Copyright M Live Michigan
YPSILANTI, MI — Cash payments to help expectant parents make ends meet during pregnancy and the first six months of their newborns’ lives are on the way for city residents in Ypsilanti. Rx Kids, a cash “prescription” program for pregnant people and newborn infants, is expanding to Ypsilanti on Monday, Dec. 1. Families living within city limits will be able to enroll in the program at RxKids.org to receive $1,500 during pregnancy and $500 per month though the baby’s first six months. It will be open to any pregnant women and families in the city who have infants born on or after Dec. 1, regardless of income level or other life factors. Ypsilanti mom Tavahna Paige, who has two young children with a baby daughter on the way, said the extra $500 a month will be “a gamechanger” for her family at a press conference held at Ypsilanti City Hall Monday, Nov. 3. “As any working mom knows, balancing business and babies is an overtime adventure,” Paige, a 27-year-old hairstylist, said. Paige loves coming home after work and being greeted with kisses and hugs, family adventures and feeling like a kid again. “As much as I love these moments, being a parent also comes with a lot of financial pressures, when it comes to diapers and groceries, the cost of childcare, it’s very expensive,” she said. For her, cash payments through Rx Kids “means a little more freedom to be present,” she said. “Those special moments I can enjoy without that constant pressure, and I know so many other moms in our community feel the same.” A two-year pilot program in Ypsilanti has secured support from the state, the city and its downtown development authority, the Song Foundation, the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation, and Old National Bank. Rx Kids is a program through the Michigan State University Pediatric Public Health Initiative, in collaboration with Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan, which is administered by nonprofit organization GiveDirectly. The program launched in 2024 in Flint and has expanded to 11 communities in the state, so far. More than 3,800 families in participating communities have received about $16 million in direct cash support since the program launched. The program is set to expand to more communities in the state over the next three years, with $270 million committed in the state budget. Rx Kids Director Dr. Mona Hanna expects the program to be available in about 20 communities in the state by the end of the year. Hanna emphasized that the cash payments are “unconditional,” meaning recipients can use the funds “as they see fit,” she said. “Having a baby is the hardest thing,” Hanna, who is an associate dean for public health at MSU, said. “And the data shows that. It’s actually when families are poorest across the workforce.” “As a pediatrician, I know and we all know, that this is the most consequential time” for children, she said. “What happens in this brief window shapes the entire life course.” “We know the data, and we know the science, that when we support families in this window, we see incredible outcomes,” she said. The program is already producing positive outcomes, including more mothers going to prenatal care, fewer premature babies, improved birth weights, and fewer admissions into neonatal intensive care units, she said. It is also improving housing stability, food security, and maternal mental health, she said. Rx Kids is a program that “says loud and clear that every family in Ypsilanti deserves a healthy start,” Ypsilanti Mayor Nicole Brown said. Brown said the work is “urgently needed,” also pointing out how rates of infant mortality, low birth weight, and deaths from pregnancy complications are disproportionately higher in the Black community. “Many of our neighbors face economic stressors that influence health outcomes, including access to transportation, housing and medical care, and many of these disparities are concentrated right here in Ypsilanti and the eastern Washtenaw County community,” she said. Others who gave remarks at Monday’s press conference were state Rep. Jimmie Wilson, Jr., D-Ypsilanti Township, state Sen. Jeff Irwin, D-Ann Arbor, Linh Song of the Song Foundation, Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation president Shannon Polk, and Todd Clark of Old National Bank. Wilson said state funding for the program received bi-partisan support. “This isn’t just policy. This is bringing equity, dignity, and opportunity to every child here in this area,” Wilson said.
