The Paid Leave Podcast

The Bridge Project Expands to Connecticut to End Child Poverty and Create Prosperity.

• The Connecticut Paid Leave Authority • Season 3 • Episode 30

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More than 84 thousand children live in poverty in Connecticut, and 122 thousand in near poverty. In this episode, we talk about a new program that has expanded into Connecticut that gives unconditional cash to expecting moms or new mothers. It takes them from pregnancy to prosperity and helps them invest in their baby's future. The program is aimed at stopping child poverty.

Laura Clancy, Executive Director of the Bridge Project, explains the program's mission to provide unconditional cash to low-income pregnant women for the first 1,000 days of their baby's life. She says giving the unconditional cash to spend the money as they want to, can empower the moms.  She says the program can also improve babies social, emotional and mental development, and long-term well-being. The program, funded by philanthropists offers a prenatal stipend of $1,125 and monthly stipends of $750 for 15 months and $375 for 21 months. Clancy highlights the program's success in reducing stress, improving health outcomes, and supporting financial security. The Bridge Project has received over 2,000 applications for 500 slots in Connecticut but continues to accept more applications. They have filled 150 of the slots already and are hoping to expand into rural areas of the state.

For more information or to apply for The Bridge Project please go to bridgeproject.org

For more information or to apply for benefits go to ctpaidleave.org


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Nancy Barrow:

Hello Connecticut, and welcome to The Paid Leave Podcast. The title basically says it all. I'm Nancy Barrow, and I will be delving into this new state program and how it can help you and your family. This podcast will give you information you should know about Connecticut Paid Leave and maybe just a little bit more. Connecticut Paid Leave brings peace of mind to your home, family and workplace. Welcome to The Paid Leave Podcast. One in six or almost 16% of children in Connecticut are food insecure. More than 84,000 children live in poverty in Connecticut, and 122,000 in near poverty. Laura Clancy is the Executive Director of the Bridge Project, and we'll be talking about what the Bridge Project is doing in the state of Connecticut. And welcome to The Paid Leave Podcast, Laura.

Laura Clancy:

Thanks so much for having me.

Nancy Barrow:

So excited to have you here, and before we get into the heavy lifting of everything, tell me about your personal journey and how you became the Executive Director of the Bridge Project.

Laura Clancy:

I've spent my whole career in the nonprofit sector, and feel so lucky every day that you know, I've always loved my work and I've always loved the people that I work with and for. I actually spent five years early in my career in education reform in Connecticut, so I've spent a lot of time in New Haven, Bridgeport and Hartford in particular, and have been working in economic mobility for a long time, and was not looking for a new job. And when somebody told me about the idea of giving low income pregnant women unconditional cash for the first 1000 days of their baby's life, I could not stop thinking about it, because it was such a simple, powerful intervention that benefited both mom and the baby and demonstrated trust, demonstrated that people know what they're doing and can make great decisions. And if there's one group of human beings on this planet that is hardwired to make great decisions for themselves and their children. It's new moms. So I got really excited about the mission of the Bridge Project, and we've been on a huge roller coaster ride for the past few months, including our expansion statewide into Connecticut.

Nancy Barrow:

Yeah. How exciting is that? So let's talk about the Bridge Project.

Laura Clancy:

We are the largest, consistent unconditional cash program for moms and babies in the US. We essentially, over the the first 1000 days of a baby's life, give moms a stipend every two weeks, starting with a prenatal stipend, which is larger, to help moms with expenses like buying a car seat, buying a stroller, buying a crib. We all know that babies cost a lot of money, and we also know that that for many families, when the mom gives birth is the time when they're making the least amount of money they'll ever make in their working lives. One of the amazing things about being in Connecticut, though, is there are incredible offerings, like Connecticut paid leave, like the like the maternity care bundle from Husky, like the baby bonds, which I'd love to talk more about later, but a variety of supports that moms can choose to draw on. So essentially, what we do is we spend time recruiting moms who'd be eligible for the program. We enter them into a lottery to select who receives the cash, and they receive a prenatal stipend cash every two weeks for the first three years of a baby's life, so that they can take care of themselves and they can attach to their baby and feel less stressed. Overall, there's a very powerful evidence base in health care, in the foster care system and the housing system, that suggests that unconditional cash for low income pregnant moms and their babies has a variety of positive effects. It helps moms transition if they aren't in permanent housing, it helps them transition into permanent housing. It reduces stress overall in the household. It improves health outcomes for moms and babies. It means that moms are able to make pre and postnatal appointments more readily. It increases their level of financial security and their ability to withstand financial emergencies, and for many of our moms, they're actually able to pursue post secondary education while they are while they have a young infant, because they know that when they go back to work, they want a job that has better working conditions, better opportunities for advancement, better pay, because when you become A parent, you have to think in a very different way about your work and your relationship to work, and many of our moms use this time to upgrade their own opportunities at work, which is extremely exciting. So overall, unconditional cash is a very flexible, efficient way to. Help moms have the resources that they need to meet their needs and their baby's needs during these critical early years.

