From Crisis to Hope: How North State Care Clinic Serves Redding Families

Redding is a beautiful place. We have national parks in three different directions, two world-class lakes. This is a sportsman's paradise, but it's also full of wonderful people. We have business leaders, community leaders, faith-based leaders, all of them working towards a singular goal, and that's to make this a great place to live. I wanted to showcase these people, give their perception of the place that they call home. This is All Redding.

Kirsten Lapp, welcome to the All Redding Podcast. Thanks for being here today.

Thanks for having me.

It's a pleasure. Now, I have to start with an apology. Normally, we have a fabulous All Redding Podcast tumbler that I know from personal experience can keep ice cold for like 24 hours, and we're out of stock. So we're going to owe you an All Redding Podcast Tumblr so you can keep your drinks cold during the hot Redding summers.

All right. I'll forgive it this time.

I'll send you an invoice. I appreciate that. Before we started, you were indicating that you are a pickleball expert, and that the people who play at Enterprise Park got nothing on you. Of course, I'm an attorney, so you can take what I say with a grain of salt. In addition to loving pickleball, tell us what you do for a job.

I am the director at North State Care Clinic. We're a crisis pregnancy center here in town, and we get to offer men and women who are facing crisis pregnancies, we get to offer them free services. We have a medical arm where we offer them free verified pregnancy tests and free ultrasounds, and then we have a resource arm where we will continue to walk with them throughout their whole pregnancy and support them and love them and just help support them in what they're needing.

Okay. So definitions are a big deal. What's a crisis pregnancy?

So a crisis pregnancy, and we serve our center, we serve anybody and everybody, so we are all free services. We serve people that walk in off the streets, we serve students, we serve women and men who just need a verified pregnancy test to be able to take to their doctor, but we really are there for that one girl who finds out she's pregnant unexpectedly, wasn't planning to get pregnant, and then is facing the choice of what to do with this unexpected pregnancy.

Okay. So how long has, and I understand that historically North State Care Clinic wasn't always called North State Care Clinic, so how long has the organization existed regardless of name?

So we've been serving the community for 41 years. Our founders, Roger and Joanne Ralston, they founded it, they started in 1983, started preying into it, and then in 1984, they actually opened the doors to the Crisis Pregnancy Center of Northern California.

So give us the backstory, because when I read it, it was so compelling for how this couple came to be starting a Crisis Pregnancy Center and what that looked like in those fledgling days.

Yeah. So it is a touching story. I got to meet with Roger Ralston before he passed away, and he just talked with me and the then director and our office manager for two and a half hours and just shared the story of how he founded Crisis Pregnancy Center of Northern California. That in itself was a miracle because he had congestive heart failure. So he talked to us for two and a half hours and shouldn't have been able to talk for two and a half hours. So it was just a cool blessing to be able to hear that straight from him. But he started having dreams of body parts in trash bins in 1983, and his wife thought it was just PTSD trauma. He had just had a long heart surgery. He had served in the military. So they wrote it off as just PTSD trauma dreams. They had people come visit them and stay with them in their home. They were visiting Redding. And so these people that came and visited their home suggested they watch a pro-life movie that was out in the 80s called The Silent Scream. Have you seen it?

I haven't.

I haven't seen it. Yeah. So they watched it. And then once the movie started, Roger just started crying. And he just was saying, that's my dream. That's my dream. That's my dream. So he realized the Lord had been giving him these prophetic dreams. And it was actually about the issue of abortion. So they started praying into this. They started having conversations with a lady out of D.C. on crisis pregnancy centers and what are crisis pregnancy centers. It was a highly debated issue in the 80s. It was highly charged, highly political. And they just started having these conversations of, OK, what is this? What is the Lord saying about this? What do we do with this? And so they connected with a local pastor, Royal Blue, who's had his hands, as I've learned in a lot of just Christian organizations here in town, and shared with him what a crisis pregnancy center is and what the Lord was giving him with these dreams. And Royal Blue said, I'm going to get behind you on this mission. And he asked Roger to come and share at his church on what they were starting. And Roger just stood in front of the audience and just wept just because of how the Lord was like moving his heart on this issue. So they got together. They started praying in their home on what to do. And then nine months later, they opened the doors to Crisis Pregnancy Center of Northern California. So they opened in 1984.

Now, I was looking at some of the historical information. Was this a live-in facility for girls who were in a crisis pregnancy? That's some of what I was taking away from the notes.

They ran a separate home for unwed mothers called the Hosanna House. So that was separate. That was their live-in home that some people had asked them to run. And that was when they had two unwed mothers come into their home. And then they took care of them throughout their whole pregnancy. And some of the stories with that are really cool because they just took this huge risk and huge step of faith and started running this home and didn't have the financial provision for it. And the Lord provided every single time. They would have days where they didn't have money for groceries. And then there would be a knock on the door and groceries would be on their door. They were given a station wagon to take the girls to church. So that was the Hosanna House that they did a live-in home for unwed mothers.

So that's consistent though with their mission for being pro-human, pro-mom, pro-babies. Okay. So then help us then to come forward from those early beginnings to sort of the modernity of North State Care Clinic.

Yeah. So they founded it in 1984. And then other people stepped in to really keep it running. And it's been through different leadership changes and different moves, but it's kept open. It's kept its doors open for 41 years and been able to serve the community with these free services for 41 years, which is astounding. We moved to the building that we're in now in 2006. So we've been leasing that building since 2006. My predecessor, Wendy, so she's from Pennsylvania. That's how I got connected with the center. I'm from Pennsylvania. So she took over as director seven years ago and helped kind of rebring some life and health back into the center and brought it through COVID. Okay. And then meanwhile, I moved here. I moved here five years ago and it was during COVID and I'm a licensed marriage and family therapist. So I did children's therapy. That was my career that I did in Oklahoma before moving here.

So Pennsylvania to Oklahoma to California.

It's a lot of, yeah. So I grew up in Pennsylvania. I grew up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Okay. But you're not Amish.

