-esteem and let them know that if they have to leave school, they can get their GED,” she said. “They can also go on to college and make a good life for themselves and their children.”