A smooth paved road turned to gravel and then to dirt as the car traveled into a remote area deep in rural Southwest Mississippi on a recent summer day.

The scenic beauty of moss-draped trees overhanging the narrow passageway into a tiny commune ill prepared a newcomer for the squalid living conditions there.

&uot;This is where I first met Francie,&uot; said Catholic Charities social worker Evelyn D. Campbell.

Francie Dole, a fictitious name used to protect the young woman’s privacy, was an unwed teenage mother caught in a trap six years ago, Campbell said. Dole was one of the lucky ones, however. She refused to give up.

Today, Dole continues to struggle. Still unwed, she has three children. But she has a job, has found a safe place to live and is trying to buy a car.

&uot;There are degrees of better,&uot; Campbell said. &uot;Francie’s case has been closed for a year, but she still keeps in touch with me.&uot;

A world little known and less understood by their neighbors exists in rural areas such as where Dole grew up. The forces that drove her young life are not exclusively rural, however.

The same circumstances consume human potential and encourage a cycle of poverty and hopelessness in Natchez and in other communities in the three-county area of Adams, Jefferson and Claiborne that Campbell covers in a program known as Healthy Start.

The program serves families with children under 3, with an emphasis on young mothers. The goal is to help young mothers learn how to care for their babies and how to connect with services that will help them to improve their lives, Campbell said.

Healthy Start clients vary

Her clients are both black and white. &uot;One is not in any better position than the other, and I have worked with mothers as old as 40 and as young as 12,&uot; Campbell said.

She recalled a mother of 40 who had no attachment to the baby. &uot;We talked about the simplest things, like preparing the formula, washing the baby, proper sanitation.&uot;

In some cases, the Department of Human Services takes custody. &uot;I work with them to keep that from happening, but if you see that even after trying again and again nothing is changing, you have to protect the children.&uot;

Referrals come from doctors and even from maternity wards, when new mothers are showing little interest in their babies.

&uot;There is no way you can totally prepare some of the young mothers for what true parenting is,&uot; she said.

Campbell said some people might question that certain of her clients can be declared successes.

The skeptics might see those young mothers with minimum wage jobs and no benefits; housing they might consider sub-standard; and budgets that allow for little discretionary spending.

What Campbell sees is based on where they were before, however. &uot;I know where they were when I first met them. We may not do it all. We make little steps.&uot;

Helping mothers helps babies

Helping the children is vital, she said. &uot;One of my girls had a baby at 14 and got pregnant again at 16,&uot; Campbell said. &uot;She couldn’t take care of the first baby. She knew it could happen. At first she was living with her mother, then she moved here and yonder, and that’s what happens with so many of them,&uot; she said.

When the young mothers leave home, that does not mean they are on their own, she said. &uot;They will go here to stay with a cousin or there to stay with someone else, and they get upset when they have to move but are never able to see a pattern,&uot; Campbell said. &uot;The children grow up with no routine, no stability and no appropriate-age discipline. That’s the worst side of what I do.&uot;

Francie Dole, on the other hand, decided she wanted to do better. &uot;She said to me, ‘my mom didn’t do right. Help me to do the right things.’&uot;

Dole’s case demonstrates the challenges faced in remote areas by young teens who are mothers too young to cope, Campbell said.

Where one story begins

Dole and her sister lived together in a mobile home when Campbell first met them. Both were teenagers, and both were mothers.

&uot;Someone had to take me to them because they were in such a remote area,&uot; Campbell said. &uot;We parked and had to walk in. There were three or four trailers in a pasture. We’d passed over two cattle gaps to get to them.&uot;

Campbell was shocked to see extension cords draped from one trailer to another. &uot;One of the trailers had electricity. The others just used extension cords plugged into the one,&uot; she said.

&uot;Francie had one child at the time,

and her sister had two. They had a wooden heater in the living room. You could look up and see the sky,&uot; Campbell said. &uot;The little place was not dirty, but it was just a shell and shouldn’t have been lived in.&uot;

With Campbell’s help, Dole enrolled in the TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) and food stamp programs. The baby’s father began to pay child support. She was able to move.

&uot;I want to show you what the next step up was like,&uot; Campbell said, wheeling into a rutted road that led up a small hill. &uot;If you can believe it, this house was an upgrade for Francie.&uot;

The house, appearing abandoned, was in shambles. &uot;It had no running water.&uot;

Challenges for young mothers

Choices in living conditions are only the beginning of challenges for the young mothers she has seen, Campbell said.

For those in rural areas, transportation, communication with the outside world and poor parental example are often near impossible.

&uot;The girls say, ‘how do I do this when I live out here in the country’ and they have just finished the eighth grade, maybe,&uot; Campbell said.

