Rite Aid grants Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Wilmington $10,000

WILMINGTON, Del. Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Wilmington last week received $10,000 in a grant from the Rite Aid Foundation to assist in the operation of Bayard House, a residential maternity home for teens and young women, the Diocese reported.

“We sincerely thank the Rite-Aid Foundation for their support of Bayard House,” stated  Richelle Vible, Catholic Charities’ executive director. “This grant will help us to provide Bayard House residents with proper prenatal care in a home-like environment while equipping the pregnant and newly parenting teens and women with the tools they need to live independent, self-sufficient lives once their babies are born.”

Bayard House is the only licensed residential program in Delaware providing direct client care service twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, to at-risk, homeless, and pregnant or newly parenting adolescents, women and their babies. The Bayard House program provides residential, educational and referral services to young families in need.

In fiscal year 2008, Bayard House provided 3,594 days of care to young women and their babies. Newborns had average birth weight at 6 lbs. 8 oz., well above the accepted minimal weight of 5 lbs. 9oz. determined as healthy by the American Pediatric Association. Since its inception, Bayard House has celebrated the birth of more than 660 healthy newborns.