Jen McLain is the Executive Director of Alpha Center, a Christian medical clinic in Fort Collins, Colorado, providing no-cost sexual health services, pregnancy support, and after-abortion care. A Colorado State University alum with a background in education, and school leadership, Jen is passionate about offering judgment-free, holistic care that helps individuals and families experience dignity, healing, and hope.
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Full Episode Transcript
Narrator • 00:08
This is the Love FoCo Show.
Jen McLain • 00:12
Really our goal and our hope through our care and our services is that if somebody's not there, they might recognize, well, I'm so worth loving for who I am. Not for my body, not for my sexuality, not for what I present physically, but just for the fact that I exist on this planet. I'm worthy of so much more love.
Narrator • 00:37
Welcome to the Love FoCo Show. Our podcast highlights the incredible people who make Fort Collins the place we're proud to call home. Each week, your host, Jeff Faust, sits down with local leaders, community champions, and change makers to share their stories, what they love about our city, and how they're helping it thrive. So whether you're out on the trail, at a brewery, or walking through Old Town, thanks for tuning in.
Jeff Faust • 01:01
How many emotions can you fit into one conversation? Today, I'm meeting with Jen McLain, the executive director of the Alpha Center. My name is Jeff Faus, your host for The Love Foco Show, and I'm so excited to share this conversation with you. Jen is loving our city with the best of them. She's creating a hospitable and compassionate space for expectant mothers, folks struggling with sexual history or current sexual identity, and she is an incredible leader in our city. We cover all kinds of different topics in this conversation from adoption to abortion to sexually transmitted infections and how we can continue to create space for people to receive the health care and love that they need in order to thrive. I think you're going to love this conversation. Again, Jen is an incredible leader in our community and I hope you love this time as much as I did. Well, Jen, thank you so much for taking some time to be with us today at the Love Foco Show. So excited to sit down with you. I've been looking forward to this interview for a couple of months really. So thankful that we're finally here. We're gonna get into all the work that you do, the way your nonprofit, the Alpha Center, is serving our city and loving our city one life at a time. A lot of good stuff to talk about there, but I want to start our conversation the way I start every conversation on the show. What is your Fort Collins origin story? Like did you grow up here? Were you born and raised here? Do you transplant like me? You like so many others? Or like how did you come to be a Fort Collins resident?
Jen McLain • 02:41
Yeah, I love that question. And thanks for having me. I also had been looking forward to it. I think you and I met several years ago. And so it's just cool to see this relationship you and we're so excited about the love focus space so thank you including us here and on your podcast today my Fort Collins origin story is I feel like I'm an old person in Fort Collins now I've been here since 1988 yeah I was not born in Fort Collins I was born in Burlington Colorado okay and then I grew up in Colorado Springs and graduated from high school and got the opportunity to come to Colorado State and sweet yeah so I came to CSU in 1988 I lived in Green Hall which for those who dated yourself a little bit
Jeff Faust • 03:23
because if you came here in 88 after having been born and raised in another city then yeah yeah yeah the listener do the math on that.
Jen McLain • 03:32
I'm not shy about that. Part of my story when we talk about the Alpha Center will come up so I'll be real honest about how old I am then. Yeah but I grew up I went to I lived in Green Hall which if you're familiar with the Colorado State Campus is now half station, half parking lot, and well, that's a whole. So maybe a third parking lot, third police station, and like a third of like, seems like a library or something. So it was demolished after the second year that I lived there. Oh, really? It was a lot of great residence. But I have great memories there. And I have some really great friends who I'm still like dearly connected with from those years. And so it just grew to love Fort Collins during that time. I think you're just so impressionable and kind of the world is your oyster at that moment and just loved so many components of our city. I love that people are friendly. I love that we have so much green space. I love that there are just a lot of opportunities to pursue faith and outdoors and just like the things that interest you feel like they're abundant here. So music, arts.
Jeff Faust • 04:39
I think that's a really good way to say it. the things that interest you are abundant here.
Jen McLain • 04:44
Yeah.
Jeff Faust • 04:45
Yeah, I don't, yeah. I think that really resonates with me. Like if you love music, there's gonna be a great scene. That's right. If you love the outdoors, there's endless opportunities. Right. There's incredible churches and nonprofits around here. They're like entrepreneurship and businesses rampant. I mean, I think that's really true.
Jen McLain • 05:01
Right, if you love food, you've got a million choices. If you love beer, you've got a thousand choices.
Jeff Faust • 05:04
Yeah, that's for sure.
Jen McLain • 05:06
That's right.
Jeff Faust • 05:06
I learned that moving here too, so. Yeah,
Jen McLain • 05:08
yeah.
Jeff Faust • 05:09
Well, I do wanna ask you about CSU. First, I want to back up to Burlington, because full disclosure, have no idea where Burlington is. I grew up in Iowa, there's a Burlington, Iowa.
Jen McLain • 05:18
Yeah, there's Burlington, Vermont, Burlington, Maine.
Jeff Faust • 05:20
Yes.
Jen McLain • 05:21
I think there's Burlington, Maine. - So tell me
Jeff Faust • 05:22
about Burlington, Colorado. Where on the map is that?
Jen McLain • 05:25
Yeah, so if you are on I-70 in Denver and you head east towards Kansas, Burlington is the last city in Colorado. Okay. Before you hit Kansas.
Jeff Faust • 05:35
Is there like, I mean, is there a gas station there?
Jen McLain • 05:38
There is a gas station there. There's probably even now more than one stoplight.
Jeff Faust • 05:42
They're living in large. Yes,
Jen McLain • 05:45
living in large. Burlington is not known, I was born there, so it's known for me, very exciting. Of course. There is a really, really actually beautiful old carousel in Burlington, so if you're into like old carousels, that's there, and it's gorgeous, it's still functional. And there's a huge body of water there that's a reservoir that's there. They have a great state county fair.
Jeff Faust • 06:14
Yeah.
Jen McLain • 06:15
The Kitt Carson County Fair.
Jeff Faust • 06:16
It's like the seat of the county.
Jen McLain • 06:17
Yeah, it is, yeah. Yeah, so the Kitt Carson County.
Jeff Faust • 06:19
You know, in these like rural parts, not everybody knows this. Yeah. We've just grown up in the city of our life, but like county seats, I mean, it might be a town of a few thousand people, but it actually is the center for the entire county. So it draws in way more people.
Jen McLain • 06:33
That's exactly right.
Jeff Faust • 06:33
For these fairs, for these different events, and maybe who live there day to day.
Jen McLain • 06:37
Yeah, yeah, and I, so I was born to a 15 year old mom, which is where my story kind of intersects with Alpha Center later on in life, which is cool. So my mom was a high school kid at Burlington High School, and I was born at Kit Carson County Hospital in Burlington. And my mom was advised to have an abortion by our pastor in Burlington. Yeah, my grandma-
Jeff Faust • 07:00
That is not a phrase that you hear very often.
Jen McLain • 07:03
No, and it's-
Jeff Faust • 07:05
Pastor and abortion kind of all lined up in one thing.
Jen McLain • 07:07
Yeah, and it feels really counterintuitive. Like wait a minute, that was your advice. And part of that is probably rooted in very small town. My mom was part of a graduating class of 64 kids. So it was gonna be really obvious that she was pregnant. And I think probably just some shame and like you're a church going girl. How come you're pregnant? What's going on here? Let's just solve this differently. and my grandparents probably didn't realize that they were pro-life people, but they were believers and were like, "We're not doing that. "You're gonna be fine." Wow. And so I was raised by my mom and my grandparents. My mom and dad were married for a short period of time. That was kind of the expectation. Sure.
