The Oxford Women’s Care Center, 23 E. High St. has provided guidance to young women from Miami University and the Oxford Community since it was established in 1984.

Located in the heart of Uptown, the center opened with the intent of meeting the material and emotional needs of young women dealing with a crisis pregnancy or post-abortion trauma.

“It’s a pro-life organization,” Coralee Shearer, director of the center, said. “[The center] wanted to give people in the community and students an opportunity to have free pregnancy tests and hopefully encourage them to have the baby or put them up for adoption and have that support that they need.”

Although its location is close to Miami’s campus, most of the clients are not Miami students.

“About one-third of our clients are from Miami, the remaining two-thirds are from the community,” said Shearer.

The organization fulfills the needs of women who are in two different types of circumstances, according to Shearer. The center offers free pregnancy tests that are referred to Dr. Daniel Stein, a local doctor at Oxford Obstetrics & Gynecology. After clients take the pregnancy test, the staff offers guidance on different options for their pregnancy and support for during the pregnancy, according to Shearer.

After pregnancy, the organization provides goods such as clothing, formula and baby care supplies to the new mothers, Shearer said.

The center cares for new moms and their children until the child is two years old, and then refers patients to the Family Resource Center, according to Shearer.

Support from local churches and community members helps keep the center running. Local organizations give monetary and material donations such as gently used baby clothes.

For work that involves sorting the donations that they receive and other day-to-day tasks, the organization relies on volunteers from the community and Miami students.

“I really like what they’re doing here,” sophomore and Oxford Women’s Care Center volunteer Enisa Hayes said. “I think it’s a good mission.”

The care center also has a Miami student working for them as an intern. Sarah Laboiteaux is a senior social work major and started working with the center at the beginning of the fall semester. She is currently focusing on a fundraiser for the center called the Baby Bottle Boomerang.

“You take a baby bottle and put all of your spare change in and it is donated at the end of the month to the center,” Laboiteaux said.

This program, according to Laboiteaux, can be implemented in any residence hall or student organization that is looking for a way to give back to the community.

The project receives its name because the baby bottles are given out to the community, and like a boomerang, they are returned to the care center full of change.

“You have to remember, you’re putting money back into your own community and on campus because this is where you are invested in your life right now,” Shearer said.

In the future, Shearer said that they would love to move to a larger building to provide more room for storage and services for their clients.

The center actively raising support throughout the community and welcome any new volunteers. If a student organization is interested in participating in the Baby Bottle Boomerang project they are encouraged to contact the center by visiting their website at www.oxfordwomenscarecenter.org or their Facebook page, Oxford Women’s Care Center.