Food Security

The Setting: This pre-pilot program is an evaluation of a guaranteed income project targeting Black mothers in Washington DC, who are in danger of getting involved with the child welfare system.

The Problem: Black mothers face disproportionately higher levels of intervention with the child welfare system for issues that appear to be related more often to poverty and racial injustice. What may be viewed as neglect often stems from poverty, leading to more family policing and family separation, specifically for Black mothers and their children. This project aims to address economic instability as the root cause of child welfare system interactions.

The Study: The MotherUp program has completed two phases of its pre-pilot program (the first run solely by Mothers Outreach Network) and began recruiting participants for Phase III in November 2025. The A2J Lab has been involved in Phase II and III thus far.

The Phase II pre-pilot program ran from 2024 to 2025, and enrolled 19 active participants who were randomized to one of two groups: (1) the direct cash transfers group, who received guaranteed income of $500/month (“no strings attached”) for one year plus additional compensation for survey and interview participation, or (2) the compensated research group, who received compensation for survey and interview participation but did not receive the monthly stipend. Among the qualifications for participation: mothers must be part of MON’s target population of black mothers in the Washington DC area; children of recipients must remain in the home; and mothers must have had some interaction with the child welfare system within the last year.

The goal of the Phase II pre-pilot was to determine whether a full-scale randomized controlled trial would be feasible and what results could be expected based on these initial results.  Given the small pool of participants and the short follow-up period, results from Phase II are not conclusive but did indicate a successful operational path forward for a larger study. View the Final Report: Mother Up Phase Two Pre-pilot Randomized Control Trial.

The Phase III pre-pilot program is recruiting for 30 participants for a study that will provide $500/month in guaranteed income for three years, as opposed to the one year in Phase II. The direct cash transfers group will further receive services provided by Mothers Outreach Network including advocacy, empowerment work, and legal services that can extend to non-child welfare-specific subjects like housing and benefits. Eligibility requirements for Phase III includes mothers who have had a child removed from the home within the last 36 months.

What We’ll Learn: In partnership with the Mothers Outreach Network, the Mother Up program will study whether monthly direct cash transfers to these mothers would assist in either resolving ongoing Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA) cases or preventing future interaction with CFSA.

Research Team:
Access to Justice Lab
Mothers Outreach Network

Resources: Final Report: Mother Up Phase Two Pre-pilot Randomized Control Trial

The Setting: There will never be enough resources to provide full representation to all Alaskans who could use it in civil cases. The question is: Are there other alternatives that could help the residents of Alaska get the support they deserve? Could trained advocates or other non-lawyer supports be part of the solution? This RCT is studying how effective trained advocates are at increasing success in SNAP benefits cases.

The Access to Justice Lab has partnered with Alaska Legal Services Corporation to design a randomized control trial to evaluate community advocates services in the context of the SNAP benefits arm of their program.

What We’ll Learn:

Research Team:
Access to Justice Lab
Alaska Legal Services
Legal Services Funded Corp.