Jeff Faust • 07:53
And the way that they figured out, maybe we can make this thing work.
Jen McLain • 07:56
Yeah, yeah, we're young, but we'll figure it out. And then if my dad was older enough that he was going to see Boulder. So my mom and I actually moved to Boulder with him. I was born in that summer between his senior year and his freshman year of college. And they were together for about a year and a half. And then just, they were young. I think back to when I was 15, 16, or even my dad's age, like 17, 18. And the things I was worried about were like, when's my favorite song gonna come on the radio? and will I be able to record it on my cassette tape?
Jeff Faust • 08:33
Yes, yes, you gotta line it up perfectly and tape record. - That's right.
Jen McLain • 08:36
And is the DJ gonna talk in the middle of it? Yeah. I wasn't thinking about a baby and a family and life. And so I just look at my parents. That's overwhelming. Yeah, and I'm so proud of them for what they did do. I mean, I had a very happy childhood, I think even once my parents separated, that was never like devastated and down and trodden, you know, part of that is my grandparents on both sides were very involved. And my mom is an amazing mom and my dad was as engaged as a college could be, you know, I think, he just was in that space of life. And I had the privilege of knowing him today and he lives locally, so I still get to see him, which is a gift. But I think it's just where my life sort of oddly intersex to the work that I now get to do, which is a surprise. But so we moved to Burlington until I was maybe like three. So we were in Boulder for a little while back in Burlington, and then we moved to Colorado Springs with my grandparents. And that's when my mom started college.
Jeff Faust • 09:42
So can we just pause for a second? Because I find myself, I'm curious about a number of different things. One, your grandparents sound like saintly people. Just be like, no, no, no, no. 'Cause this was an era. This was an era that it's less so now that pastors have like the authority to maybe speak into someone's life trajectory. That's less common now. I mean, just like the way that society views a pastor, and I'm speaking as a pastor, like the way society sees a pastor is one of less authority and credibility. But 30, 40 years ago was a different story. and definitely in the last 100 or 200 years, the elevation of that kind of place in our society was even higher. So to have a pastor say, "Hey, this is like a really private thing. "This is gonna be really hard." I still am trying to wrap my mind around pastor recommending an abortion 'cause that's just so full foreign to maybe something that would come out of my mouth. but to have your grandparents who grew up in a generation that saw pastoral authority at a higher view, to say, nah, we're not doing that. So this just desire to welcome a baby into the world trumped all of that, which I think is really sweet. And we're celebrating.
Jen McLain • 11:06
Absolutely, I'm so great. Thank you for pointing that out. I'm so grateful for that, 'cause I think...
Jeff Faust • 11:12
Well, we wouldn't be having those conversations today. How crazy is that?
Jen McLain • 11:15
I know, I know. Yeah.
Jeff Faust • 11:18
You can take a minute too, 'cause it is emotional. How is it not? I mean, that's really sweet.
Jen McLain • 11:23
Yeah.
Jeff Faust • 11:28
You didn't know that I was gonna just dive right in and ask you all these questions, but I think it's a really wonderful part of your story to celebrate.
Jen McLain • 11:38
Yeah, thanks. I think what feels hard about that, (sniffing) I had the privilege to know them until like three years ago. (sniffing)
Jeff Faust • 11:54
They recently passed? Yeah. Oh. Yeah. Wow.
Jen McLain • 11:58
Yeah. So they passed within four months of each other. My grandfather passed in 2021, and my grandma passed in 2022. And what a gift. I mean, I was born in 1970, So I am almost 56 years old, and I had my grandparents until I was in my 50s.
Jeff Faust • 12:17
Yeah, that's really sweet.
Jen McLain • 12:19
And it's just such a gift. And I think they were some of my biggest champions.
Jeff Faust • 12:24
Yeah. Yeah, and that's probably an understatement. Yeah. Yeah, from the moment you were conceived and dreamed up by God, they were championing you. You know, that's really sweet. Yeah. Yeah. Well, thanks for letting me dive deep on that. I think it's a beautiful and undoubtedly, I've talked with a lot of people about this. Our childhood moments and our childhood memories, they impact us for decades to come. And of course, as a man of faith, a pastor in this city, I always believe too that even the really boneheaded things that I've done can be redeemed and they can still be used I mean, I could list story after story after story about reasons I should not be here today about all these dumb things that I've done and God has been able to redeem some of those stories. But even the great stories too, they imprint, almost like a fingerprint, like taking a fingerprint and putting it on a sheet of paper, they do kind of impress upon you who you are, what you're becoming, and how you're gonna continue to function kind of in the world around us. Yeah. I have to imagine that that's a big part of your story.
Jen McLain • 13:43
Oh, for sure. And I think one thing that I'm so grateful for about my grandparents is not only did they believe in the potential for me, but they believed in the potential of my mom. Yeah. And instead of choosing what may have felt at that moment, like the easy path of an abortion to say face, if you will, in the community, they realized that she was worth more than that too. And we're like, the possibilities are endless. And I think it's such an interesting paradigm shift because again, at that time of life, in a small community, it was a big deal.
Jeff Faust • 14:22
Yeah.
Jen McLain • 14:23
And it was like, you know-
Jeff Faust • 14:25
And it would be known like all of those things, those small town,
Jen McLain • 14:28
you know? And they kept going to church. They didn't walk out and never go back. And so it was, everybody knew. this very small town. And they just believed in what was possible versus allowing the potential shame and the potential of like, oh my gosh, that child was misbehaving. And here we are. And they said, it's going to be okay. And I think of what that created, cycle-wise, my mom and then for me was huge. So my mom graduated from high school. She graduated then from college. I mean, I was six when she graduated from college and became, she was a teacher. And later on in her life, in my life, she went to graduate school and then she went to postgraduate. She just did it all.
Jeff Faust • 15:24
That's awesome.
Jen McLain • 15:25
And then that was the expectation for me, was you're gonna go to college. If you're gonna graduate from high school, if you're gonna go to college, you'll probably do postgraduate work. Like that's just the expectation. Instead of, oh, this is the best it's gonna become.
Jeff Faust • 15:40
Yeah.
Jen McLain • 15:41
And kind of, I guess your dreams now are shot, which is sort of sadly what community now is telling women.
Jeff Faust • 15:48
That can really happen. Oh my goodness, yeah. Like you're pregnant, now your life is about to be restricted. Instead of you're pregnant, this is amazing. Right. And like the world is still your playground.
Jen McLain • 16:01
Right, and we don't know what the potential for that child is, and I just think, man, I do think my grandparents were pretty amazing to see that instead of like, whoa, uh-oh. Hey, there's still a lot of potential here.
Jeff Faust • 16:17
Yeah.
Jen McLain • 16:18
Let's not give up on that.
Jeff Faust • 16:19
Well, they must have had that gear pretty deeply in your mom too, because not only rural Colorado, smaller town, graduating class, I mean, I think you said what, 60? 64. '64, but also then Colorado Springs, which is kind of known, I think,
Jen McLain • 16:36
for being- I think then, yes.
