Calgary Pregnancy Care Centre
By Nicole Zummach
October 27, 2008
CALGARY, AB // If life were like a television commercial, every woman who ever took a pregnancy test would be hoping for a positive result. The reality is often quite the opposite; an unplanned pregnancy presents a very real crisis for many woman. And often they feel there have no options and no one to turn to. After more than 20 years with the Calgary Pregnancy Care Centre, executive director Wendy Lowe knows only too well that a pregnancy can feel like a crisis no matter who you are, or what your life situation might be. She spoke with CharityVillage about the work of the centre, how attitudes have changed over time, and why volunteers are a cornerstone of the organization's success.
CharityVillage: You work with people who are impacted by a crisis pregnancy. How does your agency define 'crisis pregnancy' and who is your typical client?
Wendy Lowe: Well, there is no typical client. Although people generally have in mind the typical teenager, a crisis pregnancy is any unplanned pregnancy that causes significant stress. That can be a teenager who experiences an unplanned pregnancy. It can be a married woman who is having a third child when she only planned to have two and it's causing stress in her life. It could be a couple that would welcome children under any other circumstances. One classic example we had was a couple who were refugee claimants - Muslims, from a faith perspective that doesn't allow for abortion. Yet their circumstances were so dire, from an economic perspective, that they were feeling pushed by the pregnancy into a choice that was against their belief system. Therefore, it became a crisis for them.
To date, our youngest client was 12 and our oldest was 54. Really, any woman in her childbearing years can experience an unplanned pregnancy that she would self-describe as crisis. That is really the defining piece - them self-describing.
CV: You brought up the issue of faith, and the centre describes itself as a Christian charity. How does faith inform the work that you do?
WL: If you asked us to place ourselves on a spectrum, we would be on the pro-life end of that spectrum. The reality is that women, for the most part, don't want to have abortions. They just see their circumstance as being hostile. So, it's about coming alongside and offering resources so that no one feels their only choice is abortion. So, on the spectrum, that's where we come in, but we don't sit in judgment of people's choices.
We offer ongoing support for women who are carrying to term, particularly parenting work with folks who would fall into the category of at-risk. We work with birth mothers - women who are placing for adoption. And we do post-abortion recovery work, which is for women who find themselves emotionally or spiritually stuck following an abortion and want some support in looking at that as one of the maternal child losses to be grieved.
CV: Would you say that your work differs significantly from an organization like Planned Parenthood, for example?
WL: I think so. We're far more involved in ongoing practical support for people. We have clients who are with us sometimes for years after the unplanned pregnancy. It's not at all unusual, particularly with our younger moms, for us to be involved in their lives for two to three years post the delivery of their baby. Women who have placed for adoption, we anticipate that they will be in our grief support groups for at least two years. Women who seek out post-abortion counselling are generally coming to us several years after having the abortion. It's usually not in the immediate aftermath. They will come back quite some time later. Usually our involvement with them will be anywhere from 12 weeks to a year, depending whether they are in a group or seeing someone individually.
CV: You've been with the centre since it opened in 1985. How have things evolved since that time?
WL: I think that the nonprofit, charitable sector has increased in its professionalism in the 20-plus years I've been involved. I think we take ourselves more seriously. And I think, increasingly, other sectors of society are taking us more seriously. In terms of working with our client group, I think that attitudes change over time, but the crisis still remains the same. The things that you're worried about might be different, though. When I started, back in the mid-eighties, there was a great deal of shame attached to an unplanned pregnancy. I don't think the shame factor is as strong as it used to be, although it's still very significant for some of our clients. Parenting outside of wedlock has become far more culturally acceptable and, therefore, you see some shift in terms of options that people will consider. Adoption has become less popular over the last 20 years, in favour of parenting or abortion.
CV: You've been a Donner Award winner and finalist several times. What have you learned from their evaluations?
WL: For me, it's that what gets measured gets done. The 'tyranny of the urgent' is the nature of every nonprofit organization. It's so easy to let go of doing the concrete measures. So what the Donner Award does is it forces me to benchmark every year - what are we actually accomplishing? I think it encourages innovation around, "How can we do this better?"
The thing that we intend to do more effectively this year - and it will sound strange to most people - is to be more inclusive of men. It's a small percentage of young men who show up with their girlfriends...and while we've addressed men on a very individual basis, this is something that my staff is pretty excited about - trying to engage more fathers in the process.
CV: As an organization, where do you feel your greatest strength lies?
WL: The greatest strength in our organization is volunteers. We invest a lot. It's a pretty demanding process to become a volunteer in our organization; not for the faint of heart. First kick at the can is 22 hours of training, followed by a six-week orientation that requires four hours a week, and then we'll let you talk to somebody! We really view our volunteer staff as staff, and we invest heavily in their training and development. They do what paid professionals can never do, and that's one of the things people have commented on when they come into the centre. Because we use volunteers, we don't have to approach someone with, "We can only give you so many programming hours." You get the time that you need because your volunteer cares about you. That, to me, is the magic of what goes on here.
CV: What advice would you give to other organizations striving for excellence?
WL: It's a culture of honest critique. It's a desire to do it excellently because our clients deserve excellence, but it does mean we'll talk honestly about what's working and what's not working. And it's never a blame game. It's about, "How do we do this better next year?" We're always setting goals for how we can be better next year. People are attracted to organizations that are committed to excellence, and when you make that commitment then you get excellent people who want to come on that journey with you.
Wendy Lowe has been with the Calgary Pregnancy Care Centre since it was founded in 1985, and has served as its director since 1988. For more information about the centre, visit: www.pregcare.com.
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