Mothers, including those who carry new life inside them, bear a blessedly special but often hard burden. When adding relationship struggles, economic challenges or other hardships that lead a mother to feel like she is on the margins, the weight can often feel too much to bear.

Six parishes in the Concord, Martinez and Pleasant Hill areas are bringing their parishioners together to collaborate in bearing the practical and spiritual burdens of area mothers through Walking with Moms in Need (WWMIN). The parish-level initiative, aided by the Oakland Diocese, is part of a WWMIN national campaign that supports and empowers pregnant and parenting mothers in need.

Describing it as “a program of people who care about people in need,” Father Lawrence D’Anjou, pastor of St. Bonaventure's Parish in Concord and the vicar general of the Diocese of Oakland said, "We're there to walk with her on the journey. We want to make the choice to have that child easy for her."

WWMIN aims to ensure that any mother facing difficult circumstances can turn to their parish for resources.

Jayme Morelli and Jacki Mongalo are program coordinators for Most Holy Rosary Parish's Gabriel Project, which is part of the Walking With Moms in Need ministry network.“Right now, we have over 17,000 parishes in the United States. Everybody in a parish community should know where women in need can go and how to refer to those places where they can get help,” said Kat Talalas, assistant director for pro-life communications for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

The first phase of the six-parish partnership happened at a conference on Sept. 14 at St. Bonaventure's. Church members there joined parishioners from Christ the King Church in Pleasant Hill, Queen of All Saints, St. Agnes and St. Francis of Assisi churches in Concord and St. Catherine of Siena Parish in Martinez. They mapped out the volunteers' plan to walk with these women on their parenting and pregnancy journeys.

That plan will offer faith-centered friendship and support and connect mothers with community partners who can provide critical pregnancy-related resources and other general social services.

"Create a network of support of people like you and me, volunteers who can just be there for … her challenging moments, to listen to her story, to find out what she needs. Does she need a ride to a clinic? Does she need counseling? Does she need food or maybe some help to provide a place to live?” said D’Anjou.

Numerous organizations took part in the Sept. 14 conference:

• Catholic Charities East Bay, offering mental health, violence prevention, housing, disaster and emergency relief and immigration services.

• The Gabriel Project, which trains volunteers – angels, as their program describes them – to offer direct service to women enduring crisis pregnancies, while also offering other support, including meals.

• Options Health in Pittsburg, a life-affirming clinic that offers no-cost services like pregnancy testing, ultrasound and counseling.

• Order of Malta Pope Francis Legal Clinic , whose services include consultation on immigration, landlord/tenant disputes and child custody agreements.

• St. Vincent De Paul of Contra Costa County, providing daily meals, health and dental clinics, a daytime homeless shelter and other services.

“We want to show God’s love to everyone who walks through our doors,” Options Health Development Officer Kim Smith-Mullin said.

“It really does take a village,” St. Vincent De Paul Contra Costa County Executive Director Claudia Ramirez said. “We all work in collaboration.”

That collaboration has launched a growing base of volunteers into both prayer and action, what Diocese of Oakland Life and Social Justice Coordinator Kiona Medina calls a new form of currency.

“There are groups in the diocese who have time,” said Medina, who said volunteers include retirees and immigrant women. “Volunteering is their gift.”

Medina said that within two weeks of the conference, 20 volunteers took part in the first of what could become a series of mental health training seminars to empower their ministry. 

Additionally, from Sept. 25 to Nov. 3, prayer volunteers joined the 40 Days for Life campaign at Planned Parenthood sites in Concord, El Cerrito and Walnut Creek. Medina called the experience a chance to organically build community.

“All of these women have something in common,” she said.

According to Medina, a woman entering the clinic in Concord one morning stopped to talk with the women who were praying outside. She urgently needed a tuberculosis test for her job, and, although the women had booklets of resources, they were unable to offer an immediate alternative. The experience highlighted the need for help to close the gap in social services.

Only two free life-affirming clinics, Options Health in Pittsburg and another clinic in Oakland, exist within the diocese compared to more than 20 Planned Parenthood locations.

“We need more affordable social services at a closer distance,” Medina said. “There are a lot of parishes in between.”

That's where Walking with Moms in Need aims to fill the gap, by strengthening bonds at the parish level to meet struggling neighbors' needs.

“Everybody has something going on,” said Medina.

“We need to see the human fragility in ourselves and others and find common ground, and weave together a tapestry of being pro-life.”

Do. Believe. Belong.