Jeff Faust • 16:38
Yeah, kind of the focus of the family, like a little bit more of a conservative part of our state. Yeah, things change over time, of course, but still kind of a community where you are viewed through a lens of maybe a stereotypical conservative evangelical kind of culture.
Jen McLain • 16:56
Yeah, for sure, and I would say my mom and I experienced that at different times because we were a single parent family. And different, there was a church we were at that my mom wanted to move into some leadership roles that she saw other women pursuing and that wasn't available to her because she was a single mom. And I think sometimes I look at that and I think, gosh, that's so short-sighted. And I get that churches have viewpoints that they want to hold to. And at the same time, I think, but here's somebody who's doing it, like pursuing Jesus.
Jeff Faust • 17:31
100%.
Jen McLain • 17:32
Living a full-
Jeff Faust • 17:33
It's their missed opportunity. Like every time I meet a single parent, I'm like, they actually know way more about managing life than I do.
Jen McLain • 17:43
Yeah, yeah, and we were thriving. Like I think, you know, she was young. She chose a career that is a well-respected career, but not necessarily a well-paid career. And we were like scraping the bottom of the barrel. I think just, I can missed opportunities and yet she never let it define who we were or limit our perspective of faith. It didn't ever taint our perspective of who the Lord is.
Jeff Faust • 18:15
That's really interesting to me though. It's like, do you have any idea on why that happened? Because people would have a similar story to you and they would end up in a very different place. Around their perception of God, their personal faith it is.
Jen McLain • 18:27
How,
Jeff Faust • 18:28
you know, Jeff, why? More so the ingredient that...
Jen McLain • 18:30
Gosh, I think there are some roots actually, even, into my great-grandparents. My great-grandmother was a strong, strong woman of faith, was engaged with her church, honestly, until the day after she, the day, she played the piano and the organ at her church and then died the next day. I mean, she just was super engaged and I think was just such a pillar of faith for our family, but that just rolled forward of like, God is good, even in the places where you don't expect him. Like she lost a son in one of the wars. She lost my great-grandfather really early in their marriage and just continued to be like, but we know that God is good, even in the places that were like, I don't understand this. And so there was this foundation of... And it's a sweet generational legacy and blessing in a way. It really is. I think that just rolls forward sometimes accidentally. I mean, I don't remember, like in our family, we went to church, so it wasn't that God was absent, but it wasn't also like the Bible was open on the kitchen table and we were focused on that. Family kitchen. Right, there wasn't any of that, but there was also not an absence. I think there was just this underlying current of, we know who God is and we're aware of the fact that he's good, even in the places don't understand his decision or his outcome. And it's not what we would ask for. We wouldn't ask for a husband to die early in a marriage, in the example of my great grandparents. We wouldn't pursue that, but God knows, and there's still this foundation of faith. And I think for my mom, I mean, if she were here, she could dance for herself. She just happens to be in 10 minutes right now. She would say, oh, thank you, sorry. I'm squeaking in the chair folks. (laughing) She would, I think she just would say that there was just this knowing of, there's that, you know, the rock that is bigger than me. And that foundation that is unshakable. And I was just reading in Luke about if we build our house on the rock, the rains come and we're solid. If we build our house on the sand, the rains come when we fall apart. And just that leaning on the rock that I get no matter what, it's for my good and for his glory, I may not see that in my lifetime. Hopefully I will, but I might not.
Jeff Faust • 21:01
I love that passage. I actually just preached on that passage a couple of weeks ago and talked a lot about just the storms of life and how they come and the way that Jesus actually talks about that in the gospels. He says that when they come, like the implied reality is that winds and rains and the floodwaters of life will come your way. Like you don't become a follower of God, you don't start a life with God and then magically these storms disappear in life as well. No, it's much more about having a bedrock and a foundation of faith that gets you through those storms compared to eliminating them. And yeah, I think that's super important.
Jen McLain • 21:46
Yeah, it's super sweet. And I think one thing that's interesting, Jeff, is that I actually didn't know the advice towards an abortion, the story of a part of my life until I applied for the position at Alpha Center.
Jeff Faust • 22:00
Really?
Jen McLain • 22:00
Yeah, and it's, my mom, actually I asked her, we were sitting at, if you know where Alpha Center is, we're located right next to the building that houses Cafe Vino. So I applied for the job and she was like, well, let's go look at the building. She was at visiting me and I was like, Okay, well, we can also go to dinner at Cafe Vino. So we're sitting and we're having dinner and she was like, you know, I should tell you something. And I was like, okay, mom, thinking, what's she gonna tell me? I've known her my whole life. And she was like, did you know, did I ever tell you that the pastor in Burlington, and I was like, pfft.
Jeff Faust • 22:34
No, you never told me that. That feels like an important part of information.
Jen McLain • 22:39
Yeah, I was like, no, how come you haven't disclosed it? She said, honestly, you never needed to know. and tell them now, because you were wanted. And I was like, wow, mom.
Jeff Faust • 22:49
Yeah, that's really precious.
Jen McLain • 22:50
It's so cool.
Jeff Faust • 22:51
Actually, right on the tails of applying for that job too, which now you're helping women choose the birth of their child.
Jen McLain • 22:59
Yeah, and she was like, I just think it feels differently important for you to know that now.
Jeff Faust • 23:03
That's really precious.
Jen McLain • 23:04
As you consider this position, and I was like, that is really cool. 'Cause I never, I mean, had I known earlier, it wouldn't have mattered, but it really mattered then. Yes. Like it was such an intersectional moment.
Jeff Faust • 23:19
So I talk a lot about this phrase, which I'm gonna have to define just briefly for all of our listeners to understand, but I talk a lot about what I call sovereign foundations. That as a man of faith, we believe in God, believe that God is sovereign, that there are things that have happened in our life that we had no control over. And so you were born to your mom in Burlington, You had no where with all, you had no control of where you were born or how you were born. But God sovereignly presided over that. It impacts how you are. It's part of the foundation of your life. But those sovereign foundations, they have a way of then informing our life today. So part of my story is that I had a single mom for a number of years and she married my dad. And so there were times in my life when my mom was extremely poor and she married a doctor who's done very well for us. And so in my kind of family lineage, there are cycles of generational poverty that all of a sudden met affluence in the ability to financially care for more than just one person, but multiple peoples. That's impacted me. And the settings I feel comfortable in, what drives me today to work on generational poverty, alleviation, and things like that. But those things, they have a way of impacting us. It's interesting to hear and kind of pull the thread of some of those sovereign foundations in your life that you were largely unaware of for decades of your life.
Jen McLain • 24:48
Blissfully unaware. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Jeff Faust • 24:50
But when the time was right, you discovered more about yourself. That's really sweet.
Jen McLain • 24:55
Yeah. Yeah. I think it's just been a really, to me, it's just a really foundational piece. I love that sovereign foundation.
Jeff Faust • 25:03
Yeah. We all have them. All of our listeners have them. Yeah.
Jen McLain • 25:06
And you may never know. And I think that's a cool piece of just trusting that God has a purpose and a plan that's bigger than I could ever imagine. Because I've been really privileged to have a wonderful life of different roles and positions that I always enjoyed. And then this position came around and was like, "Sure, I could..." To be honest, I was like, "I don't know anything about the Alpha Center." Yeah. We started in 1985 and I was a kid at CSU's campus in 1988 and never needed us. So I was really unaware.
