FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact: Melody Webb | Executive Director
Email: melody@mothersoutreachnetwork.org
Phone: 202-276-9253
Organization: Mother’s Outreach Network
Mother’s Outreach Network to Host Mother Up National Convening in Baltimore, with Keynote by Professor Dorothy Roberts
Gathering with University of Baltimore School of Law will share lessons from the first known guaranteed income pilot studying cash and child welfare system involvement and launch a national effort to keep families whole
BALTIMORE (October 26, 2026) – Mother’s Outreach Network will host the Mother Up National Convening on November 6 in Baltimore, in partnership with the University of Baltimore School of Law’s Sayra and Neil Meyerhoff Center for Families, Children and the Courts. The convening will bring together researchers, lawyers, funders, and mothers advocating for change around a shared goal: transforming family policing into systems of care that keep families together.
Professor Dorothy Roberts, the scholar whose work has defined the legal and constitutional critique of family policing, will deliver the keynote address. The term “family policing” reflects a growing analysis among scholars, advocates and directly impacted parents. Too often, the system commonly called “child welfare” functions not as a source of support but as a system of surveillance and punishment, especially for Black and low-income families. Roberts’ appearance at the Mother Up Convening offers attendees a rare opportunity to hear directly from one of the most influential voices on how child welfare systems affect families, particularly Black families and families living in poverty.
At the center of the convening is the Mother Up Pilot, the first known guaranteed income research pilot to study how direct cash can limit families’ involvement with the child welfare system. Independent research on Mother Up is being conducted by the Access to Justice Lab at Harvard Law School.
The convening will present the Mother Up Pilot’s methodology as a model that other communities, researchers, and funders can adopt, adapt, and help spread. It also marks the launch of the national Family Justice and Cash Working Group, which will carry the work forward beyond the event itself, and beyond the D.C./Baltimore areas.
“Poverty is not neglect, yet too many mothers have their children ripped away from them because they can’t cover rent, food, or child care,” said Melody Webb, executive director of Mother’s Outreach Network. “The Mother Up Pilot asks what happens when we give mothers money instead of a case file. This convening shares what we’re learning and launches a national effort to keep families whole.”
A full agenda will be released in the coming days. Registration is now open; space is limited.
Event Details:
- What: Mother Up National Convening
- When: Friday, Nov. 6, 2026, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. ET, followed by an evening reception o
- Where: University of Baltimore School of Law, 1401 North Charles St., Baltimore, MD 21201
- Keynote: Professor Dorothy Roberts
- Who should attend: Researchers, lawyers, advocates, funders, policymakers, and mothers with lived experience advocating for change
- Register: bit.ly/MotherUpConvening
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About Mother’s Outreach Network
Mother’s Outreach Network (MON) is a Washington, DC, legal and policy organization that engages with mothers to keep families together. Grounded in the principle that poverty is not neglect, MON works so mothers, disproportionately Black, have the income, legal protection, and power to keep their children at home. MON leads Mother Up, the first known guaranteed income research pilot for families in the child welfare system, with the Access to Justice Lab at Harvard Law School, and founded the DC Guaranteed Income Coalition. Its work also includes drafting Washington, DC’s local child tax credit legislation and successful advocacy for benefits cliff protections. Learn more at mothersoutreachnetwork.org.
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.