Not Amish. Almost though.

My dad grew up Amish.

So I was like this close to being Amish. I don't, yeah.

You escaped the bonnet.

I know. I can't imagine. No makeup, no hair dye, nothing.

Right. But you'd probably be a great carpenter.

So yeah, dad grew up Amish. He left the Amish in his late twenties, met my mom, married my mom. And then there's four kids in my family. So we just grew up a non-denominational, charismatic, Christian home, just beautiful, beautiful childhood in Lancaster. And then I lived in Oklahoma for eight years before moving up here. So I did my master's there and schooling there and worked as a children's therapist in Oklahoma before moving out here. Okay. So that brings me up to the pregnancy center. So I came out here and needed a job. My license hadn't come through in California yet. And it was during COVID and I was applying and applying and applying for jobs for just like serving jobs and coffee shop jobs. And I couldn't get anything. And so I'm like, I'm not going to send you a job. So my friend, Wendy was running the center. And I said, Hey, can I volunteer at your pregnancy center? I just moved to town. I need something to do. So I just came into the center and started doing whatever she needed me to do, painting bookshelves and going shopping for decorations and just doing mailings. And then started talking to the office manager there. They said they had been looking for a bookkeeper for six months. So I said, okay, well, I need a job. Let me take this financial test that you have your bookkeepers take. Took it. I had done the books for my dad in high school. He runs his like own concrete business. So I did QuickBooks for him in high school. That's the extent of my accounting. That's my accounting experience. So she took a chance on me to do the bookkeeping. You know, I thought I would be there for three months. And then three years later, I still was there because I had just fallen in love with the mission and what we do and getting to meet men and women in these crisis pregnancies, fall in love with the culture and just, yeah, really had just fallen in love with what then Care Net was. So that brought us up to, it was Care Net. My predecessor changed it and rebranded us to North State Care Clinic because we have a mobile unit. So our mobile unit goes out to the rural areas and we serve all of the North State. So we rebranded to just kind of re-envision who we are and what we're doing and who we're serving.

Okay. So talk to me a little bit then about the mobile unit, because each one of these growth periods for the care clinic has been accompanied by some kind of cool story. And my wife and I were connected with the mobile unit and the beginnings of that effort. So tell me about two things. I'll lay it up there for you and you answer it in any way that you want, any timeframe you want. But tell us about what the mobile unit is, where it goes, because certainly we're a huge county. I mean, Shasta County, I could be wrong on this. The internet will correct me, I'm sure. But I think Shasta County is about the same size as Rhode Island. So we have lots of rural areas to get to and go to. So tell us about the mobile unit, but also about the piece of land where you park the mobile unit.

So we have three goals with our mobile unit. We want to serve the rural areas in the North State. We want to serve our sister pregnancy centers who don't have medical services because we're able to do ultrasounds and pregnancy tests on our mobile unit. And then we want to be able to park our mobile unit across from the abortion facilities to offer our medical services in a life-affirming environment. So that's the goal with the mobile unit. Right now we're out two days a week, and my dream is to have it out five days a week and just be serving the rural areas, serving our sister centers. But in 2024, there is a plot of land that Redding Christian Fellowship had owned for years. It's 1.6 acres, and it's right across from Women's Health Center over on Victor. So they had this land, and they had been preying into it for about 10 years to be able to gift it to the pregnancy center. So in 2024, they were able to gift it to us. We bought it for a dollar from Redding Christian Fellowship. So it was just cool to be part of that process and see the Lord work in that. And I talked to a friend that had been on the board at Redding Christian Fellowship, and he was like, yeah, we've been preying into this for 10 years for this center to be able to have this land right across from Women's Health Center. So 2024, we got the land, and then I was working to put just a 12 by 24 concrete slab to be able to park our mobile unit to offer our services on that land. So that was my project in 2024. So I was working on getting permits for it and contractors and just whatever I needed for a concrete slab and just doing that process. And meanwhile, I realized that we need to just go over and meet the neighbors that are over there to let them know who we are, what we're doing, and do a warm welcome to the neighborhood over there. So we went over, me and Wendy went over, and we met the chiropractor. So that building that is up from the land was handly chiropractic for over 30 years.

And that's right out on the street, right?

That's right out on the street, right off of Victor. So we went over there and introduced ourselves and said who we were and we'll be parking our mobile unit. And so we walked in, and then the chiropractor's wife happened to be working that day. And she just got a huge smile on her face and realized, oh, the pregnancy center is going to be across from Women's Health. And so we said, yeah. And they've been in that building for over 30 years and have faced even a lot of just anger from what goes on on the sidewalk and tumultuous things that have gone on that sidewalk for years and years and years and years. So she said, we're actually planning to retire soon. Do you want a tour of our building?

Totally unexpected.

Totally unexpected. We weren't seeking this out at all. So we walked in and we said, yeah, we'd love a tour. And then we walked out from the tour and we were just so excited.

I'm doing the math in my head. It sounds like, as she's saying, do you want a tour of this building that at this point, North State Care Clinic has been renting its current location for like 18 years. So it had to seem like a little far fetched.

Yes. Yes. And that's exactly what it was. We looked at it. We said, this is beautiful. And it was a pipe dream. We texted our board president. Oh, we saw this great building. It was a pipe dream for the center. So we just totally gave it to the Lord. I mean, the board met on it, really felt just to sit on it for a little bit because in-house we were working on the transition between Wendy and I, for me to step in as director. So we had a lot going on in-house. Hey, it's not a great time to do a capital campaign. So they really felt to pray and sit on it. And then we had a local, he just has volunteered as a capital campaign consultant for us. And he came back and talked to our board president and said, hey, let's jump on this. This is an opportunity for the faith community to get behind what this could be. And for this is a once in a lifetime opportunity for the crisis pregnancy center to be across for a moment's health. So we really prayed on it and just felt to go ahead and launch a capital campaign. And that was in March.

