By Erin Malcolm
Since 1983, Life Network, a nonprofit best known for their no-cost pregnancy care services has provided life-affirming support to pregnant women, fathers and families in the Colorado Springs area.
Now, more than four decades since its first pregnancy center opened, the Christian organization currently operates three pregnancy centers and a family thrift store spread across central Colorado Springs, northwest Colorado Springs and Fountain.
This fall, Life Network’s newest location — which includes a fourth pregnan-cy center and second family thrift store — will begin serving eastern El Paso Coun-ty from the heart of Falcon.
The new pregnancy center is housed at 7165 N. Meridian Road in what used to be the Colorado Springs Gun & Ammo store. It will open on Oct. 23. The new thrift store, which is next door to the pregnancy center and in what used to be the Falcon Liquor Outlet store at 7177 N. Meridian Road, will open sometime in No-vember.
The organization purchased the property about one year ago and has worked since last spring to completely transform what was once just a shell of a building into a safe and inviting space to make a difference in the lives of local residents.
“With this location, we will have the city surrounded in the best sense,” said Rich Bennett, Life Network chief executive officer and president. “It will mean that we can be there, really, for the entire Colorado Springs and surrounding areas.”
For each one of these Life Network locations, the mission is to be side-by-side with women and men who are facing unexpected pregnancies and to provide meaningful support to them in a variety of areas. This support includes medical care such as pregnancy testing, ultrasounds and sexually transmitted disease test-ing and treatment; pregnancy counseling and parenting programs; community and medical referrals; and donations of material necessities from baby items to furni-ture and more.
According to Life Network’s website, with the value of life through the love of Christ at its core, Life Network is committed to supporting the lives of each woman, man, and child that walks through the doors, which means that anyone who seeks help will receive it at no-cost all throughout pregnancy, birth and even continuing well after the baby is born.
“We have a robust parenting program that’s going to come alongside and support them until their child is 2,” Bennett said. “And that support takes the form of a one-on-one parenting coach, and we also offer parenting classes where in community they can come together with other moms and dads and get courage, coaching and care that way.”
To further serve the community, Life Network operates thrift stores — one on Academy Boulevard in Colorado Springs and the one coming to Falcon in November — that are open for anyone to donate or shop for new and gently used items. Pro-ceeds from the thrift sales recycle back through the Life Network ministry to fur-ther outreach efforts.
The Falcon Life Network will be the organization’s first co-locating pregnancy center and thrift store, which presents new opportunities to better reach the com-munity it serves, Bennett said.
For example, through the parenting programs offered, parents receive free thrift store gift cards with the opportunity to earn additional gift cards simply by participating in bi-weekly meetings with their parenting coach. At other locations, parents receive their gift cards and then have to drive miles to use them at the thrift store. In Falcon, it can be as simple as walking across the parking lot.
The thrift store will be open to everyone
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Bennett said, “(The thrift store) serves the community as a whole, and so we’re able to actually have a pretty high bar for the clothing items and the housewares and the furnishings, because we get such nice items from those who support what we do.”
Another benefit with the Falcon location is a new administrative space. With this, the current administrative department will be moving out of the Life Network location on Galley Road and into the Falcon location sometime during the end of 2024 or beginning of 2025. This will open up much needed space at the Galley loca-tion — the organization’s busiest pregnancy center — to increase the patient ca-pacity there, Bennett said. According to a statement on Life Network’s website, moving the administrative offices to Falcon will free up at least three rooms to serve more parents at the Galley location.
One of the main benefits of the new Falcon Life Network location is that it is coming at a time of need to a rapidly growing community that lacks this type of support close to home. Findings by Life Network indicate that an increasing num-ber of internet searches for pregnancy care services by zip code are in areas east of Powers Boulevard.
Bennett said, “Those in the rural community, let’s say Peyton and even far-ther east, they may have to drive as much as an hour to get medical care. And so, for us to be able to bring that care much closer to them, I think will be really meaningful.”
With that knowledge paired alongside Bennett’s statement,“There’s nowhere left for our community to grow than out east,” he and the Life Network team antici-pate that the new location will be a well-utilized resource.
“It was just increasingly making sense to be closer to a community that we know needs what we provide,” Bennett said.
According to the Life Network website, it is estimated that the Falcon preg-nancy center will serve about 500 patients per year and provide around 250 life-saving ultrasounds. These numbers were calculated with the west Colorado Springs and Fountain Life Network pregnancy centers in mind, which were opened during trends of similar population growth and online searches for pregnancy ser-vices. “Based on what we’ve seen at those centers, we’re anticipating a similar im-pact in the Falcon area,” Bennett said.
In order to provide this care, Life Network is going to need the help of com-munity members. Volunteers both at the pregnancy center and thrift store and do-nations of baby items like clothes in sizes 0-24 months and other necessities will allow Life Network to provide the life-changing services.
“We talked about the reality that so many people on the eastern plains are pretty far from the kind of care that we provide, both in pregnancy care as well as STD care, and so to be much closer to where they’re living life, I think, is going to be a great opportunity to expand what we do, and also a great opportunity for those that live there,” Bennett said. “We’re just super excited to further Life Network’s mission to serve moms, dads and families in our growing city by being right there where the need is.”
