Kandis Johnson came close to losing her baby even before he had a chance.

&uot;Me and a woman had gotten into it, and I&160;asked the Lord, if you’ll just let my baby be OK,&uot; the teenager said, cradling the now 3-week-old. &uot;I didn’t want to lose him so I prayed about it.&uot;

So Johnson has begun attending a parenting class for teen mothers. On Wednesday, she was one of five teens at the Families First Resource Center, a new division of Youth Court designed to help people like Johnson make the most of their mistakes – and avoid them in the future.

&uot;This is beyond teenage pregnancy,&uot; said volunteer instructor Aleadra Dunkley as she wrote the class’ theme on a dry-erase board. &uot;We call them ‘power’ sessions. It’s about responsibility, motivation, self-esteem.&uot;

&uot;Power,&uot; Dunkley said, stands for parents of wisdom, elevation and revival.

The teen parenting class Johnson and her peers attended is just one of several programs the center, headed by Mary Jane Gaudet, has developed in just a couple of months.

In April, the county received a $100,000 grant from the Mississippi Department of Human Services. Coupled with a $150,000 grant from the Department of Public Safety, that money helped Gaudet begin planning for the resource center. She is already applying for grants to expand and continue the work of the center.

In June, the center moved into rented rooms above the McGehee law office on Market Street.

Along with parenting classes – for teens and adults – the resource center offers tutoring services, anger management lessons, and drug and alcohol awareness. In the fall, center counselors will begin teaching conflict resolution seminars to public school teachers.

And a library just off Gaudet’s office has books and videotapes on everything from teenage pregnancy to &uot;Raising the Thinking Child.&uot;

&uot;We’re just a place to help families,&uot; Gaudet said. &uot;Our motto is families first.&uot;

All of the services the resource center offers are free.

In the class Dunkley is teaching, putting families first means teaching the teen mothers everything from self-esteem to the most economical choice in diapers. The lessons they learn – and may be able to impart to their peers who aren’t teen parents – are important in a state with the highest teen pregnancy rate in the nation, according to Kids Count statistics.

The class is open to everyone, regardless of race, economic status – or gender.

&uot;Males are invited, too,&uot; Gaudet said. &uot;Males are teen fathers, too.&uot;

When planning for the center, Gaudet said she identified the most pressing problems for families in Adams County. She found such things as family management and teenage peer pressure among the most important.

The services of the center are designed around many of those problems.

In addition to the family resource services, the center also houses a child abuse prevention program.