Okay. Was that Gordon that you're talking about? All right. We'll keep last names out of it because I don't know what Gordon's preferences are, but I love Gordon.

He's a great guy.

We've served together and been friends and golf together. He's good at it. I'm bad. He still hasn't had a hole in one according to his bio, but not for lack of effort. So the capital campaign kicks off in March of 2025 before we get to the capital campaign, because that story, and I mean, there's so many stories here that like you walk out and you say, well, that's a pipe dream, but then there's a, but God part of this, right? So this, this couple with the husband, you know, suffering congestive heart failure, it's going to take his life at some point. But he has this dream. He decides, okay, we're going to go for it. He ends up outliving a couple of the doctors who told him he was going to die. Right. I thought I remembered that in the history. So, so, but God keeps him alive, gets the ministry started, partners with local ministry. It grows. Then we get you and your predecessor, Wendy looking at this building. It's a pipe dream, but, but God. But before we go to the capital campaign, there's a couple of other things in the history that I thought were really encouraging. So, so what is the mobile unit? You and I know what it means, but people who might be listening to this podcast have no idea if that's somebody with a, you know, a cart they pull around behind them or it's a car. What's the mobile unit?

So it is, it's a renovated Dodge Thor. So it's renovated by, we have these pregnancy center affiliates and they, they revamp these mobile units to be able to offer medical services mobile.

Okay.

So it's a motor home, right? Yeah.

But converted to be a mobile medical clinic.

Yeah, exactly.

Okay.

So it's, it's our on the ground, boots on the ground ability to do our medical services on it. So we have an in-house ultrasound machine. We have all of our medical services out of it, and then we offer continued advocacy as well out of it. So, um, a lot of pregnancy centers have partnered with mobile, with mobile medical affiliates to be able to offer their services, um, in areas that a brick and mortar wouldn't be able to reach.

Okay. And that was, that was part of one of the other areas that I wanted to touch on because you said partner with your sister, um, pregnant crisis pregnancy center here in town. But so it sounds like not all pregnancy centers have this mobile or excuse me, have this medical side to them. Is that fair?

That yeah. Okay.

So then you can sort of magnify the reach because you've got one pregnancy center in town that does do the medical side of things. And you've got another pregnancy center in town that just does the support side of things, but you can take that mobile unit there.

Is that right? And we, we are so thankful for all of our sister centers. We're all in this pro life, life affirming world together. And so some centers, exactly, they have the resources and support and curriculum and boutique to continue to walk with the men and women in, in their choices. And then, um, we're able to support them with our mobile unit. So we park at a sister center in Red Bluff. We park at the one here in Redding twice a month, and we can serve them with pregnancy tests and ultrasounds and then, um, have be able to show those moms that come in their baby on the ultrasound screen. And then we continue to partner with them. And then the sister center supports the mom, walks with her throughout the pregnancy, gives her the boutique items that she needs, gives her the education and curriculum that she needs, supports her spiritually.

So, so, um, this is something I wanted to get into later, but ultrasound, this is my lay understanding. You'll have a more expert understanding and I'm sure the medical team has an even more expert understanding, but uses sound waves to create an image that you can see on a screen that shows anything that you need to see inside the body that's capable of being rendered in ultrasound. But in this case shows a baby growing inside a mom's body, right? There's a, ultrasounds are available at women's health specialists, but there's a, there's a contrast into the way that they're provided. Can you speak to that a little bit?

Yeah. So we, um, just learned to, for, for women's health, they actually don't provide ultrasounds unless they're choosing abortion. So we've been able to actually get referrals because women come over to us, um, referred from them and say, I'm not able to get an ultrasound. So we're able to offer them an ultrasound. Um, and yes, it is the most impactful and powerful thing that we can offer a woman. If she's at all unsure what she wants to choose, she's able to actually see her baby on the screen and hear her baby's heartbeat and see, see her fetal development of her baby. Um, and we have a new machine we're able to offer 3d, 4d now. So, um, second trimester, we're able to actually show the baby's profile and show the baby moving. And it is, it is incredibly life-changing. Um, 75% of women who might be abortion vulnerable, if they have an ultrasound, they'll change their minds. And for dads, it's 92%. If dads are at all unsure 92% of the time, they change their mind when they're able to have an ultrasound.

And what are the strings attached to, um, a mom going through a crisis pregnancy or a mom and a dad that come in that are, you know, mom and dad to be that are coming in for crisis pregnancy. What strings are attached by North state care clinic to get that ultrasound?

We offer totally free services. So no strings attached. Um, and like I said, we serve anybody and everybody, but we also are able to offer our services in a non-coercive environment. So we are there to love the woman and man, and we're there to offer an informed choice, but we are going to love you no matter what you choose. And we're going to offer you a safe place to come back to no matter what you choose. So there's no strings attached and it's not, um, it's not ever coercive and how we're presenting the information. We want them to have informed choices. And if they go to an abortion facility, they, they will be given an ultrasound if they're choosing abortion, but they're not showing the screen. Um, they're not showing the truth about their baby's fetal development. They're not showing the heartbeat. They're not actually making an informed choice. So we, that's, that's my, you know, you know, soapbox that I get on about being able to make an informed choice. We want them to know the truth about what's going on with their baby.

So, um, going back to the history, because, um, with this idea that, that not all crisis pregnancy centers offer medical, it sounds like you have to have a medical director or somebody involved in medical field, a nurse, a doctor. Am I right?

Yeah.

Okay. So, uh, there's a couple of names that I was familiar with when I was reading through the history. I know both of them personally. Um, tell me how the medical side of North state care clinic came to be. Well, okay. I think I could throw it out there. Um, in the late nineties, maybe early two thousands, a couple of local Redding physicians, uh, came on board to start the medical side, right? I think that was, uh, Dr. Perry and Dr. Van mall. Is that ring a bell? Okay. So now that you've got a medical arm started, how's that operate today?