Nancy Barrow:

And Laura, how long has it been in Connecticut? It's pretty new, right?

Laura Clancy:

It's very new. It's basically been since November, and we spent six and that was when the application opened up. The application is still live, and moms are welcome to apply. We spent six months before November talking to Connecticut's WIC clinics, healthcare organizations, community based organizations, to make sure they understood what the program was, how to share the opportunity with moms in Connecticut and get their feedback, as well as make sure that we knew who we could refer moms to, and they asked us, hey, I need help with diapers. Is there a community based organization I can go to, or how can I get to a WIC clinic to sign up for WIC So moms could take advantage of all the incredible resources that the state of Connecticut offers.

Nancy Barrow:

It's really interesting. How do they find out about the program and how can they apply?

Laura Clancy:

Typically, our moms tell us they find out because a friend texted them or, you know, somebody sent them a WhatsApp message, or they're on a mom's group that told them about it. We also are really grateful to WIC clinics and to healthcare organizations and community based organizations. We actually talked to, we had meetings one on one on one with 260 organizations across the state of Connecticut before we launched. So I don't I feel like we probably hit everybody, but our eligibility criteria are intentionally very, very simple and very straightforward. You have to be 18 years or older. You have to be 23 weeks or more in the pregnancy, you can reside anywhere in the state of Connecticut. You have to have an annual household income of 44,000 or less. And if you apply and are selected, you receive an upfront, one time prenatal stipend of $1,125 again, that's primarily designed to help offset the cost of things like buying a crib, a car seat, a stroller, you get 750 a month for the first 15 months of the program, and then that steps down to $375 a month for the final 21 months of the program. So we don't really have a hard time recruiting moms. Once you hear the idea of unconditional cash, most people really do see it as winning the lottery, and we certainly feel like we won the lottery and getting to work with the amazing moms, and I'm happy to talk more about what we've heard from moms in Connecticut, but we've received over 2000 applications already that are all fully qualified for the 500 slots we have in the program, and more coming in every day.

Nancy Barrow:

Will that grow at all, or will it stay at 500?

Laura Clancy:

So right now, we have funding for 500 slots, and that's supporting 500 moms for three years. If we are able to identify additional support, either philanthropic funds or government funds, we'd love to grow that number in the program, in part because we have qualified applications that we could just pull right into the program. But right now, the funding that we've secured is for 500 loans.

Nancy Barrow:

And the funding that you secured is that from the government, or how, how do you get that money?

Laura Clancy:

So we are really lucky to have a handful of philanthropists who really care about the state of Connecticut and helping babies across the entire state. So we have two individual philanthropists who provided much of the funding. One, the is Mike Triplett. A second is an organization called Bird by Bird outreach, and the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving also has provided support for moms in Hartford, which has been really exciting. So it's it's really a small handful of very visionary donors who care deeply about the state of Connecticut and really love the idea of being able to offer program like this to all moms across the entire state.

Nancy Barrow:

And tell me what you've heard about from the moms.

