ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, August 11, 1996 TAG: 9608090097
SECTION: DISCOVER ROANOKE VALLEY PAGE: 16 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KEVIN KITTERIDGE STAFF WRITER
Connie Isbell is a mom to moms.
A grandmother herself in private life, Isbell is an outreach worker and sometime guardian angel to pregnant teens - the official title is "resource mother" - in a program sponsored by the Roanoke City Health Department.
The Resource Mothers Program is an effort to improve the health of babies born to teen-age mothers. Those infants often are subject to an array of health problems stemming from lack of prenatal care, bad nutrition and other early handicaps.
"You do a little bit of everything," said Isbell, who often ferries her young women to and from medical appointments. She also teaches basic nutrition and child-care skills and identifies the young mothers' most basic needs - from diapers to another home - and tries her best to fill them. "The purpose is to get teens in the earliest possible stage of pregnancy. We'd like for it to be the next morning," she said - and laughed.
Most of the young women are referred to them from other agencies and other young mothers in the program, said Fran Villarreal, the program's coordinator.
Villarreal said it takes "a very special kind of person" to be a resource mother.
She said Isbell has just what it takes. "She's great. She's wonderful at it."
In the beginning, Isbell wasn't so sure she would be. An employee of Hotel Roanoke for 23 years before joining the program in 1991, she suddenly found herself going into all kinds of neighborhoods - and offering up her services to utter strangers.
She recalls her first few days as "frightful."
"Learning how to go out and do that was a challenge to me," said Isbell, who would knock on doors, state her business - and get cold stares in return. "They'd stand there looking at me like I was crazy."
But she was persistent, and soon found that the young women warmed up to her quickly once they were convinced she had their interests at heart.
Isbell since has discovered that even the girls with a reputation for being tough customers soften up in time. "During the course of the relationship they became a joy. They just change. I think it's knowing someone cares about them."
Along the way Isbell teaches, hand-holds, sometimes fights with relatives and boyfriends. "I've gone into combat with some males. Verbally, not physically," she said.
In between times, she scares up diapers and other essentials for the 30 young mothers and mothers-to-be in her care - often by pleading at local stores.
The first time she did that, Isbell said, she came out again and said to herself in wonder: "I actually went into that store and asked them for something."
"But I got it."
Isbell's young women often have been sexually assaulted, she said. Many are high school dropouts. Most have a multitude of problems.
In addition, "A lot of these girls have no support from family," Isbell said.
After working with the young women all day, Isbell sometimes has trouble sleeping at night - though she said it was worse in the beginning.
But her work also has its rewards. On the wall behind her desk is a multihued gallery of smiling young woman - and their smiling, healthy babies.
"Nothing is more rewarding than to get my pictures and thank-you notes," she said.
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ROGER HART STAFF Connie Isbell is a counselor andby CNBfriend to pregnant teen-agers in a program sponsored by the Roanoke
City Health Department. color