Jeff Faust • 25:42
Well, we gotta talk about the Alpha Center. So, but let me just put in a pin for that for a second because I'm curious too, like 1988 CSU Ram at Green Hall, which now no longer exists, to, you know, Cafe Vino telling your mom that you're applying for this place. So, but there's a gap there somewhere any number of years. But what happened in, I mean, high level is fine, but like, how'd you go from college grad to executive director of the Alpha Center? I'm sure there were a few stops along the way.
Jen McLain • 26:12
Yeah, yeah, and I think it's such a cool piece of the story, I've even got sovereignty along the way, right? So, we have to back up even a little prior to CSU. So, my high school career was primarily at Mitchell High School in Colorado Springs. My mom and I were missionaries for one year with Young Life International, we wrote in Brussels, Belgium. But my history teacher, my senior year of high school was such a huge fan of JFK and therefore the Peace Corps. And so he had talked about the Peace Corps and I was like, oh, I'm gonna do that. Sign me up for that. 'Cause I already had this taste of global life, of like there's a bigger picture.
Jeff Faust • 26:52
Wait, so you were a missionary in Belgium for one year with young life?
Jen McLain • 26:58
Yes, when I was a junior in high school. My mom, I was the covert laborer. My mom was the leader.
Jeff Faust • 27:04
So you were like a missionary kid, but you know, if you're a child of someone in the nonprofit world, you are now also signed up for that nonprofit world. Yes, yes, yes.
Jen McLain • 27:14
And I think I was a young life kid. You were a huge fan of young life.
Jeff Faust • 27:18
Yeah, shout out to Young Life,
Jen McLain • 27:19
who did partners with them as well. That reached to kids in high schools and middle schools now, and college. That's all new stuff.
Jeff Faust • 27:26
We did a previous interview with their leader of Copernum, which is young life for kids with disabilities and an incredible interview.
Jen McLain • 27:34
Absolutely, I loved your interview. An incredible interview, yeah. She's amazing. And so we got the privilege of doing that and it got me this taste of bigger life, that there's more to life than just America.
Jeff Faust • 27:46
Yes.
Jen McLain • 27:47
And what a gift. But we came back to Colorado Springs and my history teacher was just like, yeah, we hit the JFK Peace Corps unit in history, you know, as your senior year, and it just like, just stuck. Yeah. You could do something bigger with yourself after you graduate from college. And so as a senior, I applied to be a Peace Corps volunteer. Awesome. And had the privilege of being a Peace Corps volunteer in the Samoan Islands in the middle of the South Pacific. Really? Really hard job.
Jeff Faust • 28:18
Yeah.
Jen McLain • 28:19
I mean, paradise for two years. It was a hard job. I have my degree as a nutrition and dietetics.
Jeff Faust • 28:24
Okay.
Jen McLain • 28:25
So I worked in the nutrition department of the hospital and helped write dietary plans and all that kind of stuff for the Semmel and People. And we did a lot, where it intersects with AlphaCenter is we did a lot with healthy infancy and healthy pregnancies, which I mean, at that point I was 24 years old and kind of like sure or whatever, but we did a lot of intersection with delivery and maternal health and prenatal care and all of that. Little did I know, obviously, that X number of years later I would have this additional intersection with pregnancy and delivery. And then I came back to Four Colons and returned to CSU because what I didn't love about dietetics is that sadly patients die. And my heart just couldn't handle that. It just hurt that you did as as much as you could in the Samoan Islands, we would lose patients to gangrene because of a diabetic foot infection that wasn't caught soon enough and led to sepsis. And that just was like, oh, that just feels hard. And I was young, so I just was like, I can't do my whole career of that. So I came back and returned to CSU and became a teacher. I became a teacher and I taught family and consumer science, which is nutrition, dietetics, healthy relationships, communication,
Jeff Faust • 29:53
all this. Did you hand out babies to teenagers?
Jen McLain • 29:54
We did, we did.
Jeff Faust • 29:55
'Cause I remember at my FCS teacher, I had like a crying baby that I had to carry around.
Jen McLain • 30:00
Yeah, we had like electronic babies that are programmed. And I'll tell you the secret.
Jeff Faust • 30:04
I failed miserably on that, by the way, because my mind had sensors in them. I'm of the age of it. And my older brother would, he would mess with my baby. And then I came back looking like a horrible human.
Jen McLain • 30:17
Absolutely, your baby.
Jeff Faust • 30:18
And it was my older brother.
Jen McLain • 30:19
Yeah.
Jeff Faust • 30:19
He was my baby.
Jen McLain • 30:21
Your poor baby probably did not thrive. No. And the secret is if you have a teenager and they take a family consumer science class and they're well behaved, they're gonna get a baby that's programmed to not cry very much. But if your kiddo is not maybe well behaved, you can program that baby to cry more. (laughing)
Jeff Faust • 30:41
Secrets of the FC.
Jen McLain • 30:43
I'm sure I never did that. But so I was an FCS teacher and then I pursued my degree in administration and became a middle school principal at a local Christian school. And I was there for six years. It was time to move on. Like that career was kind of having its course run. And the position at Alpha Center honestly was presented to me by three different people on three different occasions. The third one of which I still don't know who it was to this day. who was an envelope on my desk at the school that said this is for you. And I opened the envelope and it was the job description and it was like you should apply.
Jeff Faust • 31:21
Amazing. I mean, first one, it's kind of in one ear and out the other. It's like, sure. Second one, huh. And then random anonymous letter.
Jen McLain • 31:30
And I was like, honestly, I kind of looked up at the sky and was like, okay, Lord, I will check it out. And I think what sold me on, yes, I could apply for this job was my own life story that again, I didn't know the whole piece, but I knew that women are often told, "Hey, this is gonna be really hard. "You probably can't do it." And I knew that that was not true because that was not my life experience. And I thought, "Well, I can get behind an organization "that says, 'This is possible for you.'"
Jeff Faust • 31:59
Yeah, casting vision and hope.
Jen McLain • 32:01
Yeah, all these wonderful things behind life. The world is still really big. And now you're just gonna do it with a baby. That's kinda cool. you get to then see life through their eyes, which is pretty exciting. And I love that we provide sexual health care on all the scopes. So we do STI testing. We provide the pregnancy care. We'll intersect with if a woman is considering abortion, we want to talk with her and say, here are all of your options. We can talk about adoption. We can talk about parenting. We can talk about abortion. And we do that without fear. Like there's no fear in that conversation. We just want to give great facts. And then we have this beautiful wrap around holistic care that says once you've made your decision, be that parenting, adoption or abortion, we can connect you to the next steps for your life.
Jeff Faust • 32:51
I would say just knowing you from afar, one of the ways that I describe you, and I'm gonna present this to you, tell me if I need to change any of this, but when I'm in conversation with folks from the city, and I talk particularly around how love folk go and the Alpha Center are working together, I say, "You're gonna love the Alpha Center. what I have watched and what I've loved about the Alpha Center is fear, like we're not, this isn't an emotionally driven thing. We're not talking about like shame is not the driving force, fear is not the driving force. And they're not just pro birth, but they're really pro life. They are helping folks thrive for the long haul. And that's been one of the things that I've just so appreciated about you guys. Is that, I mean, is that like in the vein of the way that I could be talking about you guys?
