#flint michigan

[reasonsforhope]

Flint, Michigan, has one of the [United States]'s highest rates of child poverty — something that got a lot of attention during the city's lead water crisis a decade ago. And a pediatrician who helped expose that lead problem has now launched a first-of-its-kind move to tackle poverty: giving every new mother $7,500 in cash aid over a year.

A baby's first year is crucial for development. It's also a time of peak poverty.

Flint's new cash transfer program, Rx Kids, starts during pregnancy. The first payment is $1,500 to encourage prenatal care. After delivery, mothers will get $500 a month over the baby's first year.

"What happens in that first year of life can really portend your entire life course trajectory. Your brain literally doubles in size in the first 12 months," says Hanna-Attisha, who's also a public health professor at Michigan State University.

A baby's birth is also a peak time for poverty. Being pregnant can force women to cut back hours or even lose a job. Then comes the double whammy cost of child care.

Research has found that stress from childhood poverty can harm a person's physical and mental health, brain development and performance in school. Infants and toddlers are more likely than older children to be put into foster care, for reasons that advocates say conflate neglect with poverty.

In Flint, where the child poverty rate is more than 50%, Hanna-Attisha says new moms are in a bind. "We just had a baby miss their 4-day-old appointment because mom had to go back to work at four days," she says...

Benefits of Cash Aid

Studies have found such payments reduce financial hardship and food insecurity and improve mental and physical health for both mothers and children.

The U.S. got a short-lived taste of that in 2021. Congress temporarily expanded the child tax credit, boosting payments and also sending them to the poorest families who had been excluded because they didn't make enough to qualify for the credit. Research found that families mostly spent the money on basic needs. The bigger tax credit improved families' finances and briefly cut the country's child poverty rate nearly in half.

"We saw food hardship dropped to the lowest level ever," Shaefer says. "And we saw credit scores actually go to the highest that they'd ever been in at the end of 2021."

Critics worried that the expanded credit would lead people to work less, but there was little evidence of that. Some said they used the extra money for child care so they could go to work.

As cash assistance in Flint ramps up, Shaefer will be tracking not just its impact on financial well-being, but how it affects the roughly 1,200 babies born in the city each year.

"We're going to see if expectant moms route into prenatal care earlier," he says. "Are they able to go more? And then we'll be able to look at birth outcomes," including birth weight and neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) admissions.

Since the pandemic, dozens of cash aid pilots have popped up across the nation. But unlike them, Rx Kids is not limited to lower-income households. It's universal, which means every new mom will get the same amount of money. "You pit people against each other when you draw that line in the sand and say, 'You don't need this, and you do,' " Shaefer says. It can also stigmatize families who get the aid, he says, as happened with traditional welfare...

So far, there's more than $43 million to keep the program going for three years. Funders include foundations, health insurance companies and the state of Michigan, which allocated a small part of its federal cash aid, known as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.

Money can buy more time for bonding with a baby

Alana Turner can't believe her luck with Flint's new cash benefits. "I was just shocked because of the timing of it all," she says.

Turner is due soon with her second child, a girl. She lives with her aunt and her 4-year-old son, Ace. After he was born, her car broke down and she was seriously cash-strapped, negotiating over bill payments. This time, she hopes she won't have to choose between basic needs.

"Like, I shouldn't have to think about choosing between are the lights going to be on or am I going to make sure the car brakes are good," she says...

But since she'll be getting an unexpected $7,500 over the next year, Turner has a new goal. With her first child, she was back on the job in less than six weeks. Now, she hopes she'll be able to slow down and spend more time with her daughter.

"I don't want to sacrifice the time with my newborn like I had to for my son, if I don't have to," she says."

-via NPR, March 12, 2024

#united states #flint michigan #michigan #cash aid #basic income #poverty #poverty relief #child poverty #mothers #pregnancy #prenatalcare #healthcare #healthcare access #public health #child development #good news #hope

[eligatovolador]

all i want for xmas is a FREE FALASTEEN

and a FREE CONGO, SUDAN, P.R., HAWAI'I, etc.

all our struggles are connected. and we must work together to win.

been offline building networks of community care and organizing. will continue doing this as sustainably as i can, brick by brick.

if you're paying attention to what's happening in the world and feel powerless, please remember that you're not. people have worked together to change their conditions on this earth for millennia, and despite increased surveillance and suppression, they will continue doing so until the very end. love ya.

