She's lived their stories: St. Augustine maternity home for young mothers run by former resident

When Brittany Glisson was 17, she found out she was pregnant.

She hid at her boyfriend's home, dreading giving her parents the news. Two years earlier, at 15, she was in the same predicament and her family decided to terminate the pregnancy.

The experience was devastating.

Because of the earlier decision "to end that child's life," she said, she was determined to fulfill her second chance at motherhood. She enrolled in the nonprofit St. Gerard Campus, a residential maternity home that has a high school, onsite daycare facility and pregnancy resource center in her hometown of St. Augustine. All services are free.

Though "timid and unsure" when she arrived, Glisson said she was "welcomed by the sound of babies crying, girls talking and the invitation into a mother’s world."

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"The community of motherhood is necessary and welcomed," she said. "Instead of the common stares of disbelief, there was laughter and acceptance, staff and volunteers eager to help me develop as not only a student but as a mother."

Last year, 20 years after having her son Logan, graduating and heading to nursing school and later Bible college, she was named executive director of St. Gerard. Now married with two other sons, she runs the home that provided the soft landing for her second chance.

"It’s an honor to continue the mission," Glisson, 37, said. "When someone or something impacts you so greatly, I feel it’s necessary to return and invest in any way possible."

St. Gerard "is such an amazing place," she said. "Young ladies who feel overwhelmed or perhaps that their life is over when learning they are pregnant are welcomed with compassion and support." Whether they plan to raise their child or seek adoptive parents, they are "encouraged and invested in," she said.

"Our hope is that we can help them achieve their goals and allow them to see past their current situation," Glisson said, "and open their eyes to possibilities they never could have imagined."

'Pro-life, faith-based, safe haven for mothers'

Founded in 1981 by the late Caroline Wolff, St. Gerard is named after the patron saint of expectant mothers, who lived in the 1700s. Wolff moved to St. Augustine with her husband to retire but ended up finding a new career after meeting a teenage mother who had been kicked out of her parents' home. Wolff died in October.

St. Gerard is designed to support similar young pregnant women or new mothers who had been shunned from family and needed support. All services are free, including pregnancy tests, sonograms and adoption assistance. The mission "has remained a pro-life, faith-based, safe haven for mothers" ranging in age from 12 to 20, according to the website, with "individualized, professional services customized specifically to each young woman’s needs."

"We provide pregnant teenagers with time and education to meet the physical, psychological and spiritual challenges of responsible parenthood with self-confidence and self-esteem," according to the website. "We will equip them with the technical skills they need to compete in the marketplace."

Glisson gave birth to Logan while she was at St. Gerard. He was born two months premature, weighing only 2 pounds, and spent his early life hospitalized in a neonatal intensive care unit. Later he was released to his mother's care, with oxygen therapy and an apnea monitor.

Despite Logan's challenges, Glisson finished her schoolwork and graduated with a Bright Futures scholarship. With her mother's help, she began attending nursing classes at a local community college.

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The next few years were filled with trials and errors "struggling to find her identity and balance as a single parent," she said. Her family relationships were strained and her son's biological father provided no support.

"I often felt lost and overwhelmed," she said.

She began attending a local church and later met the man who has been her husband of 19 years. He raised Logan, now 20 ― "even adopting him and giving him his name," she said — and they had two more sons, Asher 14, and Gavin, 10.

As she grew as a mother and a wife, Glisson said she saw the value of her life story, her testimony, her healing. She attended and now oversees a "post-abortive recovery class" at her church.

"I have had the honor of seeing so many receive healing from their choice that imprisons them so many years after," she said.

Over the years, she kept close ties with St. Gerard and Wolff, serving as a volunteer, mentor and ambassador for the program. During her first year as executive director, Glisson oversaw a renovation and obtained a new sonogram machine. She developed the pregnancy resource center, which was showcased at St. Gerard's first open house.

Mobile Giving Machine dispenses good

She also helped bring in a new venue to spread the word and increase public awareness about the nonprofit.

The Mobile Giving Machine, a ministry of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, recently visited St. Augustine. The bright red vending machines give people an opportunity to buy items for charities: They insert money and donate a goat for a needy family in Africa or an acre of sweet potatoes for a family in Asia.

For the St. Augustine visit, the options included a stroller or healthy snacks for residents of St. Gerard. The other nonprofit benefitting was Miriam’s Basket of Middleburg.

"Giving Machines were proposed as a way to make giving a fun and tangible experience … during our annual Light The World initiative," said Gail Pannell, communication director for the church's Jacksonville Coordinating Council. "People could go to a  machine and vend service to others."

In 2017 there was a stationary machine in one city that was "wildly successful," she said. "From there, the program has grown every year." In 2022 the Giving Machine concept visited 28 cities, with St. Augustine as one of the five sites for the mobile unit's inaugural year. Each city spotlighted two nonprofits.

"Being chosen for the Giving Machine was such an honor," Glisson said. "People are able to donate these items that will benefit our girls directly. We underestimate the gift of healthy meals to a young pregnant mother, the magnitude of a brand-new stroller to a new mother. These are morale boosters that show these moms they are truly supported and loved."

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Donations can be made through Dec. 24 online at mobilegivingmachine.org.

"I am so glad that we can do something to give back to St. Gerard Campus," Pannell said. "Their mission is to help teen mothers to rise from less than ideal circumstances."

St. Gerard has added a mentorship program for young fathers

Inspired by son Logan's debut as a father, she is developing a male mentorship program. Logan, currently serving in the U.S. Coast Guard in Bayonne, N.J., and wife Andreya have a 2-year-old son named Uriah and are expecting their second son in May. The development of young fathers is "often overlooked in the pro-life movement," she said.

"I love seeing my son as a father," she said. "The advice I gave him was to prayerfully consider everything. We are never perfect and will never be, we are learning with our children. They are teaching us as much as we are teaching them."

Watching him and other young fathers over the years prompted Glisson to ponder, "What are we doing to invest in them?" While mothers-to-be at St. Gerard take birthing and child development classes, she said, "We send the father into the delivery room to support the mother clueless. We expect him to know how to step up as a father, regardless if there was an example in the home. When they fail to meet the standards we set, we villainize fathers and perpetuate the cycle of fatherless homes."

The program for young fathers, called Reign, provides not only mentorship but financial literacy, parenting classes and education on "their true role as a father," she said. "Our hope is that like our mothers who thrive … through community, these young men through investment will thrive as well."

Other initiatives will be added as needed, or as directed from above.

"This is just the beginning. Where God leads this ministry, it will go," Glisson said.

bcravey@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4109

ST. GERARD CAMPUS

The nonprofit is at 1405 S. U.S. 1, St. Augustine. To donate, volunteer or get more information, contact P.O. Box 4382, St. Augustine 32085; (904) 829-5516; support@stgerardcampus.org; or go to stgerardcampus.org. Its thrift store is at 1333 No. 3 Old Dixie Highway, St. Augustine 32084; (904) 522-3224.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: St. Augustine woman returns to St. Gerard to help pregnant teens