Jen McLain • 33:36
Oh, absolutely. I think that's absolutely right on, Jeff. I think our long-term hope is that somehow, through interaction with the Alpha Center, if people haven't already met Jesus, that they would meet Him. And we believe that that's your ultimate healthy outcome, because that changes your life forever. And that's the goal. Now, do we preach that? Not at all. It's through how we care for people and how we present the fact that every single person has, again, has a purpose and a plan, and they're worthy of love and care that's excellent. And we sit in this interesting intersection of the place of sexuality and hopefully faith. It's such an odd place. It's not coming up a church. It's not coming up a church. I know. It's tragic. Right. It's not coming up in your small group. It's probably not coming up in your friend group, because if you're talking about it with your friend group, I know my own friend group, like, never did somebody say, "Well, What's your faith say about that? Yeah, or hey wait a minute. What's going on?
Jeff Faust • 34:38
Yeah, well, there's still some topics that are a little faux pas to like bring up. Yeah in a faith conversation I I think people still are a little uneasy about the intersectionality between like faith and money, right? Even though the Bible's pretty honest about this stuff Yeah, another one would be faith and sexuality even though God has like great plans for this
Jen McLain • 34:56
That's right,
Jeff Faust • 34:57
and also plans that tend to help us
Jen McLain • 35:00
And tend to provide some guy rails if you choose to follow them, right? And if you're not there yet, our hope is that someday you might be. And that there are again that ultimate healthy outcome is we choose wisely for ourselves and that we follow what God hasn't been intended. And in the meantime, the joy is that God is such a forgiving and gracious and loving God that if we haven't walked that road, we're allowed to still get on the road. really our goal and our hope through our care and our services is that if somebody's not there, they might recognize, "Wow, I'm so worth loving for who I am, not for my body, not for my sexuality, not for what I present physically, but just for the fact that I exist on this planet. I'm worthy of so much more love than this kind of exchange." That's really sweet. And so we love that. We love that we get to care for women, for men, for LGBTQIA community, for people who have had an abortion, for people who have chosen an adoption plan, for people who are choosing to parent. We're just a place where hopefully you feel safe and loved and seen and heard and valued. And I just, I can sign up for that. Like honestly, when I was applying, I was like, great, they provide this medical care that's awesome, they provide these after your decision points. And the selling point for me honestly was our after abortion care. That's not a part of my life story, but I guarantee it's a part of people in who I know it's life story. And the fact that it was a published piece of We Care about you no matter what your decision was.
Jeff Faust • 36:46
Even, you know, what's really interesting, I'd love to talk about this for a little bit, I've found that in culture I'm using generalities, okay? So obviously there are some unique cases that don't fit within this. But generally speaking, abortion in faith conversations, most people don't feel comfortable even saying post-abortion care. Like that's not a phrase that would be on their mind. And if they say it out loud, it might be the first time they've ever said something like that out loud. And then at the same time, outside of the faith, maybe in more secular circles, the conversation around abortion is pretty loud and pretty vocal. And so when you look at how the culture, the secular culture is influencing maybe the conversation inside faith circles around abortion, post-abortion care, things like that, I would have to imagine that all of a sudden, if you're a follower of God, you have a life with God, and you've gone through an abortion, it's all of a sudden incredibly difficult to disclose that, to live transparently. And so there's a fair amount of shame behind some of that or even fear about like, if I bring this out in the open, what's going to happen to me? And I'm so thankful that there's a nonprofit in our town that's having those kinds of conversations. Do you wanna tell us a little bit more about that? Like what that looks like? How you've seen that impact lives?
Jen McLain • 38:11
Oh Jeff, you're so right on. And I think what is often surprising to people is that the statistics related to abortion outside of the church, so in the secular world versus inside of the church are exactly the same.
Jeff Faust • 38:25
Yep.
Jen McLain • 38:25
And I think most people hear that and think that's not true. It is true. So what we know is that-
Jeff Faust • 38:34
It's just like shrouded in secrecy.
Jen McLain • 38:36
Absolutely.
Jeff Faust • 38:36
And you know, it's like, hey, just go wait for a little while and get this thing taken care of. Yeah,
Jen McLain • 38:40
yeah, and the culture says it's no big deal. You're gonna, we'll have this abortion experience, be it surgical or be it now through the abortion pill, chemical abortion, and nobody ever has to know. But the woman knows. And she carries that with her. And what we know to be true within the faith. And even if you're not a person of faith, the things that we hold secret are the things that eat us apart.
Jeff Faust • 39:08
The, well, they have power. They have a different kind of power
Jen McLain • 39:11
when you just live in the secret. because, man, I don't want somebody to know that about me. I mean, it could be that, I mean, gosh, it could be any number of things, right? Like I gamble on the weekends or, man-
Jeff Faust • 39:22
I mean, you see this in pornography. Right. Like a hidden secretive pornographic addiction will just chew you up.
Jen McLain • 39:29
Absolutely, and it becomes sort of an obsession and an underlying piece of maybe a lack of ability to connect well, a lack of ability to build some sort of relationship that feels meaningful or valuable got this deeply held, very private secret that man of that person, if anybody ever found out they wouldn't love me. And I think, whoa, that's true whether or not you're a person of faith, within the faith, we've just recognized that that's a ploy of the enemy to keep us isolated and to keep us alone. And so when we shed light on the truth and we say, here's the truth about a piece of my life, we see transformation happen. And we actually have We actually have one story from, gosh, probably four or five years ago in our after abortion care. We had a woman who showed up and when she showed up, the leaders of the group shared that, like she wouldn't make eye contact, very kind of hard exterior, maybe arms often crossed across her chest, and just like a hard face, if you will. Our program is a nine week program that is biblically based, but you don't need to be a Christian or a believer to come through that program. In fact, many of our participants are not of faith, but they choose to come anyway. And it's a program of first and foremost, reconciling with yourself and others that were involved in your abortion decision. Second, if faith is part of your life, a reconciliation and a forgiveness and a welcoming kind of back into the father heart. And 'cause what we know to be true is that God is right there for us to say, "I would like to be forgiven for that thing that I did, be it lie or steel or be addicted to pornography or have an abortion." They're all equal in God's eyes. There's not a scale. He doesn't say, "Oh, wow, that one's really big. You have to ask 12 times for that one." He's like, "Okay, I got you." And so through the course of this nine weeks, they watched this woman and almost like weight fall off of her body, not literally, but figuratively. Head up, eye contact, smile, some laughter, shoulders down. And her comment was when I started this, I didn't realize how asleep I was, and now I am awake. And for a while, we actually called the program awake because of that quote. And then we realized people don't know what that means. Yeah, yeah, okay, a more functional name or something. Yeah, so we've shifted back to after abortion care. And we see this time and again, even from women who come in and are a Buddhist, or a pagan, or atheistic, and they walk away relieved. Because they're no longer holding.
Jeff Faust • 42:25
Well, that's secret. I mean, yeah, secrecy, it does have a sense of power over your mind, over your heart. And then I think there's like the intangible things that are hard to pinpoint, but just like the intuitive early stages of love that then are truncated early. I mean, this is part of my family history and part of my story. There's abortion in our family history and just having conversation about early love, dreams and then decisions to abort and like how there's been emotional pain that's kind of followed and lingered on in that. And then sometimes not talked about for decades.
Jen McLain • 43:13
Yeah, absolutely.