#free palestine #free gaza #free congo #free drc #free sudan #free puerto rico #free hawaii #free haiti #cop city #stop cop city #marwan makhoul #social change #agitate educate organize #flint michigan #flint still has no clean water

[vegaduke]

1942 Buicks… ready for shipment.

#general motors #classic car #buick #vintage car #gm #flint michigan

[spaceshipsandpurpledrank]

#talkin #tik tok #moses west #flint michigan #water crisis

[metalheadsforblacklivesmatter]

A military Veteran built a machine that creates clean water out of thin air and gave it to Flint Michigan (whose still suffering from the water crisis). And it was vandalized overnight and the guy that created it says whomever destroyed it knew what they were doing and it was very technical.

I can't imagine who would destroy a machine that provides clean drinking water to underprivileged primarily Black communities. 🤔🤔

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRq1EHeW/

-fae

#flint michigan #black lives matter #blm #black lives still matter

[mixedmessaging]

>>>> Sign up link <<<<

HEY THIS IS HUGE

#flint michigan #flint water crisis #rx kids #community aid

[reverseracism]

#flint michigan #flint water crisis

[fake-destiel-news]

LOL SOURCE

#the irony is not lost on me #nestle #water #water pollution #poison #flint michigan #fake-destiel-news #destiel meme #news #meme #unreality #this is fake news #truth: this has unfortunately not happened

[boookends]

i wrote a little something about my town that lots of people hate but that i love dearly. it’d mean the world if you read it :)

#writer #female writers #writers on tumblr #writeblr #substack #flint michigan #flint

[sepiadays]

Kewpee Burger stand, Flint, Michigan, 1930s. Kewpee is a distant ancestor of Wendy's and more directly of a local Michigan chain now known as Halo Burger.

#kewpee burger #qp burger #quarter pounder #hamburger stand #1930s #flint michigan #night #neon

[prey4bokeh]

I always wished I had a cool tree house when I was a kid, but I think all the trees by my house couldn’t support a tree house. My friends and I would be playing cops & robbers. Playing hide and seek, sitting there with comic books or skate magazines. Listening to my boom box, trading pokemon cards, playing my gameboy color. Try to sleep up there one night, by myself but only last an hour out there. I just miss being a kid.

#flint michigan #photography #50mm #canon eos r #canon photography #history #street photography #film photography #photography by #tree house #nature #winter #snow #midwest #michigan

[surebabyholdback]

Those we love never truly leave us. There are things that death cannot touch. Stay gold.

Flint, Michigan

#personal #my photos #graffiti #flint #flint michigan #michigan

[pingsteal]

Avatar at The Machine Shop: Through the Ages...

#avatar #avatarmetal #johannes eckerström #timohrstrom #john alfredsson #jonas jarlsby #henrik sandelin #kungen #the machine shop #flint michigan #dance devil dance #avatar country #feathers and flesh #hail the apocalypse

[metalheadsforblacklivesmatter]

-fae

#black lives matter #blm #black lives still matter #flint #flint water scandal: michigan to charge ex gov. snyder #flint water crisis #flint michigan

[plenilunada]

The effects of violence and genocide on Palestinian children's mental health will be long felt after this is over. Coupled with the vast other physical and emotional trauma that 80+ years of displacement and oppression causes to a group of people, I can't help but be reminded about the many Black children that have dealt with unresolved generational trauma for hundreds of years here, in the u.s., a country with a broken, inadequate, low-funded healthcare system that neglects its most vulnerable citizens: children. & a country actively funding the genocide of Palestinian children.

#there's a deep misunderstanding of the genocide in Palestine for those that don't see the connection between Gaza and Ferguson #Atlanta #standing rock #flint michigan #Haiti #the list goes on and on #it's settler colonialism and you can guess who does it better than anyone else in the world

[fuckwhattheysayin]

Flicks of some trains back in February

Flint, MI

#cead #jiter #ozzy #graff photos #graffiti #graff #graffittiart #trains #train art #train graffiti #flint #flint michigan #street photography #street #vandalism