The Sacramento Life Center took the first step toward launching a long-range expansion campaign to establish satellite offices in neighboring communities by moving its headquarters on two months ago to a new location.

Now located near J Street and Alhambra Boulevard, the Life Center’s enlarged facility includes a training center and additional support staff for future clinics in Roseville, Elk Grove, Folsom and Davis.

“We realized we have such a good service here, and it matters so much where a woman gets a pregnancy test,” said Kathy Conner, executive director, “but the reality is we’re in downtown Sacramento.”

She said that because there are so many outlying suburbs, for a young woman, in particular, to make the trip from distant areas to the Sacramento Life Center is often difficult.

More than 500 guests were invited to an open house and blessing by Bishop William K. Weigand on April 8 to show supporters how their donations have helped the Life Center grow in its ministry.

“We wanted to have our facility officially blessed for now and for the future we start here,” Conner said.

The Life Center plans to open its first satellite clinic in Roseville this summer and is currently conducting interviews to staff the clinic, with training sessions to begin in May.

The training center will also provide a location to hold support group meetings for Project Rachel, a ministry of healing and reconciliation for women and men suffering from the trauma of abortion.

A new abstinence coordinator has also been added to the Life Center’s staff to coordinate education programs targeting eighth grade and high school students.

“Part of the problem in ending abortion comes about when girls don’t even walk through our front door because they’ve made decisions for themselves,” Conner said. “We need to get to them earlier as they’re formulating their life plans.”

An aggressive media campaign begun last year has been effective in bringing in clients for pregnancy tests and reaching out to women dealing with life issues through the Sacramento Life Center hotline. The budget for radio advertising has doubled and programming is currently running on two FM radio stations.

“The hotline starts ringing within 60 seconds after an ad has been aired,” Conner said.

While she would like nothing more than to open one new clinic a year, the Life Center’s current plan calls for opening one new clinic every two years.

The Sacramento Life Center is located at 930 Alhambra Blvd., Ste. 210. For more information, call (916) 451-4357.

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