Rx Kids FAQ

Rx Kids is open for applicants in several communities in Michigan. Check our “Communities” page for current and future Rx Kids communities as they are added.

Unsure if your address falls into that community? Rx Kids communities are defined in two ways:

By City or Township:

If you live in an Rx Kids Community that is defined by CITY/TOWNSHIP (examples: city of Flint, city of Kalamazoo, city of Pontiac, Royal Oak Township,  city of Hazel Park, city of Dearborn, city of Hamtramck, city of Highland Park, city of Inkster, city of Melvindale) you can check your address in the voter clerk portal, regardless of whether you are registered or eligible to vote. Eligible applicants will see that their clerk is “[CITY/Township name] Clerk”

There may be additional ways to verify your address, depending on the community. Read full eligibility FAQs here

By County:

If you live in an Rx Kids Community that is defined by COUNTY (For example: Eastern U.P. [Luce, Mackinac, Alger, Schoolcraft, Chippewa], and Clare County) residency is based on the geographic location of your physical home/service address. Read full eligibility FAQs here

For many families, income plunges, and poverty spikes right before a child is born and remains high throughout the first year. These first months of life are critical for a baby’s development; it’s also when their families are struggling the most. Cash prescriptions help families make ends meet, enabling them to meet basic needs. By increasing economic stability, housing stability, food security and nutrition, and healthcare uptake, these payments can improve infant and maternal health and wellbeing, and even longer-term outcomes. 

A place-based program, delivering cash to every mother and infant has the potential to not only improve individual outcomes but also to increase economic activity and create a multiplier effect that benefits the community as a whole. 

In partnership with community, researchers at Michigan State University-Hurley Children’s Hospital Pediatric Public Health Initiative in collaboration with Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan are conducting a mixed methods evaluation that includes quantitative analysis and interviews with participating mothers. Researchers aim to isolate the impacts of the transfers from other factors by including a comparison group of babies born outside of current Rx Kids communities. More about Rx Kids research is available on our website.

Rx Kids aims to support families during the most critical period of children’s development: prenatal and in infancy. Rx Kids is an innovative public-private partnership, combining public funding from state, federal, and municipal sources with private support from philanthropy, businesses, and health care systems. In some of our communities, this means our program has monthly prescriptions from 0-6 months, in other communities, the program lasts through 12 months. All of our programs have the prenatal cash prescription component.  

Rx Kids is designed with the intent to be scalable and as administratively efficient as possible. As such, the core design (universal and unconditional cash prescriptions) and components (prenatal and infant cash prescriptions) are not meant to be changed for different communities. In addition, Rx Kids messaging—centered on health, hope, and opportunity—is fundamental to our program design. While we work closely with our community champions to ensure that our program is accessible to participants, core program components are not meant to be changed in expansion communities.  

Rx Kids research is centrally coordinated by Michigan State University-Pediatric Public Health Initiative and Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan. Please see our Research page and review “Information for Interested Researchers.” 

1. Deliver the cash: Rx Kids aims to provide cash payments to every expectant mother and infant in the municipalities the program serves. In doing so, we aim to improve infant and maternal health, the economic and mental wellbeing of participants, and community-wide outcomes. 
2. Show what’s possible for others: The city of Flint was our first Rx Kids community. Our aim is to spark a national movement to shift more resources directly to families and build a brighter future for children born into poverty. 
3. Change the narrative around poverty/deservedness: We’re shifting the poverty narrative around money by empowering families to make economic decisions that best fit their immediate needs. This is about dignity, love, trust, and restoring the social contract. 

Rx Kids is designed for entire communities—whether that’s a zip code, city, or county. Expansion communities are selected based on various characteristics that indicate a high level of need, including, but not limited to: high levels of child poverty, poor maternal health/birth outcomes, and geographic disparities. Communities are also selected based on feasibility of running the program: factors such as population size, presence of community partners who want to act as champions, and obtaining additional funding also impact the selection of expansion communities. 

1. Hundreds of studies show that unconditional cash transfers can be life-changing across countries and contexts. Mothers and babies are no different, and early intervention is shown to have sustained health and development impacts years after cash is delivered. 
2. Healthier pregnancies: Multiple studies have found positive impacts of cash on birth weight, premature births, and breastfeeding, parental mental health, and food security. 
3. Improved early development: New research shows that $333 monthly cash transfers to low-income families boosted infants’ early cognitive development. 
4. Impact lasts into adulthood: Years after their moms received cash transfers, adult children experienced benefits across health, education, and nutrition, lifetime earnings, and reduced anxiety and depression. 
5. The 2021 Expanded Child Tax Credit lifted millions of families out of poverty and drove child poverty to a record low of 5.2 percent. Evidence shows numerous additional benefits, including reduced food insecurity and financial hardship, improved health for children and parents, better school performance, and reduced incidence of child abuse. Benefits extend into adulthood and far exceed the cost of the expanded tax credit. 

We are thrilled that so many communities are interested in starting Rx Kids.

Rx Kids is a plug-and-play program that can be replicated in communities across the nation. The core model is already built with the highest standards of security, privacy, and program integrity.

Over the next three years, Rx Kids aims to expand to dozens of new communities across the state of Michigan. Learn more about bringing Rx Kids to your Michigan community.

Additional resources include:

• Rx Kids Start-Up Guide.
• Rx Kids TANF & Benefits Playbook
• Scaling up Prenatal and Infant Cash Prescriptions to Eradicate Deep Infant Poverty in the United States

If you believe that Rx Kids is a good fit for your community, complete the Rx Kids Expansion Interest Form.

Thank you for your interest in Rx Kids! We would love to have you join our “Village of Funders.” Interested funders can either give a gift by clicking “Give” on our website, or, for larger gifts or requests for fundraising proposals, please email Rx-Kids@msu.org.