The Magnolia Mothers Trust

Finding Holistic Prosperity

As a part of our radically resident-driven philosophy, we are always trying to listen to the voices of our residents and adjust accordingly as unexpected circumstances and changes become apparent in their lives. This was especially key in the spring of 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic first descended on the country.

While we’ve talked a lot about our economic security responses during that time, the pandemic brought additional trauma into communities that were already experiencing the trauma of poverty and long-standing consequences of systemic racism in the United States. As residents worried about the health and safety of their families, experienced less time for themselves and their own needs, and became increasingly isolated from friends, family, and other relationships, residents expressed a need for mental health support and a trusted community to lean on in the midst of crisis, even if they were already receiving cash benefits.

When we talk about prosperity, we often link it simply to economic security. But we started wondering what would happen if we expanded our definition to recognize the importance of mental health and wellness in helping families thrive.

What if having trusted community and support during a crisis mattered just as much as cash? What would it look like for families to experience holistic prosperity beyond just financial prosperity?

These were some of the questions that we set out to answer as a part of Ascend at the Aspen Institute’s Family Prosperity Innovation Community. We worked alongside mental health experts and residents to co-create a self-care toolkit and program intended to support growth, healing, and leadership amongst participants we came to call the MISS Program. As a part of this program, participants reported on metrics comparable to those used in the evaluation of The Magnolia Mother’s Trust to help us better understand if there were ways self-care and mental health supports could support families in ways that cash does not.

And today, we are proud to share with you our final report summarizing the findings from this initiative. Highlights include decreases in difficulty with mood and mental health, less reported days feeling worried or anxious, improved physical health, and more healthy coping mechanisms. The full report is available below. We hope you find time to read it through. Beyond the initial statistics are quotes and stories from families finding hope and community, comparisons to our guaranteed income evaluation findings, and recommendations for cash policies and guaranteed income pilots.

Our mission has always been to help families reach their goals in all aspects of their lives. And with programs like MISS, families can take one more step toward holistic prosperity.

The MMT Alumni Report is Here!

It has been an incredible past week here at Springboard To Opportunities.

Last week, we hosted our annual Night of Storytelling. Four of our Magnolia Mother’s Trust moms, Shaquille, Yamiracle, Anquoindria, and Sequaya, bravely shared a piece of their story with all of us in the audience.

They were beautiful stories of their journeys with motherhood, finding independence and agency, and dreaming of creating better futures for their children. They spoke of the ways that receiving the funds from MMT changed their lives, but even more importantly, they talked about the experiences and opportunities that had changed them.

They were able to be the mothers that they had always wanted to be – spending more time with their children, celebrating birthdays, and enrolling children in extracurricular activities. They built community with other people in the program and saw they were not alone. Their children grew in their confidence and social skills as they played on sports teams or visited museums and other parts of the country for the first time.

At the event, we also officially released our Magnolia Mother’s Trust Alumni Study. This study engaged with mothers from the first three cohorts of The Magnolia Mother’s Trust and their children. While we have always documented and shared the experiences of mothers as they took part in the 12 months of the program, we also wanted to understand the lasting changes that continued beyond that year for both the mothers and their children.

And our alumni report shows that MMT had a lasting positive impact on parenting efficacy, parent-child relationships, and children’s mental health, just like we heard our storytellers shared last week.

When most people talk about guaranteed income, they are only interested in hearing about economic markers of success. And while these are important and a part of our evaluations, too, we also know that the intrapersonal gains of programs like MMT, ones that center trust and voices of participants, are just as significant – especially for our mothers whose stories and experiences are often marginalized or dismissed.

Both an executive summary and the full report are below, and we hope you’ll take some time to read them. We would like to thank the amazing team at Social Insights Research who once again served as our evaluation partners and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation for believing in this work and funding the evaluation.

It Takes a Nation

At Springboard To Opportunities, we believe that poverty – especially the persistent and widespread poverty seen in the United States in comparison to other wealthy countries – is the result of policy choices rather than personal decisions or individual moral failings.

Over the past several years, we have watched this play out in real-time. The bolstered family security policies enacted in 2021, most notably the expanded federal Child Tax Credit, reduced child poverty by almost 30%. However, the following year, after failing to pass the American Families Plan and, despite an increasingly strong labor market as well as an increase in parents’ employment, the number of children living in families with inadequate incomes went right back to the where it had been.

But today, we’re excited to release a new report created in partnership with the Center for Economic and Policy Research called It Takes a Nation. Guided by the voices of Springboard families and utilizing their definition of a prosperous and successful life, this report traces the history of economic security policies within modern US history, noting the way that state-based policies – particularly in the South – have failed to provide the means necessary for families to earn an adequate income.

Using the original provisions of the American Families Plan, which ultimately failed to pass by just one vote in the Senate, and the groundbreaking work and findings of our own Magnolia Mother’s Trust, It Takes a Nation proposes a federal plan for family economic security that would include:

A universal and unified child allowance that brings together the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit as a monthly, automatic payment.
Paid family and medical leave that includes equitable income support for new parents, disability insurance, and wage replacement for workers caring for family members with serious health conditions.
Supplemental security income for caregivers that ensures unpaid caregivers who lack recent employment necessary to qualify for paid leave receive a caregiver allowance.
Assured child support in advance that decouples support for means-tested programs and ensures solo parents who seek public child support services are able to receive funds even in cases where the noncustodial parent does not pay or pays late.

Following the lead of MMT and pandemic-era programs, this plan would reduce burdensome requirements and administrative overload, allowing families easier access to benefits and reducing the barriers to access.

