Cash aid program to open for 10 more upper peninsula counties in March

A money help program for moms and infants is anticipated to open in March for households all through the state’s Higher Peninsula — an growth from the 5 counties within the area the place it’s at present accessible.

Governor Gretchen Whitmer made the announcement on Monday, February 9, on the launch occasion in Detroit for this system, known as Rx Youngsters. The current additions to this system spotlight speedy progress in each rural and concrete components of the state because it launched in Flint two years in the past.

Underneath the management of Dr. Mona Hanna, the pediatrician who helped expose the Flint water disaster, is providing Rx Youngsters $1,500 in money help throughout being pregnant after which month-to-month funds of $500 for six or 12 months after beginning, relying on location, and is meant to ease the monetary burden on the household throughout an necessary half of a kid’s improvement.

Particulars on learn how to register will observe. In most locations the place Rx Youngsters operates, the appliance course of consists of paperwork to confirm id and residency and being pregnant or custody standing.

This system began in Flint in 2024 after which expanded to Kalamazoo and 5 jap UP counties earlier than reaching metro Detroit and different components of the state. There are at present 29 communities taking part in Rx Youngsters.

This system – which expanded to jap UP final March – has offered roughly $1.6 million to greater than 500 households in Alger, Chippewa, Luce, Mackinac and Schoolcraft counties. from the beginning of February. Eligible households can obtain $1,500 throughout being pregnant after which $500 per thirty days for six months after supply.

“Beginning March 2, Rx Youngsters can be open to each mom and child within the Higher Peninsula, so whether or not you are a child born within the 313 or the 906, you will profit,” Whitmer stated on the Bonstelle Playhouse in Detroit. “Whether or not they stay deep in Lions Nation or nearer to Lambeau Discipline, they may be capable to profit from this whether or not they stay in our largest metropolis or our smallest city. At a time of a lot nationwide economics and uncertainty, we’re displaying up and placing a reimbursement within the pockets of people that want it most.”

Within the northernmost a part of the state, the place tourism drives the economic system, weak low season employment makes incomes much less safe. Housing and heating might be troublesome to afford as a result of residents already wrestle with transportation and entry to well being care, county well being division leaders and maternity care nurses beforehand advised the Free Press.

A May survey of Rx Youngsters individuals in jap UP reported that 84% stated this system helped them “get by financially.” Practically half skilled a monetary shock, reminiscent of job loss or relocation, and 72% of them used program funds throughout that interval. Greater than half – 65% – stated Rx Youngsters helped them entry well being care.

Rx Youngsters focuses on areas of excessive want – measured by child poverty and maternal and child health – however is open to moms no matter their earnings. Early analysis has proven promising outcomes, together with dramatic declines in evictions and fewer preterm births and admissions to the neonatal intensive care unit.

Since launching in Flint two years in the past, Hanna stated Rx Youngsters has raised almost $400 million in state, federal, municipal and philanthropic funds.

Attain reporter Nushrat Rahman at nrahman@freepress.com.