So we still partner with Dr. Perry and he's such a wonderful friend of the clinic. He was in this morning and was looking at charts for us and doing training for OB training and praying with us. And he like, he still is with us in our mission. It's, it's, it's such a beautiful support. Um, so he helps support what we do as far as our medical services helps, um, give us OB training. Um, a lot of our nurses that are volunteers aren't necessarily OB nurses, one labor and delivery nurse. And then the rest of our nurses that we have are RNs, but not necessarily OB field. So Dr. Perry is able to come in and offer training. Um, and then we are overseen by our medical director. Our current medical director is Dr. Alan Petit. He just stepped in as medical director this January and he's been such a gift to us. So he's helping us revamp our in-house policies and making sure that all of our I's are dotted, T's are crossed as far as our medical services.

Okay. So then you've got, um, I'm imagining this hypothetical, I imagine it as a, as a young woman coming in, but my guess is you probably provide services to women of all childbearing ages. Am I bright?

Yes. Okay.

So, but as I'm imagining this hypothetical scared young woman coming in, she's pregnant. Um, what's the sort of the wraparound care that a woman in her situation might experience at North state care clinic from, from first step through making a decision for life and everything from counseling to material supports to medical support. What's that look like?

So we, we just had a really sweet, um, she's now 16. She came in when she was 15, um, girl and she found us through Google ads and she came in and when she came in, she was 90% abortion determined, but she just came in to appease her mom. So she came in and we gave her a verified pregnancy test and then also provided advocacy. So that's when we assess, okay, how are you feeling about this? Um, what obstacles do you have for this pregnancy? Um, what are you facing in life? What are your dreams and goals for your life? And are you, can we support you in that? Um, so we just start that conversation and then if the pregnancy test is positive, we really want to get her in for an ultrasound because that's when we could actually determine viability and we're able to say we're, we have limited ultrasound. So our ultrasounds are able to determine gestational age, determine in utero pregnancy and determine viability.

Is there a difference between limited and unlimited or some other type of ultrasound?

We don't do diagnostic. So we specifically stick in our lane of just limited ultrasounds to determine viability. Um, we don't, we don't share gender. Um, if we see anything concerning that might look like a possible birth defect or anything at all, we just refer for diagnostics. So we'll refer to Dr. Perry, we refer to Generations of Women, we refer to Saylor Women's Health for continued diagnostic care and continued prenatal care.

Got it. So that's the difference between limited and unlimited.

Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. So this young lady comes in, uh, advocacy sounds like it's not advocacy for, for what would be our position on the pro-life issue, but it's advocacy for her. Okay. So she comes in, she gets an opportunity to talk. You partner with her in advocating for her. Is that right?

Yeah, exactly.

Did she come back for the ultrasound?

And then she, this particular girl, she came back for the ultrasound and she was really quiet, but we were able to show her her baby. And so we were able to show her, Hey, your baby's heart starts beating at 21 days. And then she can actually see it on the screen. Um, the first time that she came in, she was really early on. So we couldn't get a lot of good images. And we said, Hey, will you come back? If you come back in two weeks, we'll get a great image of your baby and your baby's heartbeat. And so she rescheduled for an ultrasound and we were praying for her the whole time. Um, so she rescheduled for the ultrasound. That second time she came back, she was able to actually hear her baby's heartbeat and see her baby moving. Um, and she still was, I would say at least 70% planning to have an abortion. And so then we just continued the conversation. Hey, we're here to support you. Um, what fears are coming up now? And how are, how are you feeling? How are you feeling about this pregnancy? What, what can we do to walk with you? We will continue to walk with you through this whole process and you're safe here regardless. We love you regardless of your choice. Um, but we want you to, to think about your choice. We don't want you to rush into something because we've talked to so many post abortive women and we've heard the trauma that comes with it. And then we've talked to so many women who've chosen life and not any woman who's chosen life has regretted her choice. So we want, we want you to know you have time to make, make a choice. Um, so this particular girl, she, she came back for another ultrasound. Um, so, and we just, we just kept serving her. We came in like every Friday at 345 for a couple of weeks in a row because she was willing to show up.

Okay.

So we said, okay, we are gonna, we are going to be there for you. You're the one that we're here for.

Okay.

And so we kept coming.

Are these outside of normal hours from the clinic?

Yeah.

Okay. But that was a time that worked for her.

Yeah. Okay.

So you guys figured out a way to show up.

My nurse manager is incredible. She's like, I'm going to be there for her. So she showed up and did the ultrasound. We had advocates show up. Um, I was able to advocate on some of the sessions and um, so she came back and then by the fourth time she came back, she had fully decided to keep the baby, which was a miracle. It was a miracle because she originally had come in and was planning to not keep it. So she finally just was processing, okay, this isn't the timing that I wanted to be in, but now I want to move forward. And so we just continued to offer her love and offer her support to talk with her through how we can help her. She was scared to tell her dad, this is an unexpected pregnancy. So she was really scared to tell her dad. So we even offered, um, I talked with her through some options of how she could present it to her dad. Hey, you can go to your dad with a plan. Um, and let him know that you're responsible with this choice and you have support for you. And sometimes that helps alleviate and we'll also have the conversation with you. You're welcome to come into the center or welcome to have the conversation with you. And then we also brought boyfriend in too.

Okay.

Cause we wanted to, um, we wanted to help, help that relationship and help support him in that choice. And so we had the conversation with him and once he actually communicated to her that he's willing to step up and be the dad to this baby, that's what helped change her mind.

Okay. So, um, I don't know, maybe this story is still in being written. Well, all of our stories are still being written, but, um, has, has this baby been born yet?

No.

Okay.

So we're still second trimester, but she's fully decided to carry the conversation with dad. Uh, that will be yet to determine. She's made another appointment. So we're excited to follow up with her.

Well, then we'll definitely make it a point to keep praying for her because she's got a busy road ahead of her. Um, you know, being, being a dad is a busy thing. So tell me, go ahead.

But we'll with her, we've, so as far as like wraparound services, we, um, have a whole resource side. So then we, we offer for her to sign up for our learning for life program. So it's parenting classes, um, continued advocacy support.

