Let's talk about ending the cycle of teen pregnancy to help reduce child poverty

Her grandmother was a teenage mother. Her mother was a teenage mother. And like the two generations of women before her, Rosemary Oglesby-Henry was a teenage mother. Her brother and sister were teenage parents, too. But Oglesby-Henry decided the cycle would stop with their generation. “I didn’t want any of our children to be teenage parents,” she told me. She spent years encouraging her own kids and young relatives and then got inspired to start Rosemary’s Babies back in 2013. The nonprofit organization provides teen moms and dads with mentors and training to help them break the cycle of teen pregnancy and the generational poverty that so often comes with it. She will be raising awareness about the problem of teen pregnancy with a panel discussion at 8:30 a.m. Feb. 28 at the United Way of Greater Cincinnati. Called “Teen Pregnancy: Then, When & Now,” it's free and open to the public. Full disclosure: I will be moderating the panel, and I’m looking forward to the discussion. Janelle Hocker will be there, too. Hocker is the executive director of Nella’s Place, a group home for girls in Walnut Hills that she started in 2014, and she will be one of the panelists at the event. Although Nella’s Place doesn’t cater specifically to pregnant teens, it serves girls and young women who have experienced trauma and are especially vulnerable to the whispers of young men who promise to love them, Hocker said.