During December 2011, TPEP focused on two wellness strategies: nutrition and family traditions.
Eating to Live: Cooking, Health & Nutrition
Using the Capital Area Food Bank curriculum, “Cooking Matters,” TPEP-ers learned how to prepare healthy, tasty low-cost meals, use a wide variety of foods that are commonly available in stores, acquire lifelong cooking skills, and discovered practical nutrition information and food budgeting strategies to use right away. Special thanks to Ms. Holly Poole-Kavana, Wellness Coordinator for Developing Families Center, who facilitated these helpful and practical sessions.
Celebrating Holidays in Healthy Ways
TPEP sponsored special holiday parties for our participants in December, including the Adopt-A-Family event and a delicious TPEP Christmas dinner prepared by the HBP staff.
But TPEP also took some time to reflect on the true purpose of the holiday season and share holiday family traditions. TPEP participants agreed that birthdays, Valentine’s Day, Christmas, and other gift-giving holidays have become commercialized. Specifically, Christmas has become about receiving gifts, too many celebrations, feeling guilty for eating sweets, stressing about the holiday menu, and waiting for the busy period to pass in order to relax.
The group discussed how they would like to pass along a different mentality to their children. TPEP-ers came up with 4 suggestions to help teen parents make Christmas a more meaningful holiday:
- Give back. When worried about what children ask for at Christmas, teens agreed to make this season less about money and more about giving back. They want to expose their children to different people with different life circumstances, and help children develop an open mind and a kind heart by watching and modeling what their parents do.
- Make time for family. Christmas is not just about being together, teens said, but rather about showing love and generosity to family members. What is the point of being together if the time is used to debate and argue? Christmas is an excellent time to show children how families can respect each other.
- Have fun and relax. Teens decided that the holiday season can be about relaxation and fun if they want it to be. One suggestion was to split up the chores among family members to create a feeling a team and then have more time to relax with family as a result. “Christmas is busy because we often chose to do more than we have time for,” one participant said.
- Homemade gifts. Presents are great but they are not necessarily meaningful because of their monetary value. Teens valued the effort and the thought put into homemade gifts. Some of their favorite gifts were scrapbook of past Christmases, homemade calendars, and a storybook with family members starring as the characters. Homemade gifts also more likely to be treasured because they are irreplaceable, while technology is soon outdated. A homemade gift often gets saved for years to come. Teen parents encouraged each other to teach their children about sentimentality.
Opportunities to participate in TPEP
Because TPEP participants are in varying stages of pregnancy and may go on maternity leave during the course of the program, TPEP operates on rolling admissions. Potential participants can enter the program at any time. However, applicants must first complete the program registration form and a confidential orientation interview. HBP welcomes walk-in applicants on Wednesday and Friday afternoons from 1-5 PM.
If you know a pregnant District resident age 12-21, encourage her to learn more about the Teen Parent Empowerment Program by logging onto our TPEP page.
For more information about HBP’s Teen Parent Empowerment Project (TPEP), contact Kahlil Kuykendall at (202) 396-2809 or by email , or at Healthy Babies Project, 801 17th St. NE, Washington, D.C. 20002.