Wait a minute. You mean that we're not all born knowing how to do this and we could actually learn along the way, not by trial and error.

I mean, you know, I have a mess of kids.

I learned with them on trial and error. They wish I'd gone to a class. I'm sure. So, okay. So then, um, so wraparound care looks like, Hey, here's what it's like to be a parent. What else is wraparound care look like?

So we'll, um, whatever she's needing for continued services. So we'll, we'll, um, refer her for continued prenatal care and then also in-house just materials, material resources. So we have a beautiful boutique and she can get, um, anything and everything. So onesies and maternity clothes. And once she has the baby, we have diapers and wipes and just like formula. So practical things to be able to, to actually give her what she needs.

Okay. So I'm hearing, um, a couple of things that are time limited. So you have certain hours at the clinic, you have certain days for the mobile unit. Uh, it sounds like there's material supports, but I'm throwing a softball here. Could there be more material supports for these young people getting ready to have a baby?

Yeah.

Okay. So then what is the primary limiting factor to the hours that the care clinic gets to operate the services that gets provided material supports or the hours that the mobile unit actually gets to be in service? What's the limiting factor?

So we mobile unit, we have out two days a week. We'd love to have it out five days a week. We're, right now our clinic is actually open Tuesday through Friday, nine to four Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Wednesdays we're open until seven because we wanted some extended hours. So that's actually been a busy time. And I'd love to open up some even more evening hours because it's a time when people can come after work and get pregnancy tests, ultrasounds and resource appointments after work.

Okay. So then how, um, how could the community that would be interested in supporting North state care clinic actually see to some extended hours or more time for the mobile unit to be out in our rural communities?

So, um, we're completely community funded as of now, which has been a huge, huge blessing. So for the mobile unit to be out five days a week, we need about an additional like $500 a day to just get it out to cover my gas costs and my driver costs and my ultrasound costs. Um, and then continued hours for the clinic. Um, we're looking at, I don't know, at least like at least three to 500 a day to be able to like continue the operations for more hours.

And is the, in addition to, um, the limited paid staff, what's the volunteer staff like at the care clinic?

So we have amazing community volunteers. Um, we have about six, I have six paid staff and then 35 volunteers.

Okay.

So volunteers are ways that community can get involved too. And they help really keep our center functioning. We have, um, Advent volunteers that come in and help, help clean, help with baby bottle processes. Um, we have boutique volunteers that keep our boutique clean and organized and all the material resources ready for the community. Um, we have advocate volunteers. So those are the ones who meet with the clients and are trained and have the conversations on offering hope and life for that scared, unexpected pregnancy girl that comes in. Um, we have fatherhood champions. So we have a whole fatherhood program that's completely volunteer run and they come in, um, and meet with the dads in the lobby to help get, get them connected, get them engaged in services and help support them as a dad and how they can, um, step up as a healthy dad and support their family and support their partner in her pregnancy and just help him feel validated and supported and where he is with it, help talk about fears that he's facing as a dad, all of those things that come with like processing being a dad. So that's volunteer run as well.

So some people, when we're, you know, considering how, you know, money is a scarce resource, right? And so when, and there's, we talked about this a little bit before we started, you know, there's an innumerable number of, you know, quote unquote good causes. But one of the things that sometimes people consider when they're considering how to, uh, share their, their resources, share their dollars is, you know, if I give this dollar to this organization, how much of it actually gets to the end user. But as I'm listening to you and doing some rough numbers in my head, it sounds like one in seven people, about six paid and about 35, um, uh, volunteers, about one in seven people actually receive a salary. So about six out of seven that are just volunteers. Fair?

Yeah.

Okay. Completely community funded. And it sounds like maximal dollars are actually going to the recipient, these moms, these dads and these babies that are born or conceived in a crisis pregnancy. Is that fair?

It is. Yeah. And it's, and it's, we work hard to have low admin costs and high program costs. And we work hard to maximize the dollars that are coming in and have it be client focused. So ultrasounds, um, you know, material literature that we can actually give them and they can have information on informed consent, on abortions, on the abortion power reversal, on those things. But yes, I work hard to, to keep program costs focused.

Okay. So you, you have the, the language of your business, but I hear admin costs and program costs. Let me see if I got this right in a, in a lay sense. Admin costs is just what it costs to keep the lights on, make sure there's somebody that has the skillset to run an ultrasound there, make sure that there's diapers on the shelf, a crib in the corner, something like that. So is that fair? Those are hard costs. And then program costs are the things that actually go to the benefit of the intended recipient. Is that accurate? Okay. So then that, that brings us all the way around. I wanted to take us back to, you know, some of those things we talked about the mobile unit, but that brings us all the way back around to our mutual friend, Gordon and this capital campaign and this building, which was a pipe dream, but just in, in what has to be, you know, what are these things that are like, but God right across the street from the surgical abortion clinic. So tell me about this capital campaign that started back in March of 2025 and what that means and what it means for the future of the care clinic.

So, yeah, we launched to, yeah, come back to this crazy pipe dream. We launched this capital campaign in March, thanks to Gordon who roped you into this too, which is fun. So, and then we, he's not shy.

He'll talk. Gordon will talk to people and he knows who to talk to. And I think that that's the skill. There's a joke. I like guy runs the town dam for like 30 years and then he retires and the new guys run in the town dam and the waters build and the dam has to get open. The town's going to flood and he doesn't know how to get the dam to open. And so he calls the old guy that's retired. And, and he says, would you come in? And he's like, well, I'm a consultant now. I said, would you come in and do this? Get the dam to open up. So we don't town six. Sure. I'll get a hammer, walks up to the machine, wax it in this particular spot with the hammer and machine sputters to life. The dam opens, town is saved. And he says, Hey, that'd be a thousand dollars. The guy looks at him a thousand dollars. What for? He said, well, it's a dollar for swinging the hammer, but it's 999 for knowing where to swing it. Now I know Gordon, I know Gordon didn't charge for his consultation services in this, but Gordon's the guy who knows who to talk to knows where to swing the hammer.

