When Ellen Peter unexpectedly became pregnant with her fourth child, she was scared.
The child’s father had abandoned her and, working for $11 an hour, she was in deep financial hardship, couch-surfing with friends with no stable place to call home. Uninterested in terminating her pregnancy, she started looking for resources for expecting mothers in Philadelphia.
Peter, who lives in Tioga-Nicetown, was surprised to learn about Philly Joy Bank — a program that offers pregnant people in Philadelphia $1,000 per month for 18 months, with no other requirement besides living in one of the three neighborhoods in Philadelphia identified as having the highest rates of infant low birth weights (a factor that is closely associated with a host of physical and cognitive outcomes). The program, funded by philanthropic and public dollars, also offers access to resources such as financial coaching, doula and lactation support, and parental counseling.
In July 2024, Peter became part of the first 250-person cohort of Philly Joy Bank parents. She says the program has been a blessing. “I was able to have a healthy — 9 pound — baby,” she says. She had a doula at her delivery, which was particularly meaningful in the absence of a partner. She has been able to buy supplies for her son, without restrictions. She regularly checks in with a parenting coach.
And perhaps most meaningfully, she has been meeting with a financial counselor (Philly Joy Bank contracts with Clarifi for financial counseling), who has helped her set monthly goals, pay off debt, start a savings account for her now-six-month-old, and enroll in a pathway-to-homeownership program. Her credit score has also improved.
“Philly Joy Bank opened my eyes to doing things I never thought I would be able to do, and do them sooner rather than later,” she says. “It improved my mental health and stress levels. I was able to go to doctor’s appointments — and be on time — and not have to catch three buses while pregnant, waiting for a seat. It’s a great program, and I hope it never goes away.”
Heartwarming impacts
Nia Coaxum, Philly Joy Bank’s Program Manager, says Peter’s story is not unique. While the full impact report — which is being conducted by Drexel’s Dornsife School of Public Health — will not be completed until late 2026 or early 2027, Coaxum and her team are seeing meaningful effects already.
Since The Citizen first wrote about Philly Joy Bank in 2023, 103 women have taken advantage of financial counseling; 93 have participated in the lactation support program; 89 in Safe Sleep Philly; 42 in the community doula support program.
“Folks have improved their living situations, going from one bedroom to two. They’re able to better take care of their other children and themselves,” Coaxum says. “It alleviates stress and burden for our participants.” One mom said it helped eliminate her mom guilt because she was able to buy gas to take her child to a Halloween party last year.
“There are a lot of people who view this kind of program as a handout, and we’re really working to reframe it from handout to investment,” says Lecheler.
It could take a generation to see the full impact of this program on children’s and parents’ trajectories. But Tegan Lecheler, Director of Mother Infant Cash Coalition (MiCC), a consortium of guaranteed income programs nationwide, including Philly Joy Bank, points to research that shows countless benefits to these interventions — even once the money stops arriving.
“Regardless of what happens once the program ends, that first year has lifelong repercussions for that baby,” Lecheler says. “That first year is when there’s so much brain development and social emotional development. Whatever is happening in the environment for that child in the first year reverberates throughout the entirety of their life. And even once the funding stops, they are continuing to experience the benefits of the income that their family received.”
Seeing sustainable funding
Guaranteed income programs are not new. What’s largely different now is how many more of them exist — the MiCC alone includes 30 programs — and the push to make them a part of state and federal budgets. There’s a strong financial argument for doing so. Older, more established programs in Canada, for example, have demonstrated a three percent reduction in preterm births — which sounds small, until you consider the dollars. In the U.S., each preterm birth costs our health system between $30,000 and $75,000; those savings would only grow as you increase sample size. If 100,000 moms enrolled, for example, you’re talking between $4 and $5 billion in NICU savings.
Another study found that there was between a $30,000 and $50,000 reduction in government spending per child over their lifetime — from reduced time spent on programs like SNAP, to not needing supports related to developmental delays and less time receiving Medicaid because parents are able to get a job that puts them in an income bracket where they have private insurance. “There are a lot of people who view this kind of program as a handout, and we’re really working to reframe it from handout to investment,” says Lecheler.
That goal, like so much else, is complicated in the current political landscape. Eight states have banned the use of public dollars for guaranteed income programs. Lecheler attributes this trend to a conservative think tank based out of Florida, Foundation for Government Accountability, that has pushed against guaranteed income for parents, framing it as protecting the workforce. “They’re saying that [guaranteed income for parents] decreases labor force participation. But that’s not something that has been demonstrated in research,” Lecheler says.
It is particularly not the case when talking about the perinatal population: If folks aren’t working, it’s typically because they’re on maternity leave or spending time bonding with their baby. “And that’s healthy for the baby’s development,” Lecheler says. “But the group has come into a lot of red and purple states and is essentially using poor, working-class communities to advance their agenda.”
In PA, there continues to be momentum behind expanding Philly Joy Bank-type programs. Coaxum says her colleagues have been having conversations with state leaders to advocate for a state-supported expansion. “We believe that by getting state leaders on board, we’ll be able to get more support to expand this statewide.” Rep. Morgan Cephas has been a champion, having successfully passed prior legislation to support parents, such as HB 1608, which expanded Medicaid coverage to doula services for the state. It was one of several bills that fall under the “Momnibus” package to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity in the Commonwealth.
For now, funding for Philly Joy Bank comes from William Penn Foundation, Spring Point Partners (also a funder of The Citizen), Vanguard Strong Start for Kids Program, The Barra Foundation, The Pew Charitable Trusts, Philadelphia Health Partnership, and Jewish Healthcare Foundation.
“There’s so much I’ve been able to do because of Philly Joy Bank,” Peter says. “It’s not just about the money; it really helps improve lives for women in poverty, and help them bring a healthy child into the world and provide for them. I know I can take this money and put it to work.”
Every Voice, Every Vote funds Philadelphia media and community organizations to expand access to civic news and information. The coalition is led by The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Lead support for Every Voice, Every Vote in 2024 and 2025 is provided by the William Penn Foundation with additional funding from The Lenfest Institute for Journalism, Comcast NBC Universal, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Henry L. Kimelman Family Foundation, Judy and Peter Leone, Arctos Foundation, Wyncote Foundation, 25th Century Foundation, and Dolfinger-McMahon Foundation.
MORE ON SUPPORTING MOTHERS IN PHILLY