We recognize that this a bold and ambitious plan, but it’s also very possible. The truth is, we can make different policy choices – in fact, we did in 2021 and saw the overwhelmingly positive results. We hope you’ll take some time to read the report and join us in calling on our elected officials and leaders to make some new, courageous policy choices for families again today.

The Child Tax Credit is Here!

Over the past few months, we’ve been sharing our excitement about the newly expanded Child Tax Credit. Starting this Thursday, July 15th, families with children will receive regular, monthly payments that can be used as they see fit. Child care, groceries, rent, bill — all these expenses add up fast for families, especially those in low-wage jobs and with limited incomes like the families we work with each day. The Child Tax Credit (CTC) not only offers support and relief, but also isn’t tied to work requirements or limiting vouchers that have historically harmed, rather than helped, low-income families move out of poverty.

We know from our experience with The Magnolia Mother’s Trust that cash works and can provide families with the means necessary to meet their basic needs, care for their families, and begin to work toward their goals. That’s why we’ve been doing all we can to make sure our families are prepared for the CTC to begin! Our staff has been in communities, knocking on doors, and providing information to families about what these payments are and when they can expect them. Additionally, they’ve been helping families who might not have filed taxes recently due to disability or unemployment get registered in the IRS system.

But unfortunately, even some of the best intended policies can still leave out the voices of low-income families or fail to recognize their potential to further inequities. That’s why we have been especially excited to work alongside national organizations, such as Community Change, to uplift the voices of our families and make sure they are being heard ahead of the July 15th rollout. Their team has shared the stories and experiences our families have had with the user portal and generally understanding the CTC directly with the White House, helping the administration refine the portal and adjust their fact sheets to meet the needs of all families and ensure payments are able to reach the families who need them the most.

It’s also why we are proud to co-sponsor alongside 30 other organizations, Family Matters: A Virtual Celebration of the Child Tax Credit on July 15th at 1 p.m. CT/2 p.m. ET, featuring keynote remarks by Vice President Kamala Harris! The celebration, co-hosted by the Economic Security Project and Building Back Together, will be emceed live by Dorian Warren and Melissa Harris Perry.

The celebration, in an effort to maximize awareness and show how transformative the Child Tax Credit is, will feature parents and families from around America and includes special appearances by: Senator Elizabeth Warren, Senator Raphael Warnock, Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, Robert Griffin III, Reverend William Barber II, Ai-jen Poo, Rashad Robinson, Sara Nelson, Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, Natalie Foster, Addisu Demissie, and more.

Family Matters will stream live on Facebook.com/EconomicSecProj and at markham.live/childtaxcredit starting at 1 p.m. CT/2 p.m. ET on July 15th and you can RSVP here: https://p2a.co/n9crzFJ

We truly believe the Child Tax Credit provides an opportunity to restructure the social safety net in our country in a way that centers the needs of families and recognizes that families themselves know better than anyone else what is is that they need to thrive. We look forward to sharing the stories of the impact the Child Tax Credit will have on our families, and we hope you’ll join us in celebrating this momentous policy moment and help spread the word about it in your own community!

2020 Magnolia Mother’s Trust Evaluation Report

Yesterday was Mother’s Day and it probably comes as no surprise to any of you that we were celebrating and honoring all the incredible mothers who we have the chance to work with each day. But we don’t think that celebration should ever be limited to just one day of the year, which is why we’re continuing it today!

It is with deep excitement and joy that we are releasing our final evaluation report from our second cohort of The Magnolia Mother’s Trust. We view this report not only as a testimony of the life-changing effects cash and programs grounded in trust and dignity can have for mothers, but also as an opportunity to share and celebrate the stories of the mothers who have been a part of this program.

With the backdrop of a global pandemic that disproportionately affected women of color in so many ways, participants in The Magnolia Mother’s Trust were able to meet their basic needs, prioritize their health and the health of their family, and had the agency to make decisions for their family as they saw fit. We hope you’ll take some time to read the full report below and celebrate these amazing women alongside us.

Introducing Front and Center

Over the last few months, you’ve been hearing us say that we are working to change the narrative by changing the narrator. We have always known that low-income families themselves are the ones who should be telling their own stories instead of being mediated through gate keepers or thought leaders or even our staff. We had already started our commitment to that work this year with our first storytelling night with Melissa Harris-Perry, the establishment of our Springboard Storytelling Lab, and one of our Magnolia Mother’s Trust moms, Brenita Burns, had her very own Op-Ed published just last week in Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity.

And today, we’re thrilled to announce that we are partnering with Ms. Magazine to launch a series of Op-Eds entitled Front and Center that will feature the voices and stories of the women of the Magnolia Mother’s Trust. The published pieces will not solely be about guaranteed income, but will be first-person accounts of Black women living in extreme poverty sharing the reality of their daily lives, their dreams, and their struggles. It will be a national platform for their stories and experiences to be heard and a way to ensure that their voices, as the name suggests, are kept front and center.

The Magnolia Mother’s Trust has always been more than a guaranteed income project set up to prove that cash works because frankly, we already knew that. The Magnolia Mother’s Trust is working to center the voices of those affected most by the paternalistic and punitive public policies. As we move into this next year, we know that some of the most important policy debates, particularly as it relates to the social safety net, are going to be happening. Too often, those debates are shaped by abstract ideas and false narratives. This project is a chance to ground new narratives in trust, dignity, and the actual stories and experiences of Black mothers.

I’m purposefully keeping my letter short today, because I hope you’ll spend some time reading the introductory Front and Center column from myself and Kathy Spiller, and get ready for the first mother’s piece, written by Tia Cunningham, a Magnolia Mother’s Trust participant from our very first cohort, that will be released tomorrow! And make sure you’re following us on social media to be the first to see new features as they come out twice every month for the next year. We promise these are stories you want and need to hear!