EXCLUSIVE
Contact: Melody Webb
Mother’s Outreach Network Press
comms@mothersoutreachnetwork.
Mother’s Outreach Network
Mother’s Outreach Network Launches Phase Two of Mother Up Guaranteed Income Research Program to Explore Addressing Poverty to Curb Family Separation in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C. — April 10, 2024 — Mother’s Outreach Network (MON) is thrilled to announce the launch of the research phase of the Mother Up guaranteed income program. The program aims to explore whether reducing poverty can advance family separation among disproportionately impacted Black families.
The Mother Up program, a privately funded guaranteed income research cash pilot, is designed to support mothers who have been recently involved or are currently involved with the DC Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA). MON seeks to examine how financial stability impacts family dynamics, parental commitment, and overall socioeconomic well-being by providing unconditional direct cash payments to mothers. Through this program, a group of Black mothers living below the federal poverty line in Washington, DC, and also have current or recent involvement with CFSA will receive a research stipend for participation in surveys and interviews. One half of the group will also receive a stipend totaling $6,000 for up to one year. “This program seeks to measure whether providing cash resources to families in the most dire straits can, as many in the community believe, supply a critical, and perhaps the most effective, protective factor for keeping families together,” says MON Executive Director Melody Webb.
MON is currently recruiting for Phase Two of the Mother Up program, conducted in collaboration with the Access to Justice (A2J) Lab, which will employ rigorous evaluation methods, including randomized control trials (RCTs) and qualitative research. “Guaranteed income has been proposed before, but it has always come with connections to a government system that many families may distrust,” said Jim Greiner, a professor at Harvard Law School and the A2J Lab’s faculty director. “MON proposes something new, guaranteed income to families in crisis without ties to government systems. The A2J Lab is grateful to be involved in the effort to see whether MON’s ideas work for families experiencing poverty.”.
MON aims to generate evidence-based insights that can inform policy decisions and drive systemic change. By addressing poverty, the Mother Up program seeks to explore cash intervention as a strategy to alleviate financial stress of mothers experiencing poverty, strengthen communities, and promote racial equity in Washington, D.C. “All too often in my practice as a family law attorney, I’ve witnessed children at risk of being permanently separated from their parents by the government due to their parents’ experiencing factors of poverty such as inadequate resources to care for a sick child or to secure stable housing. This program is designed to test whether cash can keep such families, who are disproportionately Black, out of the system that can lawfully remove children from their parents for reasons related to poverty,” says Webb..
For more information about Mother’s Outreach Network and the Mother Up program, please visit https://
About Mother’s Outreach Network: Mother’s Outreach Network (MON) is a non-profit advocacy organization dedicated to engaging Black mothers in Washington, D.C. in the struggle to transform governmental income and child welfare laws, policies and practices from punitive to empowering. Through legal education, policy advocacy, and community engagement, MON seeks to advance family preservation, wellness, and economic security.