Exactly. He is. He is. He's been the gift with this capital campaign. We, um, decided to launch this capital campaign and I, this, this is new to me. You know, I'm a children's therapist, so I've never run a capital campaign. So I called my uncle back in Pennsylvania, who's run a lot of capital campaigns. And I said, okay, tell me what to do. Give me some advice. You know, how do you run a capital campaign? And one of the things that he said was you have to have, you have to know local people. You have to have someone who knows local people. And I said, oh my goodness, that's Gordon. So he was this gift to us with, with what happened with the capital campaign. So, or yeah, he's just a dear friend.

So how'd the capital campaign go?

So we launched it in March. Um, and we really just, we just went at it hard and we raised 75% of the funds by July, which was a miracle. Like it was just the Lord's provision. And we ended up, um, closing on the building in July. We got some generous bridge loan partners that just closed the loan amount for us and we ended up closing in July. Um, so we owned the building, which is incredible. So after 41, right, right. Yeah.

Not written anymore after 41 years. What's this new building offer that the old building doesn't, why is it important to the mission of North state care clinic and to the community that it serves? Yeah, it's, uh, I'm a terrible sympathy crier. Some people get sympathy illness, you know, they, they throw up when other people throw up. I'm a sympathy crier. Um, and, and I like kids and and I like babies and I'm very pro-human. So in this, you know, you have somebody, you know, I'm thinking like the skeptic, right? So there's somebody out there who's like, you know, wait a minute, capital campaign, that sounds like money. Volunteer organizations, they're supported by donations and money. But in this instance, there's a key feature to this capital campaign, which is this building. And this building offers something new and different from the building that's been rented on Athens for 18 years or something along those lines. So what does this new building offer? What is the new opportunities that this new building offers when it becomes the new home for North State Care Clinic later this year?

So we, yeah, we'll be able to own our own building, but we'll be directly across from Women's Health Center. So we'll be geographically in proximity so that women can literally just walk over and receive a free ultrasound, receive a free pregnancy test, receive abortion pro reversal, receive options counseling instead of being offered immediate abortion. So geographically, we're believing that we'll be able to see women just come over and be able to offer our services to many more abortion-minded, abortion-determined women.

Okay, so an increase in services to the most vulnerable community, would that be a fair summation? All right, so then let me ask, I know that you're still on Athens because I was just there at the end of last year. So what's the move-in timeframe for the new building?

We're working on renovations. We got the permits through. The goal is March. So that's the goal. So we're finishing out. We're still raising the money that we need for the renovations for our medical license. So we need about 200,000 more-ish for that. And then, yeah, the goal is to be able to get in there in March.

Okay, so say a little more then about what that means. What's the connection to dollars and the medical license and the new building? How's that work together?

So we need to do some medical renovations to meet a building code for our California Department of Public Health license. So our building has to be under this code, OSHPD 3. So we've worked hard with our engineers and architects and general contractor to renovate what's there currently to meet our medical license requirement. And it's been an additional $150,000 to $200,000 just to be able to meet these renovations for our medical changes.

Okay, so for the skeptical potential donor that I'm talking to, because I'm a skeptical potential donor to any time that somebody's out there making a pitch, this is not additional funds for marble countertops and gold-plated fixtures. These are additional funds needed to comply with California law when operating a facility that provides medical services.

Exactly.

Okay, so if people wanted to get behind and help close that gap to get this project open, they could know that those dollars are directly required by the law. Accurate?

Exactly, yeah. It's our, so we got licensed in our building in 2007. I think we started medical services there in 2007. So we've been licensed at our current building for a long time. So requirements have changed a lot since then. So now we have to meet all the 2026 medical requirements for our license.

Got it, okay. So let's put some, we've talked about where the North State Care Clinic's been. We've talked about where it is, the days of service, the types of service. At the end of the day, though, the statistics sometimes tell the story. And I know that sometimes you have the opportunity to speak to local church and para-church organizations. So I know you've compiled some 2025 statistics. I know they're not finalized because we just arrived at the beginning of 2026. But tell me, what are the stats for the efforts of North State Care Clinic over 2025 as you've compiled them?

I know, I'm just, I'm working to pull stats really monthly now. But towards the end of 2025, we know at least in 2025 so far, we've given at least 200 free verified pregnancy tests, at least 250 free ultrasounds. We've seen over 370 new clients. We've given over 1,000 classes. We've been able to share the gospel with 37 clients, which is really exciting to me because we're able to offer life-affirming hope and care, but we're also able to offer something that is of eternal value to our clients. And we can share that and we pray over all of our clients. And then we've seen at least that we know of, 42 women who were abortion vulnerable, abortion minded, or abortion determined choose life. So we're just, yeah. And we know we started, they started keeping track of statistics in 2009. So since 2009, we know that we've served a minimum of 10,500 men and women in the community.

That's a significant number. Tell me, I'm wondering, do you ever get the complete full circle where you have an abortion vulnerable woman come in, she makes the choice to maintain her pregnancy, the baby's born, and eventually that young mom or whatever age mom, that mom and that young baby are coming in and you actually get to see the baby and help support that mom through, I guess I should say this. Well, I'll ask two questions. Do you ever get to see that full circle where the baby comes in?

We do. We get to see it and it's, it just, it moves us to tears. There's hardly words to put into that. Even with this little 16 year old girl that's just chosen and we haven't seen her baby yet, that in itself, that's why we do everything that we do. So we just cry after those appointments. But yeah, we get to see moms come back and bring their babies.

Okay, so then, human babies are terrible at everything. A deer will get up and walk with the herd within an hour. Human babies make a mess for at least 18 years. I got a 19 year old, he's trending for the better. I got a almost 16 year old, she's trending for the better, but they're still kind of messy things. So human babies take a lot of work to raise. So what are some of the services that North State Care Clinic offers post birth?