Laura Clancy:

So we're a national program. We're in six states, and we can't play favorites, but we love our Connecticut moms. One of the most interesting things that I've seen with our moms in Connecticut is they go after resources. And what I mean is, for example, let's say that you get into the program and you're you're a Connecticut Mom, will reach out to you and say, Hey, we want to do a call with you to onboard you into the program and talk about other resources you can take advantage of in Connecticut. When can you hop on a call? And it's like, we get a text back right away. And they're like, can we talk right now? They are ready to go. They are very, very organized, which we love, makes our jobs easier, but I think also reflects the fact that our moms in Connecticut understand that Connecticut has a variety of really amazing offerings, including paid leave. And I'll talk about paid leave and some of the other things that we've talked to Connecticut moms about, we do ,with all of our moms who get into the program a call with a trained social worker on our staff, and one of our big priorities is to make sure that they fully understand all of the resources that they can bring to bear on their pregnancy and the postnatal period. Paid leave is right at the top of the list, and we do spend time with moms, making sure they understand how broad the coverage is in Connecticut, because there are a lot of misconceptions about types of workers that are included or excluded. And you know, the people who have architected paid leave in Connecticut have intentionally and in a very visionary way, made it very inclusive and very broad. And we want to make sure that all of our moms understand if they are included in paid leave for the state.

Nancy Barrow:

Well, thank you, Laura, we appreciate that it's true. It is true. True. We're very proud of the fact.

Laura Clancy:

I mean, I would say the biggest misconception is about domestic workers and their coverage within the program. So we're delighted to be able to talk one on one with our moms about that. We also talk to them about the Husky maternity doula bundle, which is coming online right now, so making sure moms know that they may have an opportunity to if they are on husky, to get a doula, which is an incredibly powerful resource. We talk a lot about Baby Bonds with our moms, which is something extremely unique about Connecticut. Connecticut is the only state in the country that has a statewide baby bond program for everybody in husky. And we were excited to open Bridge in Connecticut, in part because Connecticut is the is this is the only state in Connecticut where we're statewide. So the pairing of short term income through the Bridge Project with long term wealth building with baby bonds is an extremely powerful combination. And what our moms have told us is, Wow, I feel so seen and heard. I'm so excited for what's what's going to happen with my baby, which we just love. And then finally, we talk a lot with our moms about family Bridge Home Visiting, which is also a really powerful opportunity to receive home visits, primarily in the postnatal period. That again, if you're a mom, to have this constellation of supports that are genuinely trying to set you up for success as a mom is extremely affirming, and our moms are very excited to hear about all of those offerings. So there is also something I think really special about being able to get on the phone with a mom and say, Listen, we know we're giving you this cash, but let me make sure that you are connected to all these other incredible resources that you can and should be taken advantage of.

Nancy Barrow:

That's what I was wondering. If you actually share these, these resources with your moms, because, you know, and Connecticut Paid Leave is one of those resources.

Laura Clancy:

We do. And it's, it's like a bonanza. And I think even Foodshare,one thing we hear from Yes, yes. And I would say, for a mom to hear about all of these different things that are set up for them and to help them and their baby it is, it is a deeply positive and affirming feeling that they have about being in Connecticut. I'd also add for baby bonds in particular, one of the reasons why I think it's so visionary to have it as a statewide program, and why it's such a nice one two punch with the bridge project is there's really nice medical evidence to suggest that babies whose moms receive unconditional cash and have lower instances of what are called adverse childhood events and have don't experience poverty as acutely in those critical Early years of development, are more likely when they're older, to stay in school, pursue post secondary education, retain employment status, like they are more likely to be employed as adults in higher paying jobs, which I don't think anyone would be surprised to hear. That if you can lift child children out of poverty, even if for a period of time in early childhood, that you see positive long term effects. But to me, the really powerful connection with baby bonds is if you can set children up for longer term educational success when they're babies, and then when they're 18, say, Wow, here's this baby bond that you can use towards college, right? I mean, how, how amazing is that to feel like the state of Connecticut is investing in you in both the short term and the long term. So, so we've been, it's, it's pretty magical to be on the phone with moms and making sure that they understand the full breadth of resources that are available to them.

Nancy Barrow:

Yeah and the fact that we at Connecticut Paid Leave can help with 12 weeks of income replacement so a mom can bond with her baby, and we know that the bonding specifically, really leads to a reduction of postpartum for the mother, that's right, and if she has all these resources, and also if. If the baby is is going to definitely have a better outcome. We know that when a mom stays home with the baby longer, if she can stay home longer, that it definitely helps with the development of the baby.

Laura Clancy:

That's right, and it also helps Mom, right? It reduces her stress levels. It reduces incidents of postpartum depression and anxiety, and it's not. I don't think it's that surprising to hear, but a paper recently came out that said that one of the most effective ways to alleviate postpartum depression specifically was not only paid leave, but also having unconditional cash. So basically, mom is just not as stressed about money. Let's be honest. It's just expensive to live in America right now.

