The professional formation for new pregnancy help center directors at the recent Pregnancy Help Institute held by Heartbeat International was conducted with excellence, participants said, providing solid next steps for new directors, along with a good understanding of what the day-to-day in directing a center looks like. Attendees said as well that Pregnancy Help Institute (PHI) is something you cannot put a price tag on, and that it had a beautiful infusing of faith.
Heartbeat International is the largest network of pregnancy help organizations in the U.S. and globally, consisting of pregnancy centers, pregnancy medical clinics, non-profit adoption agencies, and maternity homes in more than 90 countries.
Heartbeat has presented Pregnancy Help Institute, an intensive week of executive-level instruction in a small-group environment, since 2007, delivering professional training to thousands of pregnancy help leaders.
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The Institute is organized under three intensive tracks: New Director, Development, and Leadership, and in addition it offers LOVE Approach Ultrasound Clinical training for ultra sonographers.
PHI attendees also have the opportunity to connect with other pregnancy help ministers and develop meaningful relationships.
Jamie Gomes is the new executive director of Mother's Heart of Northern Neck, a pregnancy resource center in Virginia.
She co-founded the pregnancy center in 2022 and was the treasurer of the board originally while being a full-time teacher and took on her role as executive director June 4 of this year.
Gomes said the New Director Track was “awesome.”
“I'm learning so much,” she told Pregnancy Help News in the midst of PHI week.
“I just had no idea everything that is involved in this position,” she said. “I kind of did but doing it for basically two months and then coming here and learning more about how to do it correctly has been a true blessing.”
Gomes said to be at PHI, learning from instructors and others, being able to ask questions and see that there are so many other directors in the exact same position that she is, seeing others who are also new, was very encouraging.
“I'm in good company,” said Gomes.
Her main takeaway was that all the work needed to operate her center is not intended to be on her shoulders.
“It's okay to use your team and delegate tasks to your team,” she said.
Before coming to PHI, it felt like the world rested on her shoulders, said Gomes, “And now I'm kind of like, okay, I can breathe. It's going to be okay. I don't have to do it all.”
It is worth the effort and cost to come, she said. She is already thinking about specifics of how to attend again next year in another track.
“I just think it is very much worth the time, worth the investment,” she said. “In what you can learn and take back to your organization, to your board, to your staff volunteers is really invaluable. You can't put a price tag on it.”
Gomes also recommended that pregnancy help workers come to PHI so they can be encouraged and built up in continuing in their work.
“Sometimes it does feel kind of like you're on an island and nobody understands what you're doing,” she said, “especially if you're in a community like mine where there haven't been pregnancy centers and so they've never even heard of it.”
“And to just come here and see all these other people who are doing this work and are passionate about it and see, okay, I'm not alone. I'm not the only one who feels this way and thinks this way,” said Gomes. “There are this people all over the country and all over the world who are doing this work.”
Andrea Powell has been the executive director Heart Gate Pregnancy Clinic in Tupelo, Miss., for 20 months.
Her center had board training through Heartbeat in January, and from the board training it was recommended that she come to attend the New Directors Track. Her organization also had strategic planning with Heartbeat in June.
Powell said she had no idea what to expect from PHI, but a member of the Mississippi pregnancy help state leadership group told her wonderful things about the New Director Track, that she would learn from a whole host of people and get great information.
“And he really emphasized how prayer was being presented as such a priority for his center had drastically changed the last year of him serving,” Powell said.
“And so now that I'm here, I think everything Heartbeat does is with excellence,” Powell told Pregnancy Help News.
“I was just telling another classmate, that's what I've loved about my experience with Heartbeat,” she said. “From board training to strategic planning to this New Director's Track, everything is laid out just with … excellence is the best way to put it.”
“I feel like the format of every training we've done is in a way that is understandable, applicable, easy to digest,” she said, “even if it is a lot in one fell swoop here, being in class from nine to five.”
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Powell said she loves the faith component of PHI.
“I think anybody could come in and just say, let's talk the business aspect,” said Powell.
“Let's talk; this is how you run a board meeting, this is how you run metrics, this is how you do X, Y, and Z,” she continued. “But the faith being infused in the whole training is what I think sets this apart and makes it so beneficial.”
Faith has always been an integral part of Heartbeat's mission and programming and PHI is no exception. In addition to opening each day with prayer and faith being at the forefront throughout, PHI attendees were offered the opportunity to be prayed for by a personal prayer team at the 2024 Institute.
Powell additionally lauded how not even one minute during PHI goes to waste.
“I love that the time is full, but also wow, the time is really full, and you really do use every minute of it,” she said.
Powell said during the week that the training thus far had given her a solid framework of next steps in leading a center.
“As a director, I think we can get really tangled in what's urgent, and so instead of really moving forward, you're just kind of moving in this circle,” she said. “And from what I've taken thus far, it's a lot of what the next best action step for this specific area that relates to your center.”
“The faculty really cares,” said Powell, “and they want you to take away from this what God has for you. And they'll stick around (following class).”
“They're compassionate, they really listen to your question,” she said. “I never feel like when I ask questions that it's, well, you should already know that, or why are you asking this? It's just meant with compassion and the kindness of Jesus.”
Shelly Bell is and RN and executive director for Abigail Women's Center in Mendota, Ill., a rural pregnancy center that serves a handful of surrounding counties. A nurse for 39 years, she performs the ultrasounds and pregnancy testing for the center and is also in training to take over as the executive director.
Bell had been involved with Abigail Women's Center for 15 years on the board of directors and knew the center needed a nurse director due to the nurse’s impending retiring.
“God clearly told me to go,” Bell said.
She had attended PHI last year for the ultrasound training and had been focusing a lot on the nursing side, while also on learning some of the executive director side.
“I am here now for the new director training, which has been amazing,” Bell told Pregnancy Help News. “I have learned so much … my little manual, I'm going to keep right by me, and it's been incredible.”
“I am writing a long, long list,” Bell said. “What I need to do as soon as I get back, things to work on in a few months.”
“I have learned a great, great deal,” she said. “A lot of what I've learned we're on track with, a lot of what I've learned, we're not, but I have learned on how we can make improvements.”
Bell said the training and benefit of Pregnancy Help Institute are “worth every dime.”
And it's not just the training, she said, referencing the other organizations that are introduced as resources for pregnancy help personnel during the week as well.
“The people, the staff, everyone that works here … You are all truly amazing and you are spirit filled and you can see it,” said Bell.
Pregnancy Help Institute 2025 is set for July 21-25, 2025, with a new Media Track planned in addition to the existing Institute tracks.
Editor's note: Heartbeat International manages Pregnancy Help News.
