Dear Nurturing Friends,

I welcome this opportunity to share with you the strategic direction that we implemented in June 2017. As mentioned in the opening page of this website, on Mother's Day of 2017 TNN completed its operation as a 501(c)3 charitable organization. The essential message at the core of TNN's vocational commitment lives on through the gratitude and example of the thousands of women and children served during its 30 year history.

TNN gave strength and efficacy to the word, “network.” TNN grew over the years to become a vibrant consortium of caring individuals, corporations, foundations, medical professionals, educators, and counselors unified in a common purpose of providing life-affirming resources to the most vulnerable members of our society.  

Since TNN’s founding in 1985, significant changes have taken place in the prevailing culture. When TNN was founded, the dominant response to a crisis pregnancy was fear and shame. Few families were prepared to offer support to women in this difficult situation; most preferred to find solutions that involved hiding the reality. Abortion became just one manifestation of this response. Shame and guilt led many women to choose desperate alternatives as they were faced with seemingly impossible tradeoffs. Boyfriends deserted them, employers found excuses to fire them, educational institutions punished them, and families more often than not turned their backs on them. It was against this unfortunate backdrop that TNN was founded and chose to direct its primary service.

Over the course of three decades, TNN's example of compassion in action helped to create a profound shift in attitude. Guilt and shame have slowly been replaced by empathy and respect.

Another positive change has been the expansion of local pregnancy care centers that are now located in communities all across the country. In 1985, very few local resources in many regions of the country and many that did were often understaffed, poorly equipped and lacking in funds. As this infrastructure has grown in stature and capability, the availability of practical resources has expanded to include the full array of services that women require to meet urgent needs. It has been in large part due to the formation of this strong network of reliable client service providers all across America that TNN has increasingly chosen to perform client counseling in a collaborative service model.

Many care center directors have expressed gratitude to TNN for its contribution of leadership, training and practical resources necessary for this expansion in client service at the local level to occur. 

There are few charitable organizations with such a legacy of love and treasury of service waiting to be told through the personal stories of thousands of inspirational clients. The value of allocating my time and attention to this specific educational goal has gained a sense of urgency as countless letters from past clients have suggested the wisdom of my undertaking this focus now.

With this strategic priority in mind and with our Board’s unanimous blessing, I will be directing my efforts to developing the educational and communication component of TNN’s mission. My goal will be to leverage the past thirty years of experience by communicating what we have learned pay tribute to the women and children who have touched my life as much as I have theirs.

With your support and encouragement, I will be able to realize this timely goal as the newest dimension of TNN's rich history. With a grateful heart, I look forward to the immense potential we have to tell the story of TNN's courageous maternal profiles in courage in the years ahead ...

Mary

Mary Cunningham Agee
Nurturing Network Founder