ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
A large part of the mission of Grace Place Pregnancy Care Center is to help pregnant women who are in need with their babies to be able to have a support system in the community.
With this in mind, Grace Place Youth Coordinator Mirella Buchman and Program Manager Maria Froese began thinking about helping girls with their life choices before they get pregnant.
Through thoughts and discussions, Buchman and Froese brought the 13-week class Love Notes to Grace Place.
Buchman said Love Notes is primarily about life skills and how to effectively communicate.
“It doesn’t just help you with relationships of boyfriend, girlfriend, but also with relationships at school, at home with how to effectively communicate and get your point across without having to feel like you don’t know how to express yourself,” she said.
Buchman emphasized one of the main goals of the class is to help teens to be able to communicate effectively while still having fun.
“We’ll do games and crafts,” she said. “The format is very interactive. For example, we were talking about setting boundaries. Even if you’re not interested in dating, in a job, you have to set boundaries. What am I willing to do for this job? When you go somewhere, you have a plan. You have a goal. What am I going to do?”
The most recent session of Love Notes started Jan. 12, and Buchman said discussions are taking place about what young people will do after high school and college.
“If we go through life without any goals, you’re just going through life aimlessly,” she said. “Our goal is to teach them to start thinking about those. Set some priorities. What is it you’re looking for?”
Buchman said she often asks teens to look five years in the future and see what would be a perfect future.
“It is giving them a vision of what is it they’re wanting in life and out of life so life isn’t working through them,” she said.
Buchman said discussions also include healthy, non-healthy or toxic relationships.
“It’s very important for young people to know if they are in a healthy relationship or environment as well as what red flags to look for to avoid those,” she said.
Froese and Buchman said the young ladies in the classes connect well with both of them.
“She’s so good with them,” Froese said.
“They love Maria too,” Buchman said.
Buchman said she and Froese wanted Grace Place to be a safe place for teens.
“It doesn’t stop at the class,” Buchman said. “The last class, we had our Love Notes party, and one of the things Love Notes is very big about is having trusted adults. One of the things is to make sure they have a trusted adult.”
Buchman said trusted adults came to a party for the Love Notes class so the girls could meet them, and she said Grace Place has trusted adults for those who do not have one. These adults would like to help the girls in any given situation.
“If you’re having a hard day at school, you have somebody to talk to,” she said. “We want them to know we’re here for them. We want to see them succeed.”
The Love Notes class was launched two years ago, and Buchman said the program was piloted with Grace Place’s church partners.
“They had a weekend event,” she said. “We partnered with them, did the class. The girls gave us feedback, and they all loved it. Officially, we started in September 2025. It’s a 13-week class.”
Froese said it has been quite helpful seeing feedback from the girls in the Love Notes class. To sign up for the class, call Grace Place at 620-655-8050, or visit the sign-up section at www.graceplacepcc.com.
“It says ‘Love Notes’ on the Web site,” Froese said. “Click on it, and they’ll be able to sign up.”
The next session of Love Notes will start in April, and Buchman said notices are posted on Facebook and other social media, as well as local radio.
All of this and other activities at Grace Place is aimed at decreasing local teen pregnancy rates. Buchman gave some of the most recent available data on that front.
“In 2024, there were 51 births for ages 15 through 19 that were delivered at Southwest Medical Center,” she said. “It’s not just Seward County residents. Anybody can come. For 2025, there were 55 births, and that’s from ages 15 to 19.”
Ultimately, what Froese and Buchman want to get out of Love Notes is for the girls in the class to learn how to build healthy relationships.
“Our goal with anything we do here is to educate them,” Buchman said. “For our pregnant ladies, we have our prenatal classes. We have what to do with the baby after the baby is born, how to take care of yourself. Part of it is also educating them on how to prepare for life, how to set goals, how to manage your emotions, how to manage stress, how to succeed in a work environment, school environment. What they’re learning, they can apply it to anything in life.”
Buchman said many class participants were initially not ready to talk about relationships, but when she showed them the relationships they already have, the conversations started.
“I said, ‘Yeah but do you have a relationship with your mom?’” she said. “That’s a relationship. Do you have a relationship with your dad? That’s a relationship and your relationship with your siblings.”
Thus, Buchman said Love Notes is not just about dating and romantic relationships, but it could also include topics such as why siblings fight.
“Let’s look at that and what’s going on there,” she said. “A lot of it comes down to we’re not communicating correctly, or we’re not expressing our wants or needs correctly.”
Another topic is that of expectations, and Buchman said this is namely about the high expectations many have going into a relationship.
“Maybe somebody else’s expectations are not the same as yours, but if you don’t talk to each other about it, you’re always going to be budding heads,” she said.
Froese said young ladies also earn rewards for their participation.
“When the girls come in for each class they do with Mirella, they’ll earn some points, and with those points, they can actually go into our boutique and get some free teen stuff,” she said. “We’ve got blankets in there. We’ve got jewelry, socks, hygiene items. They earn while they learn. The girls love it. They like to see when there’s new stuff.”
Buchman said girls can tell her and Froese what they like, and they are also encouraged to build relationships with their parents.
“With the trusted adult, it could be your parent,” Buchman said. “It could be a coach. It could be a counselor. It could be a teacher. Most of them so far have picked a parent. They’re having these discussions with their parents at home. They are talking with their parents, and it’s helping build that relationship too. It’s so important these days.”
An added bonus to Love Notes, and to all of Grace Place’s services, is they are provided free of charge.
