Crisis Pregnancy Center looks to future

Barbara Leslie stands at the possible site of a new Gallup Crisis Pregnancy Center, located on Rudy Dr. in Gallup. The center helps those who find themselves in an unexpected pregnancy, but provides services involving pregnancy prevention and recovery. Leslie laughed, yet was serious in her message, when she said, "we hope to grow ourselves out of business." [Photo by Daniel Zollinger/Independent]

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Staff Writer

GALLUP — As 2007 draws to a close — the Gallup Crisis Pregnancy Center’s 25th anniversary year — the individuals behind the center are planning for some big changes in the future.

Barbara Leslie, the center’s director, talked about those goals in an interview on Monday. The GCPC is sponsoring a musical concert for the community this Thursday evening, an annual fundraising event that will inch the nonprofit, faith-based organization a bit closer to its first goal.

After 25 years of renting office space for the center, she explained, the board of directors is planning to launch a capital campaign to raise money to purchase a building to house the center. Also, after operating under the GCPC name for 25 years, board members are also considering a possible name change for the organization.

The GCPC was founded in 1982 by volunteers who were concerned about the high rates of unplanned pregnancies, abortions, and sexually transmitted diseases in the community, particularly among teenagers. They wanted to offer support and encouragement to individuals dealing with unplanned pregnancies, Leslie explained, and they wanted to provide information so clients could make educated decisions about the situations they were facing.

“There’s been a real thread that’s been real constant for the past 25 years,” said Leslie. “We’re still fulfilling what the original planners wanted us to do.”

Currently the center offers free pregnancy testing and peer counseling in a confidential setting. It also offers prenatal and parenting classes in which participating clients attend classes and do homework assignments and thereby earn credits in the center’s clothing room to purchase diapers and wipes, maternity and baby clothing, and baby supplies and equipment. Trained GCPC volunteers also teach a “Creating Positive Relationships” curriculum to area youth in school and youth group settings. The curriculum provides information about sexually transmitted diseases, unplanned pregnancy, and related risk taking behaviors like alcohol and drug abuse.

The center’s staff does not make abortion referrals, but they also don’t sit in judgment against those who choose that path. In fact, the center offers post abortion recovery support to both women and men.

In order to expand more services to the community — by lessening the amount of money the center spends on rent — Leslie said the GCPC board is planning to launch a capital campaign to raise funds to purchase a 2,257 square foot modular commercial building and have it constructed on land the GCPC will own. The goal of the board is to raise enough money, she said, to build without being strapped with a monthly mortgage payment.

Gallup’s Lighthouse Ministries owns 28 acres southeast of Nizhoni Boulevard and Second Street, she explained, and church officials are willing to donate a small section of that land to the GCPC. Pastor Bill Overton is currently talking with city officials to determine what planning and zoning steps are required, Leslie said, to pave the way for both GCPC’s construction plans and the church’s land development plans.

Leslie said the GCPC board is also considering changing the organization’s name although she declined to specify possible alternatives. “Crisis” is not a term people relate to much anymore, she explained, and many similar organizations across the country are making the decision to drop the term and change their names. Ideally, a new name would be more reflective of all the services the center offers, Leslie said.

The availability of services GCPC can offer the public is limited to the number of community members who volunteer their time to the organization, she added.

The center needs volunteers to work in the office, sort items in the clothing room, organize annual garage sales, help plan annual fund raisers, and assist with long-range planning by serving on the board. A couple of men who have an interest in mentoring other men in their role as fathers are also needed to run parenting groups for new dads.

Peer counselors who meet with women facing an unplanned pregnancy are particularly needed, Leslie said. It does involve some training, she said, and it does require donating three to four hours per week, but it is not as intimidating as some might think.

“If they’re a good listener, that’s at least half of their job description,” said Leslie, who explained that many times people just need to talk to someone.

The Gallup Crisis Pregnancy Center, 120 S. Boardman Drive, is open from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Monday through Thursday. The helpline is (505) 722-3445 and the office number is (505) 722-7125.