Nancy Barrow:

And Connecticut is no different, right, right, right.

Laura Clancy:

But like, let's do what we can to reduce the stress levels of new moms, because at the end of the day, babies will benefit, moms will benefit, and our community will benefit as well.

Nancy Barrow:

Mental health and poverty. What do you think of those two, that intersection there? Because we also give income replacement for that specifically. And like we say, postpartum depression is, is a real serious health condition.

Laura Clancy:

It absolutely is. And I'll add to that, I think we often don't talk enough about postpartum anxiety as well. And one pediatrician once told me, one of the reasons why we don't talk about postpartum anxiety as much as we talk about postpartum depression is postpartum anxiety is in some weird way, seen as being beneficial for the baby, right? Mom's checking a lot on baby, mom's making sure baby's breathing. Mom's worried about if the clothing that the baby's wearing is too heavy or too late, and so we don't worry about it as much, but at the end of the day, in the same way that paid leave is framed, we have to be thinking more about maternal health, and we have to be thinking about the long term health of babies. So, you know, I'm so glad that we're in a very different place than we were even five years ago in talking about maternal mental health. And there's so many funders, government stakeholders who have prioritized this, not just in Connecticut, but nationally. And there, you know at the end of the day, you're more likely to develop almost any mental health condition you can name, if you're feeling extremely stressed, and financial stress is particularly cute for people with low incomes, which is part of why there's a nice evidence base around benefits like paid leave and like unconditional cash having a significant positive impact on mom's mental health.

Nancy Barrow:

Yeah, and I think one of the great things, I think, is the flexibility of paid leave, because you can take it all in one block if you really need it, right, if it's an acute anxiety or depression, but you can also take it intermittently or reduced schedule from work so they don't have to lose their job when they're having these issues, and they can leave if they need to go see a therapist, or if they're going to a support group, or something like that, at least, it gives them the flexibility.

Laura Clancy:

That's right, one of the most powerful things a mom has ever said to us. So we were talking to a mom who had gone back to work, and she typically worked three overtime shifts a week, which, you know, even without a small income, that's that's a lot of time, is full time job, plus three overtime shifts. And we asked her what she was using her unconditional cash for, and she said, honestly, part of it is, I'm only doing one overtime shift a week, because that's two more days a night a week that I can put my baby to bed at night. And I wouldn't trade that for the world. And any benefit that has the flexibility like you just described around the intermittent leave to let people make choices about what they need and their families need, I think, will not only have a short term positive impact, but will also just make people make sure people feel like they're being treated with dignity, that they can make good choice, the right choices for themselves and their family. So I'm a big fan of the flexibility of paid leaving that way.

Nancy Barrow:

Yeah I think dignity is key right, especially like with the dignity that you're giving them this unconditional cash, there's a dignity to that right that you're trusting them they're going to spend this wisely, and they know how to spend it wisely.

Laura Clancy:

Well, it's funny, someone asked me the other day, how do moms spend the cash, and we actually did a big, very detailed study of this for some of our earlier moms. And how moms spend our unconditional cash is so boring, I mean that in the most positive way possible, right? They're spending it on diapers. They're spending it on formula. If they WIC runs out at the end of the month, they're spending it on the power bill. They're spending it sometimes on childcare, if the kid is a little bit older, and so it's, you know, after a while we're like, Yeah, this is so predictable. We know how moms are spending this. They're spending an exact. The way that their baby needs and also in a way that reflects the other resources that are available in their community. So for example, there are some amazing diaper banks across the state of Connecticut. If you live in a community with a diaper bank, our social workers are going to tell mom, hey, do you know that this incredible diaper bank exists in your community, and you can take advantage of this so you don't have to spend your unconditional cash on diapers, and you can spend it on other really critical expenses for your family. So that's another thing that's great about the flexibility of cash is that it reflects the diversity of resources that are already available in communities in Connecticut, and enables moms to maximize those resources and also maximize their use of the unconditional cash. One of the one of the things that we've been really excited about that's unique to Connecticut is sometimes people have a misconception about Connecticut, that they're that poverty is very concentrated in which, you know, overall it still is in Bridgeport, New Haven and Hartford, but there's also poverty in every single county. There are babies born into poverty and in every single county in Connecticut. And so we've been really excited to see if and when the program is a little bit different within Connecticut, in the more urban areas of the state versus more rural areas of the state, and so far, we haven't actually seen a lot of differences. The moms are, like I said, very on top of things, very organized, very resourceful and and we're excited to see to take those lessons and apply them to other more urban and more rural settings that we're rolling the program out into. So for example, we're opening in the Appalachian regions of Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky next month, and we've already learned a ton from all of the work we've been doing in more rural areas of Connecticut that we're going to apply to the program's operations in the Appalachian region.

