Before Lauren was in touch with Safe Place, she was staying with her father, and younger brother who has special needs. 

 

Lauren did not have a conducive living environment and was living in a small cluttered room in a shophouse above her father's shop. She has a strained relationship with her father, and they quarrelled often over her decision to keep the baby.

 

Initially, Lauren considered temporary foster care for her baby, but decided not to be separated from the baby after birth. 

 

During her pregnancy, Lauren showed great determination to keep the child despite the emotional stress she faced due to little support from her family. 

 

When she made a firm decision to keep her baby, her father was not willing to provide long-term support and accommodation to her and her baby. Her half-sister, however, was the only family member who supported her decision to keep the baby and referred her to Safe Place to receive help. 

 

Safe Place worked on a few levels to assist Lauren. We attempted to engage Lauren and her father for a longer term solution, as well as, working to find an alternative accommodation for her and the baby. 

 

Eventually, we arranged for Lauren to come under a homestay arrangement where she stayed with a couple who was committed to house her and her baby. This arrangement provided a stable home to Lauren and her baby while she finds her footing in her new role as a mother, and juggles with full-time work. 

 

Together with other sector partners, Safe Place also provided case management and connected her with other partners like medical social workers, family service centre social workers and an infant care centre.

 

Safe Place is also supporting Lauren with practical help like baby supplies and supermarket vouchers. Lauren also joins us for parentcraft workshops and programmes whenever she can.

 

Under the guidance of the couple she is staying with, Lauren is now a confident mother to her baby girl.  She is also working as a customer service personnel and works around the Infant Care Centre hours so that she can drop and pick her daughter daily.  Lauren hopes to be able to rent her own HDB unit in time to come so that she and her daughter can grow and blossom as a family unit.

 

Lauren continues to receive case management assistance from Safe Place and she is also supported by multiple community and government assistance schemes.