What's in a name? Apparently, the ability to minister to more people.
Founded in 1989 at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Evergreen, Colo., Mountain Area Pregnancy Center is now going by its new name—Life’s Options Pregnancy Center—which leaders hope will boost their reach to women considering abortion in their rural community.
Along with pregnancy tests, options counseling and parenting courses, Life’s Options offers abstinence education, post-abortion counseling, and childbirth classes. Plus, they provide baby and maternity supplies and host a weekly Bible study geared to new and expectant moms.
“The best part about my job is being with the ladies,” Jill Sneed, the center's executive director, said. “Being with those ladies and those babies is really a joy. We have moms whose kids are now two or three, and they're still coming to our moms' Bible study. The longer we have with them, the more opportunity we have to share Christ and to live Christ into their lives.”
While Sneed and her team were seeing an uptick in clients over the past two years—racking up 765 client visits in 2015—they’re hoping the rebranding effort will play a role in driving that number up, especially when it comes to abortion-vulnerable clients.
Originally named Mountain Area Alternatives when it was founded in 1989, Sneed is also hoping the brand refresh will help reintroduce the organization to community members who may be open to supporting their life-saving mission.
For Sneed, changes in adoption played a major factor in selecting the new brand name. For example, birth mothers can now choose open adoptions. Gone are the days when women had to say goodbye to their babies forever when they made an adoption plan. Today, birth mothers can send and receive letters and photos and even have face-to-face visits with their birth sons and daughters.
Originally, the staff and volunteers wanted to take "pregnancy center" out of their name. But they tested their ideas on two focus groups: current clients and high school girls. These young women felt that leaving those two words out would be too vague. Potential clients might fear the center was a different kind of place, a place they didn't want to come.
Tweet This: #Colorado #prolife center refreshing branding to reach more #abortion-vulnerable women. @christybrunke
After going through names for months, they finally settled on "Life's Options Pregnancy Center," as a nod to the variety of choices a woman has when she’s facing an unplanned pregnancy.
Shortly afterward, the center came up with a new logo as well as a new tag line: "Life Beyond the Chaos." Sneed said the "O" in "Options" in their logo represents coming through their doors.
“The idea is that when you go through that circle, you find peace and options that help you in this situation," she said.
Another way the center hopes to attract more pregnant women is by offering ultrasounds for the first time. Five years ago, a donor gave money toward this cause, but the center also needed to grow their budget by 20 percent.
Now, their long-held dream is about to become a reality. They're almost fully funded, have a doctor and an ultrasound tech, and are just finalizing insurance and paperwork. If all goes as planned, they’ll start offering free ultrasounds in late March.
This spring, they're also starting a new class on healthy relationships. Even though the center has changed their name and added services, their primary purpose remains the same.
"The love and grace of Jesus Christ is really what we want to offer people when they walk through our door," Sneed said.