Jeff Faust • 43:14
And just a real deep invitation, I mean, especially in the faith community, for like whole life transformation. Yes, yes. Not like, oh, I've become a follower of God and now like 10% of my life is better, but we're talking about no, like actually God came to set you free.
Jen McLain • 43:29
That's right, that's right.
Jeff Faust • 43:30
And that includes your whole self.
Jen McLain • 43:32
Your whole self, right. And I think what's beautiful about the invitation to after abortion care is that place of freedom. And to recognize that you're not alone in that space. And I think there's a beautiful place that in that circle of participants, our leaders are women who have had an abortion experience. So they're able to look at the participants and say, me too.
Jeff Faust • 43:55
Yep.
Jen McLain • 43:56
I've been there. And then there is just this release of, maybe you don't tell anybody else, but you've released the secret. You've recognized and said, and said maybe, I don't wanna say it proper, but an appropriate goodbye to this baby. And it's just so beautiful. And so for me, it was really a hinge point of like, if they're doing that, I'll sign up. I could say yes to that because we're recognizing the whole process and we're recognizing the whole
Jeff Faust • 44:30
It's got to be deeply, deeply compassionate space.
Jen McLain • 44:33
Absolutely, yeah. I mean, I just see our leaders and man, they have hearts that are huge and they're beautiful and I just love it. That's really sweet. And I love that we also come alongside the women and men who are choosing to parent.
Jeff Faust • 44:46
Yeah, what else do you do? So this is part of it and what else is Alpha Center known for?
Jen McLain • 44:50
Yeah, yeah, so we have a Parenting Success Program and that program sounds very official. Yeah. A set of classes that include, we have somewhat on mentorship with women who are expecting to be moms, for expected dads, who wanna talk with somebody who is a dad and like, what does this look like? How do we do this well? How do I actually partner with this woman who we weren't maybe expecting to have a baby and now we're gonna have a baby 'cause we've chosen to do this together. We might be co-parenting, we might actually not even be living together, but how does this work? We've just kind of provide some fun supports to that and some structure that says, "Hey, here's how you could do that. "Here's how you could support each other differently." And we again, want some of the classes, what I want mentorship, so we have that.
Jeff Faust • 45:36
My wife and I, Natalie and I, we taught at one of those. And I think our conversation that day was basically, how to give away what you were never given.
Jen McLain • 45:44
Yeah.
Jeff Faust • 45:45
And so we all have areas of our upbringing where things weren't demonstrated in the way that you would want them. And yet you would want to be the kind of parent that like, so like, I mean, I think I remember talking about patience. Like, how are you gonna give patience to your child if you weren't demonstrated that?
Jen McLain • 46:01
Yeah.
Jeff Faust • 46:02
And where do you get that from? How can you grow yourself? And how can you become a more patient mother or father? And it was a wonderful conversation, you know, we had with all the different parents.
Jen McLain • 46:16
Yeah, yeah. So the topics range from what do I give that I never had to budgeting to nutrition to relationship red flags barriers communication Boundaries all of that. I think one of our one of the ones that's kind of a favorite one is when to actually call the doctor Yeah, because you know you've got this little person who can't tell you anything right when when do I actually?
Jeff Faust • 46:41
Parenting just has a way of making anxiety real
Jen McLain • 46:46
Oh gosh, you know, this is worthy of a call and this is gonna be fine. Yeah, so I just love that we have that class Yeah, we also here the the focus base Are in our in our room will have the baby boutique and maternity boutique So we'll be able to offer material assistance in a very different way traditionally done a gift card For people who are participating in that program But now if there's needs for diapers or wipes or clothes that kind of stuff We have that ability once the room gets up and going we're like a quarter of the way moved in so we're ready for that space to Become really functional. So after that once a quarter we offer a labor and delivery class. It's a one-day class Having never had a baby. I don't I can't imagine learning everything in one day But yeah, it is a one-day fast and fast and furious That baby's coming you better be ready. Yeah, because your body is gonna go through it whether or not you want to you're not Yeah, ready or not, here this comes. So after that, we're out.
Jeff Faust • 47:48
Is that women or do some dads go to that?
Jen McLain • 47:50
Yeah, it is for obviously expectant moms and then whoever their partner is. So if it's a mom or a girlfriend or if it's a father of the baby or a partner, it's whoever.
Jeff Faust • 48:01
I went to one of those with my wife and it was an experience.
Jen McLain • 48:06
(laughing) I'm sure. It was an experience. I'm sure. So we got for that four times a year free of charge. We offer counseling, so we have mental health, mental and relationships health counseling, so we do six sessions free. All of our sexual health services are free. We have care for those who have lost a child to miscarriage, stillbirth or early infant loss. We have a woman who can just usually, it's one-on-one coffee, and hey, how are you doing? I think it's a very different loss for women. It's different than an abortion decision, but we have that. And then we wrote a Healthy Relationships Curriculum that is, I think, an eight session curriculum that's really for youth groups, kind of middle school, high school age. And again, identifying healthy friendships, what does it mean to actually have and be a good friend? Finding the people who are going to be your people. And recognizing that that changes over time, and certainly the people that we hang out with today are different than the people we hang out with in our, probably in our 20s or even our teens, but we have that curriculum that's available and that's available on our website for any church or a young adult group. And then we just, we have this beautiful group of donors that make all of that possible. Yeah,
Jeff Faust • 49:26
we should talk about funding.
Jen McLain • 49:28
Yeah.
Jeff Faust • 49:29
'Cause I always wanna talk with nonprofits about funding sources, needs, the future, things like that. This is just a real big part of the nonprofit world is development and trying to figure out how we're gonna pay for all the services that we provide. So tell us just, I mean, you can go in as detail as you want, but I would imagine, like a lot of nonprofits, you have a variety of different revenue streams from private donors to church support, to some foundations and things like that. So tell us, yeah, just a little bit about your kind of funding programs and how people can maybe get involved.
Jen McLain • 50:05
Yeah, yeah, you've hit on all of them. We have an amazing donor base. So because we've been around since 1985, we do have some folks that have been with us for 41 years. And if you happen to be one of those who's listening today, thank you, because you are part of why we still exist today. And we want to grow the people who will take us to the next 40 years. We don't anticipate that our services and the need for our services are going to go away in time real soon. I think we would love to work ourselves out of a job. And when that happens, we will actually rejoice in that day. But until then, we want to be available to serve the community and meet them where they are. And so thanks if you're already a donor. If you're not yet a donor, we would love to connect with you. Any gift is welcome. I think we've, you and Jeff and I have talked about for sure. We love large gifts, but we also really love the continuous $25, $30 a month gift that lasts for years. Because that return on that investment is huge. We are supported by 30 plus churches in the Heron Town, which is super exciting. We do baby bottle campaigns at churches. Some people are, some churches are also sponsors and/or monthly givers. And so we have just kind of different connections there. And that's always fun to see and love coming to our churches and sharing about what we do. 'Cause it's just great to meet the people who are making the work possible. We do receive a couple of grants, but not very many. We're kind of selective in the grants that we apply for. We want it to be worth our time. It's a whole journey. It's a whole journey. To start applying for grants, it really is. Yeah, and so we have a few of those that we get. We have some business sponsors who are, who just love what we get to do and then they sponsor us primarily through a couple of events. So we just had our golf tournament. You were there a couple of weeks ago. It was a gorgeous day. - It was a great tournament. Oh my gosh, it was gorgeous. And it was a great tournament. We love that event. This year we're launching a pickleball tournament that's gonna be in July. Oh, awesome. So stay tuned if you're interested in that. And then we have our fundraising gala that's September 10th. And that event has just been really special the last couple of years. It's always been great, but the last couple of years, it's just really has turned into a bit more of like a praise and worship night with some information. we have at this point transitioned away from a speaker because we have our own story to tell. And we love the praise and worship component with our community of givers. It's just felt like just really precious. So we're excited for what this year could hold.
