Next Step opens in Livermore and offers free diapers | Tim Talk | Tim Hunt | DanvilleSanRamon.com |

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About this blog: I am a native of Alameda County, grew up in Pleasanton and currently live in the house I grew up in that is more than 100 years old. I spent 39 years in the daily newspaper business and wrote a column for more than 25 years in add...  (More)

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Next Step opens in Livermore and offers free diapers

Uploaded: Apr 2, 2020
Next Step expanded its services to Livermore at the New Year when it opened an office at 4200 East Avenue. It’s now adjusting to the coronavirus shelter-in-place by offering phone conversations instead of face-to-face meetings.
It’s also launched a free diaper campaign for parents struggling financially during the shelter-in-place order. Moms, whether clients or not, can call 925.416.9997 or email [email protected] with their name, phone number, diaper size (1-5) and preferred pick-up location (Livermore office or Pleasanton at 5776 Stoneridge Mall Road, suite 200).
Executive Director Michelle Kelly explained that it was a service Next Step could offer to help moms in these tight economic times. The offer will continue as long as they have supplies.
Client advocates also are available by phone to clients facing stressful decisions.
“We are prepared to weather this storm with our community and happy to help in any way we can,” she wrote in an email.

When things return to normal, it will be expanding its offerings beyond serving women with an unplanned pregnancy to include services for teens focused on making healthy and confident choices daily.
Kelly is excited about the new location, within a block of East Avenue Middle School and less than a mile from Livermore and Del Valle high schools. With students walking by to and from school, she’s hoping they will drop in and take advantage of Next Step’s trained staff to talk about their day and decisions they may be facing.
The office previously housed the Livermore Pregnancy Resource Center, a non-medical facility serving women facing an unplanned pregnancy. When the executive director, a long-time colleague of Kelly’s retired, it made the expansion to a second office easy. As a licensed medical facility, Next Steps offers ultrasounds for pregnant women. Initially women will have to travel to Pleasanton for that service, but the organization is considering purchasing a portable ultrasound that can rotate between the two sites.
“What we are really excited about reaching out to a younger population of high school and middle school girls with after-school drop-in sessions that we promote on social media. The goal is to help them make healthy and confident choices every day before they might need our (pregnancy) services,” Kelly said.
The main office in Pleasanton is next to Stoneridge Shopping Center and a short walk from the West Dublin/Pleasanton BART station.
The Next Step team is rotating staff members between the two sites, so the team has not grown. In addition to the drop-in sessions, Next Step offers a range of services to pregnant women including tests, ultrasound, a client advocate to coach a woman through her pregnancy, as well as classes and workshops after delivery. It also offers parenting classes and other educational programs to support a new mom and the baby’s father in their relationship.
The organization was established in 1989. Interestingly, Kelly observed that the Livermore location is going to be helpful because very few clients come from Pleasanton and other affluent cities along the Interstate 680 corridor. Most are from Livermore and income level seemed to be a factor. She noted that statistics show the teen pregnancy rate dropping and the sales of the morning-after abortion pill increasing.
Their typical client, in recent years, is a married woman in her mid- to late-20s.
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Comments

Posted by Jake Waters, a resident of Birdland,
on Apr 2, 2020 at 4:23 pm

I have a question for you Tom: So only conservatives have their comments deleted? It appears that Pleasanton Weekly is run as Twitter and Facebook. I have had two posts removed because I responded to a liberals comment. I wasn't rude or vulgar. To the contrary, I never see posts by liberals that attack Trump, Fox News, or some other conservative where their comments are very demeaning and hateful. Are separate rules?


Posted by Wombat, a resident of Downtown,
on Apr 2, 2020 at 11:19 pm

@Jake Waters

Interesting post. You conservatives are always railing against the press as being liberally biased, but now it's as if you don't actually believe your own accusations. How confusing.


Posted by Jake Waters, a resident of Birdland,
on Apr 3, 2020 at 1:43 pm

Jake Waters is a registered user.

@Wombat

Interestingly that you popped up. My comment back to you on the last blog column was removed. Your a liberal, so you can say what you want. After all, the majority of news media in this country is owned and operated by Democrats. Not surprisingly in the high 90 percentile. That said, Fox News is the only station as an alternative, but not surprisingly, out performs all other media stations. You don't like Tucker, ok. I don't need to support him here because he does just fine on his own. But here's deal. Debate, discussion, arguing ideas and facts should be the most important valued principle protected. When Pleasanton Weekly removes a comment that has not engaged in vulgarity, violence, or the suppression of someone else's liberties than there is something wrong. Twitter, Facebook, and Google do this all the time. It's wrong there and it is wrong here. Are they fearful someone might have a point, might cause someone to take a pause, might encourage one to have reflection, or do they follow the media plans of CNN and MSNBC to refrain from providing truth when it might value and support the ideology of the other side?


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