Dole tried to complete a GED to get a high school diploma. She started and stopped several times. &uot;She had to make choices between living &045; really, survival &045; and the GED program,&uot; Campbell said. &uot;She was dependent on others giving her rides to where she needed to go.&uot;

Does the young mother take a job or go to school? &uot;She takes the job,&uot; Campbell said. &uot;She may have a mother who is telling her, ‘girl, you’re wasting your time with that GED stuff.’&uot;

The only lifestyle they know

Financial resources are the least of what some of the young mothers need, Campbell said. &uot;It takes getting out of a lifestyle where over and over again they see and know the same thing,&uot; she said. &uot;Most of the girls live with or close to their mothers, and, in so many cases but certainly not all, the mothers live the lifestyles I’m trying to get them out of.&uot;

In one case, a mother dropped teenage daughters at a juke joint one day and told them not to come home until they made some money. &uot;How do you tell someone to get away from all they’ve ever known,&uot; Campbell said. &uot;There’s not a book that tells you how to deal with this.&uot;

As a social worker, she tries to become involved in the whole family when helping the young mother. The mother of one teenage mother had a small child of her own. &uot;I tried to get her to put the child in Head Start, but she never did it.&uot;

Many of the girls face belittling remarks and other aggression that affects their self esteem. &uot;So many of them are dealing with the idea that ‘everyone is looking for me to fail,’&uot; Campbell said.

That is one reason Campbell does not wear a watch. &uot;I don’t wear a watch because I don’t want them to see me looking at it. I want each one to think I have all the time in the world for them and that they are the most important person in the world to me.&uot;

Other lives getting better

Patricia Roper, not her real name, is the mother of five children, the first born before she was 16. Like Dole, she is trying to make a better life for herself and her children.

&uot;When I first met her, she had two children and was pregnant,&uot; Campbell said. &uot;She did not finish high school but did get into Job Corps. In between all these children, positive things have happened. She has continued to work.&uot;

When she was 17, Roper lost her mother. That was a blow, the soft-spoken young woman said, sitting in the rural home she shares with her five children. &uot;But I had to move on,&uot; she said.

Children’s trophies from a reading fair, along with school photographs, stand prominently displayed, and their school folders are stacked nearby.

Roper pulls out the folders to show off their work and pulls a videotape from the shelf. &uot;This is an ABC tape I bought them. There are four tapes in the box. There’s writing and spelling, too,&uot; she said.

The youngest children are in the Head Start program. Roper is a volunteer reader. &uot;I go every other day to the school and read a book and help them with their ABCs and numbers,&uot; she said.

She gets support from the children’s father, and she has a job. &uot;I’m doing good now,&uot; she said. &uot;You should see where I did live. There were holes in the trailer and snakes got inside. And I had to heat the water for baths.&uot;

Her job takes her 45 miles from home; she is hoping to find one not so far away.

The bond between Roper and Campbell is strong. &uot;Evelyn has helped me,&uot; Roper said. &uot;She took me to Jackson to have surgery. She took me twice.&uot;

Campbell said she tries to keep in touch with many of her clients whose cases now are closed. She is proud of those who are making it.

For Campbell, anything goes

Helping young mothers to get services is vital, Campbell said. &uot;I have encouraged my girls to get what services they can and to go to school and get a job.&uot;

Services are a means to move to another level. &uot;I don’t try to get my people on services to get something free,&uot; she said. &uot;I ask them what they want to do with themselves, what they want for their children. I tell them it is important that they work and that their children see them work.&uot;

Sometimes clients abuse the system. &uot;There are people trying to use the system in the wrong way, but I know who they are,&uot; Campbell said. &uot;I can close a case.&uot;

Many of her clients left school at an early age. Although they can read, they are intimidated by forms

when they try to get social services, go back to school or apply for a job.

Some need coaching in how to dress when applying for a job, she said. &uot;One girl, when I went to pick her up, was inappropriately dressed for a job interview,&uot; Campbell said. &uot;In her mind, she looked good. She had on a short skirt and a tight little shirt. She was offended and upset with me when I told her it was not proper dress, but she eventually changed clothes. Hopefully, she learned something from that.&uot;

Campbell helps the young mothers learn how to manage their money. &uot;On the first of the month, I have to make sure they pay the household bills. I tell them to pay their bills before they go shopping,&uot; she said.

She often drives clients to do grocery shopping, discussing with them what they are going to buy before they go into the store.

Because the Healthy Start program is volunteer, Campbell must gain her clients’ trust. &uot;If you don’t develop rapport and they see you as a threat, you’ll not be able to help them,&uot; she said.

&uot;I don’t go in and tell them they don’t know how to be a parent. I do tell them that I will help them step by step if they are willing.&uot;

The greatest reward is to know that young mothers such as Dole and Roper are moving up, even if the moves are ever so slight.

&uot;Some of them do learn that having children is a commitment for life,&uot; she said. &uot;You have to convince them that it’s worth it to try to move up.&uot;