EDGEWOOD – From its humble beginnings in a trailer in the parking lot of St. Ignatius Church in Hickory to its current location in Edgewood, Choose Hope Women’s Center has been offering support and encouragement to women in Harford County for 51 years.
“We have something special here,” said Monsignor Kevin Schenning, pastor of St. Margaret in Bel Air, as he gave a blessing for Choose Hope’s staff and board members Sept. 26. “We need places like this. We need hope. Thank you for your services. My prayers are with you.”
With a mission to support and love anyone through the stages of pregnancy, Choose Hope’s services are all free, encompassing pregnancy tests, ultrasounds and education sessions. The center offers free maternity clothes to expecting women. For newborns through age 3, the center provides diapers, formula and clothes.
“Everything is donated by individuals, churches and organizations,” said Stephanie Atha, executive director of Choose Hope. “There is a grassroots initiative of people in the area that know we do good work and come beside us to make it happen.”
Monsignor Schenning and Nina Heck, St. Margaret’s outreach director, brought donations from St. Margaret School to the blessing, including diapers, baby wash, baby shampoo and clothing.
“Since we started the Baby Bottle Project during Lent, our people have given $15,000 to $20,000 every year,” Monsignor Schenning said. “It is a way of expressing our Catholic faith by being active.”
The center’s staff and volunteers talk with clients about their faith and where they are spiritually.
“Our client advocates always have the option to pray with our clients,” Atha said. “Ninety-nine percent of the time when you ask a client if it is okay to pray with them, they answer ‘yes.’ Usually after, we are hugging and teary-eyed at the end.”
Atha encourages clients to build relationships with the local church where they live and refers them to those in their area.
“If you tell them Choose Hope sent you, they’ll just love on you and embrace you,” Atha tells clients. “We have about 20 to 25 churches that partner with us. Not all are Catholic, but about 50 percent are.”
Catholic churches that have supported the center over the years include St. Margaret, St. Ignatius in Hickory, St. Mary of the Assumption in Pylesville, St. Mark in Fallston, St. Stephen in Bradshaw, St. John the Evangelist in Hydes, St. Francis de Sales in Abingdon, St. Patrick in Havre de Grace and Church of the Holy Spirit in Joppa, Atha said.
The center also has coaching sessions for dads, according to Joe Schatz, a board member, who demonstrated to one how to change a diaper by using a football.
“These guys didn’t have a role model or had lots of trauma,” Schatz said. “They want to break that cycle. They don’t want it to continue. The goal is to walk with these guys and if we do it for a year, it is a win. You have to be very patient.”
Choose Life moved to its current location at 1924 Pulaski Highway in Edgewood two years ago, where its neighbors are fellow nonprofits Maryland Food Bank and Epicenter at Edgewood, a community center offering a food pantry, cafe, thrift store and a variety of classes and support groups.
Atha had the 2,400-square-foot space completely gutted and designed to meet the needs of her clients and staff. Clients enter a welcoming lobby, where each is offered a drink and food, followed by two rooms, each with a bathroom, where clients meet with staff to talk. The medical office room is where sonograms are given to check how far along a woman is in pregnancy, if the pregnancy is ectopic, and if the pregnancy is viable and the baby has a heartbeat, Atha said, as one in four women suffer a miscarriage.
“They (clients) don’t know what to do or their options,” Atha said. “We talk about abortion, becoming a parent and adoption.”
The back of the space houses the staff offices. Currently, Choose Hope has seven staff members, 40 volunteers and three bilingual advocates.
“We see 15 Spanish-speaking families a week,” Atha said. “Most need material assistance for the family.”
As to why have the blessing now, Kimberly Bradley, business manager for Choose Life, said “Why not?” She added that the center had to deal with some issues the last few years, including closing the Bel Air office, and the timing wasn’t right until now.
With abortion all over the news, it can feel very dark when the other side is so loud, Atha said. She noted that Maryland is “a very pro-abortion state” and has the fourth highest abortion rate in the country. Choose Hope makes a difference, she said.
“Here is where we need to be,” Atha said. “If you really want to make a difference and save lives every day, partner in. We are literally saving lives and saving women the experience of having an abortion and the regret for the rest of their lives.”
Last year marked the first time Choose Hope worked with 1,100 clients. This year, the numbers are closer to 1,500, Atha said. As the center also offers services for dads and children, that number is closer to 4,500 to 5,000 served, she said.
“I want to be the kind of person that every day when I wake up and my feet hit the ground, Satan goes ‘Oh no,'” Atha said. “The spiritual attacks to our center are real but that doesn’t discourage us. That just means that we’re doing the right things.”
Email Katie V. Jones at kjones@CatholicReview.org
Editor’s note: This story was updated at 9:30 a.m. on Oct. 11, 2024 to clarify certain information and add St. Patrick in Havre de Grace as one of the supporting parishes.
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