Girls Ranch

Girls Ranch Inc. of Arizona Information:

Florence Crittenton

715 West Mariposa Street Phoenix, AZ 85013 

P. (602) 274-7318 | F. (602) 274-7549  

How to Get Involved:

-Become a Member

-Volunteer at an event 

-Donate

Learning Life, Education, and Love

                 A sister organization of Florence Crittenton is Girls Ranch. Girls Ranch is a facility for pregnant or parenting adolescent girls. This organization is important to be knowledgeable about because Arizona has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates. Young adolescent women are the only people who can get pregnant to add to this rate and specific organizations need to form to help them out. These young women are biologically singled out when it comes to having sex at a young age; they are the only ones in the sexual relationship that become pregnant. This is a gendered issue due to the absence of the male being able to become pregnant and, also, the absence of the male in the relationship after the baby is born. As the article “Welfare Reform and Teenage Pregnancy, Childbirth, and School Dropout” states, “Summarizing the research literature spanning 2 decades, by the late 1980’s, the National Research Council concluded that women who become parents as teenagers are at greater risk of social and economic disadvantage throughout their lives than those who delay childbearing (Hayes, 1987 quoted in   Lingxin Hao et all, pg. 180). This disadvantage is where Girls Ranch steps in to help out. The organization offers a program that includes services to educate the girls on parenting skills, as well as, daily household skills. The “Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention” article describes this program saying, “Interventionists who have designed multidimensional programs have recognized the complex nature of adolescent sexuality and have intervened in adolescent’s lives along a number of dimensions in attempts to achieve the goal of fewer pregnancies” (F. Scott Christopher, pg. 385). Girls Ranch creates social change in this area because they supply the girls with resources and knowledge that no one would give to them otherwise. This program gives the teenage mothers a chance to succeed socially, mentally, and economically even though the odds are against them. In concerns to this course, the feminist acts of centralizing an organization around adolescent young mothers speaks for itself in giving the young mothers a place in society that is formed for only them. The acts of activism through the success of the girls when they leave are priceless forms of education and help that are deeply appreciated by the young mothers. The attention and care the mothers get is also another act of activism because it is simply one women passing down help to another young women in need. The organization takes all adolescent mothers sent there by Child Protective Services, their parents, or court. The organization does not racially, socially, or economically discriminate. On a larger scale, the young mothers must leave at the age of 18 and when they do leave they are confident and ready to succeed in life with the skills they have acquired. In conclusion, it is important for people to know that services like this are out there and in their backyard of Phoenix, Arizona. Organizations like this are hard to come by and should be utilized in everyway possible. The young mothers at Girls Ranch have a chance to beat the disadvantages that are against them with the lessons they have learned. This, in turn, allows the young mothers to give their child a fighting chance in society as well.

References:

1. Christopher, F. Scott. "Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention." Family Relations 44.4 (1995): 384-91. Www.jstor.org. Oct. 1995. Web. 08 Nov. 2010. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/584994>.

2. "Journal of Marriage and Family." Welfare Reform and Teenage Pregnancy, Childbirth, and School Dropout 66.1 (2004): 179-94. Www.jstor.org. National Council on Family Relations, Feb. 2004. Web. 08 Nov. 2010.