We have our whole education curriculum, like I said, and our boutique. So clothing wise, we have preemie up to 40 men's, or girls and boys. And then we have continued tons of parenting classes. So if they'll come in and want to continue services, we will walk with them however long they wanna walk with us through. So we have advocates that they can come in and then they'll make a plan on what they wanna work with. So we'll continue to support them and what their life goals are, which is why I say you can actually have your baby in your dreams. You can continue to meet with us. And if your goal is to be able to go back to school, how can we support you in that? And how can we give you the referrals that you need for that and referrals for childcare and just continue support in that way. And then we have in-house classes. So we have a whole group class that's, right now we're doing an attachment and bonding class, which I'm really excited for. So it's a local occupational therapist and she comes in and she works with moms and they can be pregnant and then up to toddler, but on attachment and developing secure attachment through play. So we can help support healthy families and healthy secure attachments from the very beginning. And then we have parenting classes that we can continue to do. And then, we didn't talk about this yet, but I have a dream to be able to build a community center for more continued support on that land.

So that- Is that the land where the mobile unit is now?

So if that's, I mean, if I could just choose what I would do, I would say, okay, let's have a place where we can have additional community classes that are run more continuously, a place for children's therapy, a sensory room for kids, and then also some daycare options too, where we can actually have a place where moms can bring their kids if a single mom is needing to go to work, where can you actually bring a child for some help practically?

Okay, so then if we've talked about the past of the North State Care Clinic, we've talked about the current state of the North State Care Clinic, sounds like this is the dream for the future of the North State Care Clinic. Is even longer term, more supportive care for moms that have had these pregnancies potentially in quite difficult times in their lives and continue to care for them as they go forward. Is that fair to kind of dream it out that way?

Yeah.

Okay. So then we've seen that the North State Care Clinic, since you started tracking data in the mid 2010, 2008, I think you said, there's been thousands and thousands of people served. Let's talk about, you and I talked in advance that this is like about the most hot button political topic that you can get and no topic like the choice for life debate really gets people's hackles up as, pretty much like no other topic that's in the political lexicon of the day. Let me talk to you about something that I learned that the North State Care Clinic does that I was surprised to learn and I think is remarkably important. I know it's on average, so I know some women experience more abortions than others, but on average, how many women in the United States will experience an abortion?

Well, it's one in three women will have experienced an abortion.

So that means there's a lot of women that are in the post abortion timeframe in their lives. What does the North State Care Clinic say about them? What is the mission and vision of North State Care Clinic for people who are post abortion?

Yeah, this is an area I feel so strongly about too and I'm so happy that we can serve the community and serve the greater North State in this way because one in three women are post abortive and it's such an area of shame and guilt that women experience after abortion. So we have an in-house post abortive healing group. We just got it started in-house, so I have about eight staff and volunteers who are post abortive going through it now and it is a beautiful just healing group where they can come in a safe way and share their experiences, share their trauma, get God's perspective on it. What does God actually say about that and how can we actually accept God's forgiveness? Because women that have gone through abortion, it's such a shame area. They see themselves as a murderer sometimes and so we work hard to break off the shame around the issue and to be able to open up the conversation of healthy conversation and say, okay, God's forgiveness actually covers this choice and let's walk you through this and let's break off the shame, let's break off the trauma around this issue. So we offer that in-house and we offer that to the community, to our volunteers and community members as well.

And how long has that program been a program?

Well, we've had an online one that we've worked with but this is just fresh, newly launched in-house as of last week. So we're starting it in-house for the first time in a couple of years. It shut down with COVID so I'm excited to actually have in-person in-house classes.

Very exciting and very different too. I mean, it seems that our political dialogues are so black and white. We just stand on one side of the room and throw rocks at the other or modernly, somebody posts something on, puts a tweet up on X and then somebody else puts another tweet up on X but nobody's actually talking. So it sounds like one of the missions of North State Care Clinic is to actually talk to folks who are on the other side of abortion and care for them and to love them.

Yes, we are. And that is what we do. When we're not a political organization but we're here to love the men and women regardless of their choice and to offer that safe place and that healing place because it's not helpful to get into polarizing debates about it when there's a woman who has suffered and is suffering and is not able to have a healthy conversation about it. So we want to be able to open up the conversation, have healthy conversations, break off shame around this issue and realize the woman who has chosen abortion, she's actually a victim. She is a victim of her circumstances and the pressures and the possible pressure from the partner and the fear. And so we're here to walk alongside her in that.

So we've talked about where the care clinic started, where it is, where it's going. We've talked about some of the statistics. Let me ask you some questions. If you could talk directly now, not to me, but imagining through the microphone, you're gonna talk to a mom or dad that's just found out that they are expecting a child and it's an unexpected pregnancy. It's a crisis pregnancy. What would you want to say to them?

I would want to say to them that to first take some time. So I would encourage them to say, hey, can you take a deep breath with me and just take some time to think about your choice. I would want them to know that they're not backed into a corner, that they have choices. And if this is a viable pregnancy, they have three choices. They have the choice for parenting, they have the choice for adoption and they have the choice for abortion. And can we talk with you through the pros and cons of each of those choices? And we're here to walk with you in that and support you in that. And we're here to offer you hope and help, even though it feels really scary. Cause it's very scary for a 16 year old girl who just found out that she's pregnant and she might already be stressed financially and in school and all of the life circumstances. It is scary. And we're here to validate that and say, we know that it's scary. That's a huge, huge, huge thing. Can we be there with you to walk with you through that?

Okay. So you talked about an option that we haven't talked about yet today, which is the adoption option. So does North State Care Clinic partner with other organizations for young women that choose the adoption option?

We refer for, so we have the conversation on your three choices and then we can educate them. A lot of women might not know that there is open adoption now, that she is completely in charge of the family. So it's an empowered choice. We want her, regardless, we want her to know she's empowered to make the choice. So adoption is an empowered choice. So we refer to a beautiful California certified adoption agency. If she wants to have that conversation and they do pre-adoption counseling, they have all the options for families that she can choose. And then they'll walk with her through the whole process if she's wanting to talk about placing her baby.

