One of the OES programs that I visited during the first year of our partnership was a teen parent support group run by the East Side YWCA. It was housed on a floor in an early 20th century building on 52nd Street and Lexington Avenue, across from the Citicorp Center.
The Y had a history of teaching vocational skills like sewing, typing and computer skills. I arrived when the site acquired Commodore 128 computers from OES. Waterways used the machines to develop student small press publications.
Expressive writing offered students the opportunity to articulate their individual concerns. By publishing their concerns and encouraging peer responses, Waterways encouraged a sense of community that dealt with such family issues as sustaining relationships, giving birth, and raising children.
We Are Family
The publication increased communication between students and city administrators, who were learning about the students from what we published. Our curriculum was student centered and the site teacher, Brenda Giscombe, encouraged her students to work on their expressive writing for We Are Family.
The young mothers took time away from nurturing their children, who were put into a nursery on the premises and were told to take classes so they could learn to support their families.
When a young mother wrote a story that was published, she was given copies of the publication. One student announced to the class that We Are Family was the first book she owned. It was proof she could tell her story:
One day when I found out I was pregnant I was so scared I didn’t know what to do. I was scared I couldn’t even tell my mother. I didn’t know whether she would be happy or upset. So I didn’t tell anybody except my best friend because I thought she would be able to help me. But I was wrong, she couldn’t. So I decided to tell my mother that I was pregnant. She was so upset that she just started crying.
She could learn to advocate for herself:
Living in a welfare hotel is no laughing matter. I know because I live in one. Where I live there’s only one bed for me and my daughter. There’s no bathroom and no closet so I have nowhere to put my clothes or to wash in private... As far as housing is concerned -- all who live in welfare hotels should have been in their own homes a long time ago. The waiting lists are so long that it’s a shame...In order for you to get an apartment you have to be in a hotel for 18 months, be in your last trimester of pregnancy or your child has to be 6 months or younger...I’ve been in the Madison Hotel on 27th Street since November 14, 1985. Now where does this policy leave me? People think because we live in a welfare hotel we can be treated like a dog or non-human. Well, it’s not true. As far as I’m concerned we have rights like anyone else.
The publications allowed students to air their grievances, their hopes, and the love they felt for their children.
Melody wrote:
I have a family of three -- my daughter, my husband and me. Every day we talk about what our day was like and then we laugh a little to ease the tension. I make sure I save some money because when you have a child you never know when you’re going to need pampers. I try to go to school every day so that I don’t miss anything important. I don’t want any more children until my life is better situated. I care for my daughter and my husband very much, as long as we’re together we’ll be a happy family.
Dianna wrote:
I feel that my future is important because I want to finish school and get the job I want. Like this I’ll be able to support my child and provide him with what he needs. I’ll also be able to care for him. I would also like to have another baby to make my family complete and happy. For recreation I like to listen to music, relax, and cook for my family. I really consider all of this fun and want it to be like this forever.
We Are Family
The January issue, a tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., opened with an essay entitled, King’s Method of Non-Violence.
...personally I don’t think I could stand to be non-violent with someone being violent to me...
The author disagreed with
...the phrase he often stated strongly... ”free at last, free at last”
She said
We are not free. We may not have physical chains wrapped around our wrists, but there are mental chains and discrimination. This society’s perspective about young mothers often expresses negative views and criticizes us because we have children. I think that they should realize that what’s done is done. Maybe they should discuss what they could do to help us rather than condemn us. Personally, my pregnancy and child bearing were all beautiful experiences for me. Now that I have a child to raise and teach I’m a little frightened. Not because I’m unintelligent or anything I just want to make sure that i give her knowledge that I have the right way.
The girls were surprised at their peers who were critical of their choice to have children. Rufina’s wrote of a telling incident in “The Day”:
On the morning of October 27, 1987, we, the YWCA Teen Parents Program, took a trip to Manhattan Community College for a SPEAK OUT in front of senators and other city officials. We started late, but we got there. Then they divided all the teens who attended into four groups. In the Y’s group there were more teens without children than there were with children so there was a little disagreement of opinion between all of us. They would say, “We can prevent pregnancy with birth control.” And we would say, “You can’t.” So it caused a big argument between the Y’s students and the other teens. What we teen parents really needed was not taken into consideration. Almost all of the teens who spoke didn’t have an kids and it wasn’t fair. I think they should have had more teen parents at the program than they did.
After attending his poetry reading for Waterways at PRACA, the Y invited Louis Reyes Rivera to be key note speaker at their year end celebration in St. Peter’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, which was housed in the Citicorp Center. Louis spoke about the need for students to define their own community.
They could express what made them happy, what made them cry, and their hopes for the children they brought into the world. The Waterways Project motivated students to write by encouraging them to give voice to their personal concerns and to publish their writing. Melody wrote a poem for the June ’87 issue:
Chovair makes me smile
Whenever I’m feeling down
She picks me up
And turns my world around
Whether she has pigtails or tiny curls
She will always be
A part of my world
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