Good counselors save lives. Project REACH is dedicated to promoting the quality of care and counseling in pregnancy resource centers. To achieve this goal, Project REACH was pleased to collaborate with Heartbeat International, an umbrella organization in Columbus, Ohio, that serves some 800 affiliated centers, in launching the Consultant Certificate Training Program (ConCert) curriculum. The course provides counselors with a thorough grounding in counseling techniques, abortion, abortion alternatives, parenting options (including marriage, adoption and single parenting), referrals and follow-up, hotline techniques and current legal issues. It also covers basic areas of human sexuality, fertility and conception, embryonic and fetal development, contraception, and sexually transmitted disease.

Project REACH spoke with Peggy Hartshorn, president of Heartbeat International, about the ConCert program.

What is the ConCert Program?

Hartshorn: ConCert stands for Consultant Certificate Training Program. It's a 14-week distance learning, college-level course for volunteers or staff working in pregnancy centers. We call the workers pregnancy option consultants. We don't want them to be confused with licensed counselors. We want to be totally honest and upfront about who is working in the centers. Some have counselors and nurses and can advertise that. But many have volunteers from various walks of life. So this is a good term that covers professionals and nonprofessionals.
The purpose of the course is to raise the level of knowledge and skills of the consultant so he or she feels more confident and competent in the job. The content covers everything from the information he or she needs on abortion and chastity, sexually transmitted diseases, adoption, pregnancy, etc. - all the issues we deal with - plus information on things such as confidentiality, and tort law, which has to do with the knowledge they need to avoid being charged with assault and battery or causing emotional distress. The course informs them of potential legal liability and how to avoid it. For example, to avoid the distress charge by showing clients materials that might upset them, they could have an appropriate consent form. Or to avoid being charged with assault, we can ask clients permission before we touch them.

How does the program work?

Hartshorn: In the ConCert program, each student is assigned a teacher. They're in contact at least once a week and whenever the student needs additional help. It's geared for individual studies at the student's own pace. Each student has a notebook with all the written materials and required readings. Each pregnancy center that participates will have a set of required audio-visual materials. Each student that takes the course can use that material. So a center has a one-time purchase of about $400 to cover the materials. Each student then pays a fee of $240 for the course and materials. That could be paid partly by the student and partly by the center, and perhaps the center can get a sponsor to help pay.

Who developed the program? What needs did you see that the program tries to fulfill?

Hartshorn: Heartbeat International developed the idea because many of our affiliates expressed the need for higher standards and higher levels of training for their staff. We have some 800 affiliated service providers, 50 of them overseas, including pregnancy resource centers, maternity homes, nonprofit adoption agencies and medical clinics. Because the centers are so involved in providing direct client services they haven't had the time to develop higher-level training programs.
It's distance learning because we know that volunteers and staff can't afford to take time, nor do they have the resources, to leave home and go for extensive training programs somewhere else. They can take it at the pregnancy center or from home.
We need the full cooperation of the pregnancy center to provide the course for their consultants or staff. This is to enhance and support their current training program. It's in no way to circumvent or supplant that. So we advise the pregnancy center director or director of client services to take the course first so he or she can recommend it to the rest of the staff.

You did a pilot last year in New York. Tell us about it.

Hartshorn: We did a pilot with several pregnancy centers there. They sent a center director and one or two staff volunteers through the program. They helped us tremendously in improving the course and making it more user-friendly. They told us it had a direct benefit in improving the work they did, helping them improve the way they deal with clients.

How many consultants have received this training so far, and what have been the results?

Hartshorn: About 40 people have taken part, and the responses have been very positive. Basically, the training has raised the bar in the pregnancy centers where these consultants work. They bring with them a deeper level of training and professionalism, and it affects all the services of these centers. The rest of the staff responds and they actively seek ways to improve.
It also has given the consultants a lot more competence and confidence. They are sure now that all the information they give is absolutely factual, and they have learned how to present the pro-life message in a clear and positive way. They have learned about the issues of confidentiality and providing pregnancy tests, all the activities that might be covered by state law. It is our ultimate goal that this rise in the level of competence and professionalism will result in better counseling and more clients opting for life, more women choosing to give birth to the babies.

What about long-term goals?

Hartshorn: We'll have three semesters for classes in 2003, the first one started in January. We're planning our next course, which will probably be in women's fertility. Our goal is to provide a range of courses that will be pertinent not only for consultants but also center directors and board members, as well as professionals like nurses and social workers who are working in our centers. We're also in the process of negotiating with several colleges to provide college credit for these courses.

You mentioned that you don't want volunteers to be confused with licensed counselors. Does this have anything to do with recent charges by abortion advocates that crisis pregnancy centers engage in misleading advertising?

Hartshorn: Not directly. This course was in the works long before the latest round of attacks on pregnancy centers. It comes more from our own internal desire to do the best job we possibly can, to provide the most accurate information.
It will help volunteers have more confidence and alleviate their fear and concern by helping them know they're providing services in the most professional way.

For further information regarding the student syllabus and the date of the next scheduled course please contact:

Heartbeat International
665 Dublin-Granville Road, Suite 440
Columbus, OH 43229
Phone: 614) 885- 7577 Fax: (614) 885-8746
E-mail address: support@heartbeatinternational.org

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