HELPING TEENS HELP THEIR INFANTS; GRANT WILL ALLOW PROGRAM TO PROVIDE SERVICES.

Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

Being a teen-ager can mean negotiating a minefield of challenges, emotions and growing pains en route to adulthood - a journey made more complicated when parenthood and adolescence cross paths.

That's where a new program for teen-age parents will lend a helping hand. Circle of Care, offered by the Santa Clarita Child & Family Development Center, will provide services for mothers and fathers, ages 13 to 19, who live in the valley.

A $250,000 grant from the Los Angeles County Department of Children's Services will pay for the program through September 1999, said Liz Seipel, chief executive officer of the center, a private, nonprofit agency affiliated with the United Way.

``We're hoping that this program will be so successful that the funding will continue to be available (beyond 1999),'' Seipel said.

Seipel said Circle of Care will provide the teen moms and dads instruction in parenting skills, prevention of child abuse and limited amounts of therapy. There will be support groups for young parents, information about community services geared toward teen couples, and referrals to affordable child-care providers.

The idea, Seipel said, is to help adolescents make the transition into parenthood so they can best raise their children while still carving out productive lives for themselves.

``The purpose of Circle of Care is to prevent child abuse,'' she said. ``We're empowering these teens so they become good parents for their children.''

The Circle of Care program will be introduced to the community today during an open house at the center at 21704 Golden Triangle Road.

One aspect of the program will be to prepare teens for the work force so they will be able to financially support their children. The young parents will learn how to interview for a job, how to dress for the workplace and how to hang onto a job, Seipel said.

The instruction also will cover assorted life skills, like time management, coping with stress, how to budget the family's money, how to develop one's sense of direction that can be applied to career, vocational or family goals, and how to discover their talents and abilities and then make them marketable in a job search, Seipel said.

Participation in Circle of Care will be free; the only criteria are that the young parents be 13 to 19 years old and residents of the Santa Clarita Valley. ``It's a fully funded program. There are no fees,'' Seipel said.

A study published in this month's issue of the journal Pediatrics found that children born to teen-age mothers are far more likely to drop out of high school, live in poverty and become teen moms themselves.

By contrast, children born to women in their mid-20s or older were more likely to become successful, self-sufficient adults, according to the researchers from Johns Hopkins University. The study found that older moms rear more successful kids because the mothers are more mature and more likely to be financially secure.

Circle of Care administrators have enlisted the support of the William S. Hart Union High School District in referring the teen parents - or expectant parents - to the program, Seipel said.

``They're young - they're just teen-agers,'' Seipel said. ``They're at risk to be abusive, so this is a prevention program.''

The program also has the support of the city, the Santa Clarita Valley Pregnancy Center, the Association to Aid Victims of Domestic Violence and the Child Care Resource Center, an organization that provides day-care vouchers to low-income families in which the parents have to work, she said.

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PHOTO (color) Liz Seipel is CEO of the Santa Clarita Child & Family Development Center.

Shaun Dyer/Special to the Daily News