The Steamboat Pilot & Today

Steamboat Springs — The Steamboat Springs Pregnancy Resource Center hopes to deliver better services in 2009 with a new executive director position and expanded offerings. These improvements are the result of a $100,000 grant to the center.

The center provides counseling and resources to “come alongside women who are facing the pressures of an unplanned pregnancy,” Executive Director Melinda Clark said.

Clark recently was named the center’s executive director and second full-time staffer by the organization’s volunteer board of directors.

Clark’s plans as executive director include an expansion of the center into its own space and an increase in services.

The $100,000 grant, provided by the Davis Foundation, will be used to find a new location for the center, board President Paula Lotz said.

“We really were just at a point where we wanted to grow the center and needed someone who had the time and the heart for the ministry to get out and be the face of the center, that public face,” she said.

The center is housed, rent-free, on the grounds of Holy Name Catholic Church at Fifth and Oak streets. The Pregnancy Resource Center is not associated with the church.

Lotz said about six women use the center each month, but she suspects there are many other women who could benefit from the services if advertising is increased.

The center is described by Lotz as pro-life-based and provides counseling, free pregnancy tests and free ultrasounds to women. She said there also is the capacity to add post-abortion counseling and abstinence education programs as the need arises.

Diapers, maternity clothes and other baby items are available to mothers.

Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains also has an office in Steamboat Springs at the corner of Lincoln Avenue and 11th Street. Planned Par­enthood provides pro-choice counseling and resources.

Although the center does not provide abortion referrals or contraceptives, Clark does not see the center as only pro-life.

“We are not judgmental — that is not the point. We are not going to force our beliefs on anyone — that is not the point,” she said. “We love to see women making decisions that allow for life.”