Nancy Barrow:

Have any of the moms said, I don't believe this is true. What's the catch?

Laura Clancy:

Yeah, it's actually one of the biggest problems we have, is people like, it was a bigger problem when we first started up, and it's less of an issue now. And it's part of why having partners like with clinics in Connecticut community based organizations is really helpful, because they legitimize it, right? But we definitely hear it more when someone gets like, a message from their cousin over WhatsApp. You should apply for this. If you hear it from a healthcare provider, it usually is a

Nancy Barrow:

little more legitimate. Yeah, I can imagine that some people might be like, This is too good to be true, because it sounds like that. It really does sound almost too good to be true. It's fantastic that this exists in Connecticut.

Laura Clancy:

Well, I really appreciate you saying that. I'd also say, though, you know, we're spending around $20,000 per mom over the course of the three years of the program. We spend way more than that on other benefit programs.

Nancy Barrow:

What are your hopes for the Bridge and what are you hoping to accomplish.

Laura Clancy:

Well, first I'll say, in Connecticut, I'm really, really excited for that we've onboarded about 150 of the 500 moms. We'd love to keep getting applications in, especially from the more rural areas of the state. We're going to be onboarding moms over the next few months, until we're fully full at the 500 mom mark, and what I'm hoping for all of them is that their families are able to flourish, not because of the because of the support, that they're able to spend more time strengthening their families. They're able to attach more securely to their infants, that they find more peace, less stress, better physical health, better mental health for themselves, that they're able to re enter the workforce from a position of strength, and that they're able to build a foundation for a longer term financial security for their families. So that's my first wish. Is for the Connecticut moms that are in our program that they have everything that they want for themselves and their families. My second wish is we've really felt so welcomed in the state of Connecticut. We've met with members of government, Lamont senior team, we've met with many of the agency heads, and we've gotten such a warm reception, and we're excited for the possibility of continuing to expand the program within Connecticut. And that could be through private support. It could be through public support. I think there's a variety of different options, but one thing we found in all of our sites is that once we go somewhere, people are like, Oh, this is great. We love this program. How can we? How can we, how can we support that? And we have two public private partnerships in place right now, one with the city of New York and the New York City Council, the other with the City Council in Milwaukee. So my hope is that we can continue to grow within the state of. Etiquette, and then third, that we can continue to change the narrative around low income moms and what they what they need, and that we can inspire others to think about ways that unconditional cash can effectively provide support to low income moms and their babies in a way that promotes dignity and also promotes efficiency. Because at the end of the day, I think moms know what their families need, and sometimes they just need some support to get there.

Nancy Barrow:

Is there a website that new moms, who might be listening can say, hey, I would like to apply for this.

Laura Clancy:

There sure is, there sure is. So our website is bridgeproject.org and if you go to bridge and you can there's a button that says apply. And if you go to bridgeproject.org/apply you'll literally see one of the first thing you'll see is a button that says, we are now accepting applications in Connecticut. And we really do welcome additional applications, especially if you are in more rural parts of the state, we have reserved spots for counties outside of the more urban ones, because we just want to make sure that we have great statewide spread. So we've been really grateful to our partners for getting the word out, but would really welcome additional applications.

Nancy Barrow:

Thank you. Laura Clancy, the executive director of the Bridge Project in Connecticut. Thank you for being on The Paid Leave Podcast. It was a real pleasure speaking with you.

Laura Clancy:

Oh, likewise. Thanks so much Nancy.

Nancy Barrow:

For more information about the Bridge Project, please go to the website at bridgeproject.org For information or to apply for benefits, please go to ctpaidleave.org. This has been another edition of The Paid Leave Podcast. Please like and subscribe so you'll be notified about new podcasts that become available. Connecticut Paid leave is a public act with a personal purpose. I'm Nancy Barrow, and thanks for listening.

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