Okay. So then for moms and dads that, well, actually, hold on. I gotta have your highlight testimony or a highlight testimony or a highlight story. What has been the most impactful part of your work with the North State Care Clinic? And you can take a broad approach. You started painting shelves. You showed you can add and subtract. And now you're the executive director of the North State Care Clinic. So what's been one of the most impactful parts of your work with North State Care Clinic?

That's such a good question. I could say so much. One of the big highlights for me personally is just to see in this whole history of the centers is how the Lord's provided for it. And how His hand's been on it. And He's kept the doors open. And how He loves this place. I feel like I'm gonna cry too.

If you start, I'll start, so we'll not.

So just for me, I just feel like I'm almost, I'm just in this role and this season and I'm so humbled and honored to be serving in this capacity. But to be able to see the history of this center and see how the Lord's hands have just upheld it, that's an incredible highlight for me. Yeah, and then anytime a girl comes in and is able to like, or able to know if she's here and she's able to be offered options and choose life, I mean, that's a life saved.

Right. Do you have any statistics on the number of lives saved since 2008?

Yeah, so when they started keeping track of statistics, we know at least minimum 320. And that's just what we have to go with from statistics since 2009. So I'm sure it's more, but bottom line, 320.

Remarkable. How would a mom or dad that is experiencing a crisis pregnancy connect with North State Care Clinic?

Find you on the line.

Yeah, sorry, I know.

That made me cry. Now I'm like crying and I can't stop crying.

It's really unfair because, so we asked you a question that made you cry. Then we asked you a highly detailed statistical question. And now I'm asking you to recall the ways that a young person, or I keep saying young person, but my bride had our last child in her 40s. I was in my 40s. So it's not necessarily a young person, but a person having a crisis pregnancy center, whether it's a mom or a dad or someone connected with them, they're hearing this conversation that we're having and they wanna connect to North State Care Clinic. Where do they find you? How do they get connected? What's that look like?

So our donor site is friendsofnscc.org. So they can go on there and there's ways to donate on there. There's ways to volunteer with us and there's ways to partner. They can call into the office. We're still on the Athens Road right now. So our main office number is 530-246-7075. We'll give them all the information that they need for that. They can call in and schedule a tour with me. I've opened tour times. So if they just call into the main number, my front desk girl can put them in for a tour and I'll show them in person what we do and show them the ultrasound room and connect with them on opportunities. So I'm always happy to connect with the community in that way.

Okay, so that's on the donor side. And then what about on the client side? How could, I mean, you mentioned this young lady who's now 16 and pregnant, found you guys online. How would a client potentially connect?

And then we have our client site, NorthStateCareClinic.org, and that has blogs on information on abortion, the different kinds of abortion, what the abortion pill is, what the abortion pill reversal is, what our services are. So tons of just helpful information, NorthStateCareClinic.org. And then also from there, they can get connected. They can schedule a pregnancy test online and call in for any other services.

Okay, so call that same number.

Call that same number.

Okay, what are we leaving out for the mission and vision of NorthStateCareClinic that we need to share?

Man, I think we covered pretty much everything. I just, yeah, I mean, I feel like as a new person to a Redding, relatively new person to the center and the pro-life world in general, I think it's just cool for the clinic to have more connections with Redding as a whole. I think it's been a little siloed. And I think even as I've started in this capital campaign, I'm having conversations with local people. They don't know what NorthState is and they don't know what we do and they don't know the services that we provide. So I think it's just really a special thing for the center to be more connected with Redding as a whole.

Well, then perhaps I'll ask our producer and editor to put together some excellent shorts and put this YouTube up for promotion in the way that all of the secret algorithms work so that people can find out more about NorthStateCareClinic. Kirsten, I wanna thank you for your time. I wanna thank you for the effort. I know that there's probably dozens or hundreds of names that you could have shared today from contractors, engineers, designers, volunteers that have given their services for free or at reduced costs to support this mission. And I know it'll be the considered prayer in my household that if we get to have a conversation like this a decade from now, that the numbers are enormous and that many, many moms and dads have been supported in their choice for life. I really thank you for being on the All Redding podcast.

Thank you, Griff. Appreciate it. Thank you.

Okay, so as we've sat here and talked today, we've had some of these names, right? The couple that started the predecessor organization. We've had the name of the pastor that first partnered with this couple and got them in front of people for the first time. We've talked about our friend Gordon in the capital campaign, but I'm sure there has got to be dozens or more than dozens, hundreds even of volunteers, of workers, you mentioned contractors, you mentioned engineers. Who are some of the people that have, in your time with the care clinic, both as executive director and before, that you wanna say thank you to for the efforts that they've put into this new building, the capital campaign, the bus, anything else that you might wanna mention about that?

I mean, there's so many people that are on that list. I'm so thankful to my board, my board president, Chris Lamb, he's stood with this clinic for years and supported us through the capital campaign. Gordon, my predecessor Wendy, she just paved this beautiful path for us to be able to do what we're doing now and be able to move into the building. My contractor, Greg Moore, he's put in hours and hours and hours of just free labor and cost into the building renovations that are happening. Our engineer, our architect, we have local organizations that have donated free flooring and free furniture. And just free, I had a, this was from an anonymous donor, but our alarm company that we had over there, I had the installation fees covered. So I've been blown away by the generosity of this community and the kindness of this community that has rallied behind us and what we're doing.

That's incredible. Well, that's a high point and a great place, I think, for us to close. Kirsten Lapp, Executive Director, North State Care Clinic. I want to thank you for being on the All-Writing Podcast. I know that in me and my house, the mission of the North State Care Clinic will continue to be a source of prayer. And I would encourage anybody who's listening, who wants to support the care clinic financially, support as a volunteer or who needs the services of North State Care Clinic to just simply reach out and get connected. Thanks for your time today.