Jeff Faust • 52:42
So I'm curious and I always liked, partly because I'm always thinking about a year from now, five years from now, I just find myself in that space mentally. Like if you were to kind of pull the thread of what the future holds for Alpha financially, but also how finances could impact services. What do you, I'm not asking you to pull out the magic eight baller may, but what do you envision for the future? And what would new partnerships and new donations mean for services?
Jen McLain • 53:17
Yeah, yeah, I think it's such a great question. One of our internal dreams is currently at our 1212 South College location. We have one ultrasound room. We would love to see an increase of patients and an increase of funds, 'cause we would need both to have a second ultrasound room to be needed that much.
Jeff Faust • 53:40
That can't be cheap. No. - Medical devices aren't cheap.
Jen McLain • 53:43
No, no. - You don't like me
Jeff Faust • 53:44
buying a couch for the Love Focos Center.
Jen McLain • 53:46
No, no. Yeah, an ultrasound machine is generally in the $40,000 range. And then to equip our nurses for that requires some specific training because they are Sonography trained as we want them to be equipped and that training is kind of ongoing
Jeff Faust • 54:01
So I think someone out there can have 40k right for you. That's right
Jen McLain • 54:04
It is actually on our donation page. I want to give an ultrasound machine So we're ready to accept that gift at any time And if we needed to we could find a way to use it right away Right in fact, I think one of our cool opportunities is actually exist right here in this room in this building with Christ Clinic We don't know what their capacity for ultrasound might be, but if we could partner with them differently That's just a dream that we have like what would that look like?
Jeff Faust • 54:28
Oh, I listen I'm all about the dreamy and one of the reasons why we built the love focal resource center was so that we could lean on your Expertise and Christ's clinic is just down the hallway offering free medical primary care Surgery say is here refugee oasis is here celebrate recovery. We're all in the same space Yeah, because many of the folks that we are connected with could use multiple services in their life. And I think there's a bright future at LoveFoco between the Alpha Center and Christ Clinic and all of these organizations working together.
Jen McLain • 55:03
Yeah, so we feel excited about that and what it might look like. Currently we think 1212 South College in terms of our medical care. So we'd love to expand that service. We would love to be to the point that we would have to tell someone we're full. We're not at that space. would love to be there. And that would be an interesting one.
Jeff Faust • 55:22
Well, and I would imagine 12, I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, because I could just be dead wrong. But 12-toe college, that's right on the edge of campus too. And so, probably see a lot of young adults there or more, I mean.
Jen McLain • 55:34
Yeah, the majority of our patients are between like that 18, 19, 25, 26. Kind of right in that age range. We see a few that are older and still needing our care because we don't stop being sexually active because we're 26. But that's the bulk of our folks, is that age range? So that location is critical. We also recognize that there might be an opportunity a little further north. I don't know, my board hears this, "No, that I haven't told you yet." But I think, you know, what it would look like to expand potentially into like Wellington. Wyoming has abortion restrictions in place that Colorado doesn't have. So we become an abortion tourism state. What if we're even closer to that borderline? What does that look like? What does it look like to reach that rural community differently? Some might feel like Fort Collins is too far to come. So I don't know what that looks like, but that's a possibility. I think again, and limitless opportunities here in this, in this low-poco space. So we're super excited about that. I was excited. All of that comes of course with a price tag. The truth about medical testing, even on the STI front, we test for syphilis, gonorrhea, climinia, and HIV. Those tests continue to rise in price every year.
Jeff Faust • 56:59
Do you have like a frame of reference on like what a test costs?
Jen McLain • 57:02
Oh, yeah. If I'd known, we were gonna ask. It's okay if you don't. Yeah, I don't. I just know that it goes up every year.
Jeff Faust • 57:09
Yeah.
Jen McLain • 57:10
And we're not gonna not offer those four.
Jeff Faust • 57:12
Right.
Jen McLain • 57:13
Anytime in the near future. And so that price continues to go up. Yeah. And so at this point, what we do is we just kind of choose to limit our appointments. Yeah. So we control our budget.
Jeff Faust • 57:23
Well, you might not be able to say it, but I can. I can say it on your behalf and everyone else's behalf. That's an executive director of a nonprofit. I think sometimes what happens is cost of goods services go up with inflation, whether that's 2%, 5%, 8%, or if there's market changes, and the medical world is one of those, or construction costs are in COVID spiked, these things climb faster than the inflation rate. Just a blanket statement to any listener who gives a monthly gift to their favorite nonprofit, consider increasing that because the way that the economy works is as inflation increases the value of that dollar decreases in what you can do with that donation. And so, you know, just a cost of living raise for all donations would be a gift to all. Honestly, I mean, if you already have X amount of monthly givers, and they just all consider going up by 10 bucks a month, I don't think people realize that is a compounding effect in the nonprofit sector in a huge way.
Jen McLain • 58:32
Yeah, I think it's so well said. And I think one of our, really our most valuable asset is our team.
Jeff Faust • 58:38
Yeah.
Jen McLain • 58:39
And when I started in 2014, we were a team of seven. We are a team of 16 today. And that's a different team. They're highly skilled. We have four nurses that are all sonography trained. That's a very high skill point. And we wanna compensate that well. I don't think any nonprofit in town once their employees to also have to access other nonprofits because they chose to work in a nonprofit. And so we want to, and we're committed to paying our folks a competitive wage.
Jeff Faust • 59:15
And it's funny too, because like sometimes, I mean, not all the time, but sometimes there's like a sector of donors that don't wanna talk about staffing. But the reality is, we're made up of the people who are on our team. And like, if you have great team members, that organization will thrive.
Jen McLain • 59:32
Absolutely.
Jeff Faust • 59:33
And teleacquisition, when cost of living is really high, I mean, that's a challenge for nonprofits.
Jen McLain • 59:37
It is a challenge. And one of the biggest gifts that we've been given at Alpha Center is actually longevity of our staff. And so we're seeing people, there are two of us that are at the 12, 13 year range. There's a group that's in the eight, nine year range. There's a group that's in like the four year range. And then we hired an amazing group of women last August. So they're approaching a year. And that's just been a joy. And so we're seeing this longevity over time because they believe in what we're doing. And it also makes them the mission so much more effective because we're not continually training. And that you're right, that talent acquisition. Makes a really big difference. And retention piece is huge. So I love that 10% inflation if you're a donor.
Jeff Faust • 01:00:25
Yeah, just all considerate, that would be great. Hey, just a little bit of time left. And so I want to finish with just kind of any kind of parting words that you might have, an invitation that you might have. So you can, if you can think about two things at the same time, you can put that back in your mind. But I would love to give you an opportunity to just talk about maybe some misconceptions or even misinformation that might be out there, either known or just that you intuitively kind of wonder the city has about the Alpha Center. Because I think sometimes people who aren't close to you or they just drive past your space or they heard about you from someone else, there can be some misinformation out there. This would be an opportunity for you to just say, hey, this is really who we are. I think you've done that with, that you're eliminating, we're not a fear base, a shame base, we're a compassionate center, but is there anything else you would like to kind of add to that conversation and just say, if you don't know, or if you've heard some different things, this is really who we are.
