George Stewart learned about pregnancy resource centers 20 years while living in Pennsylvania. And as Development Director for Pregnancy Resource Center of Salt Lake City, he discovered not only tips for his job, but encouragement from his peers and others at this year’s Pregnancy Help Institute.
“There were an awful lot of things that seemed like no-brainers when I heard it. We just never implemented it or thought of it before,” Stewart said. “I thought it was one of the best, if not the best, multi-track training courses I’ve ever been to in 35 years of going to such things.”
Introduction to pregnancy help work
A lawyer by trade, Stewart was introduced to the work of pregnancy resource centers when he attended a banquet in the Pittsburgh area.
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“I didn’t know anything about pregnancy centers, I wasn’t involved in the political arguments, and I had no idea what to expect,” he said. “But I decided to go because I had a lot of respect for the people who invited me. So I went, and I was overwhelmed.”
The presentations and testimonies impacted him.
“I felt a conviction that I should help somehow,” Stewart said.
He made an appointment to meet the director in person, and a few weeks later, he visited her at the center. She asked him what his occupation was, and he responded, “I’m an attorney.”
“She started laughing, and she said, ‘That’s great because we had an attorney on the board for many years, and he retired and moved to Florida,” Stewart recalled. “‘We’ve had a hard time filling his position, so the whole staff got behind the stage before the banquet and they all prayed that if there was an attorney in the audience, he or she would step up.’ And then she said, ‘So we’ve been waiting for you.’”
Her statements affected him.
“That’s the first time I really felt the conviction of the Spirit and how He works,” Stewart said. “It’s something I’ll never forget.”
He served on the board for two terms.
Heeding the Spirit’s calling again
After relocating to Salt Lake City for business reasons, Stewart and his family chose a church to attend. The first Sunday they went turned out to be missions weekend, he said, and a representative from the local pregnancy center had a table in the church lobby. He again heeded the Spirit’s call and joined the board of Pregnancy Resource Center of Salt Lake City (PRC) in 2015 until he “rotated off.”
After five years in Salt Lake City, the company for which Stewart worked underwent a restructuring. At nearly the same time, the COVID 19 pandemic hit, and the PRC director left.
Tweet This: Pregnancy Help Institute helps connect center staff to resources and support
“They [the PRC board] called me,” Stewart recalled. “They asked, ‘Would you be willing to volunteer as interim director?’ I had a choice to make. I said ‘Yes!’”
He said he again felt the calling to help a center in a time of need. However, he didn’t take the title of interim executive director.
“I took the role of development director – I didn’t want the E.D. title,” Stewart said. “I essentially tried to do it all for three years. I found it wasn’t sustainable – I didn’t do anything well – I was just spread too thin. But God has been faithful these last few years. We’ve been able to staff up and send some people to training.”
He attended Heartbeat International’s Pregnancy Help Institute (PHI) in July with PRC’s newly hired director, Evangeline Sanders. After the first day, Stewart said he told Sanders, “I learned how much I didn’t know.”
He also said that realization “was good – I needed that.”
PHI “practical, accurate, relevant” for his role
Stewart’s role as PRC’s development director revolves around communication and relationship-building. He said he learned a lot about both at PHI, and he now desires to “get out of the office [more] and develop some real relationships with some of key, long-term donors.”
Better communication, stronger engagement, and nurturing relationships are part of his plan.
“I want to change the nature of the relationship with the donors from less like an ATM machine and more like a real relationship, to how they’re doing spiritually, praying for them and asking how we can pray for them, and just get to know them better,” Stewart said.
Another key takeaway for him during PHI was “the relevance and importance of direct mail,” he said.
“We had stopped doing that for cost saving purposes. But we are going to re-engage our donors [that way],” Stewart said.
Other tips he received to engage donors and potential donors included the use of “story cards,” and more effective ideas for events like Walk for Life and annual banquets.
“It was just a real eye-opener for me,” Stewart said. “They gave a lot of practical stuff. I think I have 20, maybe 25, pages of notes. I know it was good because my hand started to go numb!”
He added, “The PHI was well thought out. The information was practical. It was accurate and relevant... The instructors were well-prepared. I understand how much time they put into it, and I really appreciate that. There was no fluff at all, and I hate wasting time. It was really good.”
Making connections with others in the pregnancy help movement, including Heartbeat staff, was another positive for him, he said. Since returning from PHI, he has spoken with Cindi Boston-Bilotta and Ellen Foell.
“It’s great, just great. They are wonderful people.”
Helping Utah women choose life
PRC Salt Lake City began about 35 years ago. The center sits next door to Planned Parenthood and sometimes receives referrals, especially for ultrasounds, from them, Stewart said. The center has seen clients experience a change of heart upon seeing their unborn on the ultrasound. Stewart and the staff have also seen women who have taken the first abortion pill and then regret that choice. Those clients are referred to doctors who participate in abortion pill reversal. Those doctors and the PRC are part of the Abortion Pill Rescue® Network operated by Heartbeat International.
“We haven’t seen many, but some, and it’s encouraging,” Stewart said.
Stewart said he finds working in the pregnancy help movement rewarding.
“It’s been a blessing, it’s really been a blessing in my life,” he said. “It’s just been the best thing I’ve ever done.”
