FLINT, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – The new Michigan budget signed into law this week by Governor Whitmer includes $16.5 million going to a program that will give expectant and new mothers in Flint up to $7,500 with no strings attached just for having a baby. The organization getting the funding is called Rx Kids and operates through Michigan State University’s Pediatric Public Health Initiative.
MORE NEWS: Travel and Turkey: Planning Ahead Should Be on Everyone’s Plate This Thanksgiving
The university’s public health initiative was formed in January of 2016 with the Hurley Children’s Hospital to address “Flint community’s population-wide crisis and help all Flint children grow up healthy and strong.”
The Rx Kids program is led by Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, Associate Dean for Public Health in the College of Human Medicine at MSU, and founding director of the Pediatric Public Health Initiative. On the initiative’s website they describe what they do as a “transformational effort to address child poverty and health equity” and “boldly” tackling economic insecurity which they say is a root cause of health disparities. The program will do this through what they describe as “provision of unconditional cash allowances to pregnant moms and babies in Flint.”
Although enrollment in the program is not open yet, the program is expected to launch in 2024. Flint moms will receive up to $7,500 which includes a one-time $1,500 payment during mid-pregnancy and thereafter they will receive $500 per month for the first year of a child’s life.
In addition to the new influx of cash from the Michigan budget, Rx Kids was also awarded a $15 million grant in April of 2023 by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.
Dr. Hanna-Attisha says about the program, “This is a way that is dignified and tells the people ‘We see you and hear you, and it’s hard to have a kid, (so) we’re here walking alongside you.”
Dr. Hanna-Attisha, who will oversee the program also says, “We think that this is going to give people hope, and give people joy, and allow them to once again believe in that social contract between government and institutions and themselves.”
MORE NEWS: Branching Out: Michigan’s Tree Grant Grows Greener Than Ever