Jen McLain • 01:01:21
Yeah, I think it's, I love that question. Thank you for asking. I think ultimately at the heart of Alpha Center is a care for people, which is why the intersection focus so beautiful because we love our city. We love the people who live here. And if you find yourself in a place where you need support in your sexual health life, be that you're married and there was extra marital activity or you're not married and you've got multiple partners or you were assaulted, any one of those spaces, we exist to care for you. And we're not a place of shame or judgment. And I think just because we're a pro-life space does not mean that we are going to judge your choices. We're here because we believe in you and we want to love you well and we want to serve you well. We're committed to excellent and dignified care and because we love "Jesus, we can do that with a whole heart." And so I think there's just that perception that we're gonna judge an abortion decision. We're gonna judge it.
Jeff Faust • 01:02:33
You're gonna be like weird protest-y people.
Jen McLain • 01:02:35
Yeah, or that we're gonna, that you might see our staff outside of Planned Parenthood. That's not gonna happen.
Jeff Faust • 01:02:42
'Cause there was like a, there was a moment recently, and maybe it's still happening, where like vandalism and threats of attack were really prominent.
Jen McLain • 01:02:53
Yeah, I think, yeah, for sure. And fortunately, Alpha Center has, at this point, stayed out of that, which is just a huge gift from the community and protection of the Lord, where we tend to see the taxes online. People who want to discredit the fact that they'll say things like, "Oh, there's no medical staff there." That's not true. We have four nurses, a medical director, like a backup medical director in case ours is on vacation. We're a medical clinic because there are medical people on site. There are people who want to say because we use pre-abortion screening, feel like that's false advertising. Well, we're never advertising that we provide or refer for abortion, but we are there to provide you information before you have one, which is pre-abortion screening. So we're very true to our language. And we want people to know that they have three options. They can choose an abortion. they can choose an adoption or they can choose to parent. And all three of those are options that all three of them have consequences. Yeah. As much as my mom loves me, there are some consequences to being a parent for the rest of your life. And adoption has consequences and an abortion has consequences. They're all there. And so we wanna talk about them equally. And I think that's a piece that can feel misunderstood. And we just, we exist to love our city.
Jeff Faust • 01:04:17
Yeah. You know, it's interesting to me too, because as I hear you say that, there's probably misinformation out there from the secular world. And then there probably is some, even in the church world. Oh,
Jen McLain • 01:04:27
for sure, yeah.
Jeff Faust • 01:04:28
You know, of like, even you saying that, like, hey, there's three options.
Jen McLain • 01:04:31
Yeah.
Jeff Faust • 01:04:32
There's, I mean, I, you know, there's probably a group of faith-filled people who wouldn't even want you to present three options. Right, for all for sure. Who would just say, Jen, why are you, why are you even asking, why are you even talking about all three options? Right, yeah. I think it speaks to the judgment-free space that you're creating, the compassionate environment that you've established for our city, and the reality that like, look, if you guys aren't being transparent and honest, then you're gonna find a blogger to inform you.
Jen McLain • 01:05:05
Absolutely, oh for sure.
Jeff Faust • 01:05:06
And so I'd rather just have a face-to-face conversation
Jen McLain • 01:05:08
with you about the realness of life. For sure, but I think there's so much reliance on social media and blogs and like, Oh, what are my symptoms? If we would much rather have you come and actually get facts about your life and facts about what's happening with your body, within the lane that we sit. So we can talk to you about those four STIs. We can tell you about symptoms for others. And if you need to get help, we can talk to you about your pregnancy and where you are and your pregnancy and what your options are. And we want you to know that information because we really believe that informed choice is truly informed choice. And it matters.
Jeff Faust • 01:05:44
It does. Yeah, it's been a great conversation. I look forward to all the things that we're gonna do in the future, maybe even some fundraising efforts that we'll circle back around to in the future in ways that we can get more people on board. But I just wanna close by just giving you an opportunity to say anything that's maybe not been said or any you wanna expand on more or even direct folks to a place where they can land to learn more, but just want to give you the final word here.
Jen McLain • 01:06:17
Yeah, well I would just say, if you're curious, if you're listening and you're curious about Alpha Center, maybe this is the first time that you're like, "Wow, I actually didn't know that much about them," or "I didn't know anything," which was me in 1988, and up until 2014. We would love the opportunity to meet you, and so the best way to do that is to reach out at through mail@thealphacenter.org, and that'll get directed to me. If you would like to have a tour or you want to have a conversation about what it looks like to be involved with the work at Alpha Center, maybe you're interested in employment. There are times that we're hiring. Maybe you're interested in volunteering. We always have opportunities there, particularly now that we have the love focus space. That's that need is opening up a little differently. Or maybe you want to become a donor. We would love to connect with you. If you think you've heard a story or two about the Alpha Center and how we interact and you would like to hear something that's different. We would love to engage with you again that same way. We'd love to meet you. If you're curious about our Love Focco space and what's offered here, again, would love to show you, give us maybe another month. We're not quite all the way set up, but I would love the chance to show you what that space looks like and engage with the community.
Jeff Faust • 01:07:32
And if they want to participate, and we can put all this stuff in our show notes. But I imagine a number of people listening to this. Yeah. We'll even learn for the first time that you operate in that post-abortion care space. Yeah, yeah. So I would, you know, I think that any number of people would be ready and willing to raise their hand, and then there'll be a whole bunch of other folks that them identifying themselves in need of care will be maybe the first time they've said something out loud. So how can they approach you if they're interested in that?
Jen McLain • 01:08:05
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so since it'll be in the show notes, I can say it 'cause then it'll be otherwise it's long. So we have the Alpha Center dot org, which is our medical website. So pregnancy, pre-abortion screening, counseling, and then STI screening. And then we have the Alpha Center Collective, which is where we offer all of our post-decision resources. So after abortion care, miscarriage, early infant loss care, parent success classes, and then thrive curriculum is all there, as well as information about volunteering and and being a donor. So those two websites are our best sources of information.
Jeff Faust • 01:08:44
Yeah, oh, that's great. Thanks for sharing that, Jen. I love these conversations 'cause even though we knew each other, I learned more about you and got to hear about your journey to the point where you're at now. And I'm just so excited because I know stories are still being written all over our city and definitely still in your life and in our relationship as well. And so I look forward to the future. I'm so grateful you're in our city, loving our city one life at a time. As we say at Love Foco, you are part of that. You're doing it. Grateful for you, your organization, your entire team. And really excited that we're partnering together and look forward to the future.
Jen McLain • 01:09:21
Yeah, thank you so much for having me. And thanks for navigating the depths of my story.
Jeff Faust • 01:09:25
Of course. Yeah.
Narrator • 01:09:29
Thanks for listening to the Love FoCo show. If today's conversation inspired you, share it with a friend who loves Fort Collins as much as you do. Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. And leave us a review. It helps more people discover us. To learn more about Love Foco and find opportunities for loving our city one life at a time, visit lovefoco.com. For now, keep loving Fort Collins well.
