The Kresge Foundation’s Human Services Program centers its work on strengthening systems for and with parents — recognizing both mothers and fathers are essential to family well-being. In honor of Mother’s Day, we’re highlighting the leadership and experiences of mothers.

Mothers, particularly those living with low incomes, show ingenuity and determination as they make things work for their families, stretching limited resources, building support networks and keeping their children supported despite systemic challenges. Their resolve underscores the strength of families and the opportunity to design systems that better support them.

Solutions that center families

For Rheneisha Robertson, CEO of Covenant House New Orleans, those system failures are impossible to ignore. Part of her work at Covenant House focuses on young, pregnant and parenting mothers experiencing homelessness. The organization was well positioned to adopt a 2-Generation approach.

“There was a need based on the number of young, pregnant and parenting moms coming from the community who required housing support,” Robertson said. What began as a “Moms and Babies” program evolved into a 2-Generation model that intentionally supports both mother and child recognizing that their outcomes are inseparable.

Today, Covenant House offers emergency housing and continuity of support as families transition into permanent housing. This approach actively counters a system that typically drops families the moment they exit crisis care, despite ongoing needs.

At COTS in Detroit, CEO Cheryl P. Johnson sees the same systemic patterns play out as mothers navigate harmful housing, income and health systems.

“Mothers, in spite of trauma and what people see as insurmountable challenges, are the protectors of their kids,” Johnson said. When moms begin to stabilize their own lives through education, income or healing, children almost always follow. “Kids tend to follow suit with mom.”

But Johnson is clear that individual resilience only goes so far when systems are stacked against families. She pointed to the benefits cliff as one of the clearest examples. In many states, she explained, a mother earning just one dollar more than the eligibility threshold for public benefits can lose thousands of dollars in support, effectively punishing progress and pushing families backward.

Moving beyond conditional support for families

Reforming conditional social safety net programs is key. Built on narratives of deservedness rather than dignity, most programs require families to prove need again and again at the cost of time, energy and autonomy.

In Jackson, Mississippi, Springboard to Opportunities is challenging this dynamic through disrupting systems and a variety of direct interventions. Using guaranteed income pilots, policy advocacy, leadership development and narrative change, the organization is working to redesign how support reaches families, starting with trust.

There’s overwhelming evidence that when families — especially mothers — receive direct, unconditional financial support, the benefits ripple outward. Children experience greater stability. Stress in the household decreases. Parents gain the breathing room to plan for the future rather than simply survive the present.

“When people are given financial resources without conditions, not only do they thrive, their families and entire communities thrive,” Dr. Aisha Nyandoro, founding CEO of Springboard to Opportunities explained.

Rather than asking why families struggle, Springboard interrogates how policies, funding structures and narratives make stability unnecessarily difficult. Nyandoro stands on proof that unconditional cash support, expanded tax credits and fewer restrictions in programs like Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) are not just technical fixes, but systems reforms that acknowledge caregivers as experts in their own lives.

“Conditional support has not worked. Guaranteed income is about trusting people to know what’s best for their own lives,” Nyandoro said.  

Changing the rules, not just the outcomes

COTS is also leaning into advocacy alongside providing direct services. The organization has expanded its advocacy work both internally and with families. With support from Kresge, COTS now employs an advocacy coordinator and trains mothers through its “Art of Family” initiative to navigate schools, hospitals and government systems.

At Springboard, economic support is paired with leadership fellowships, policy engagement and narrative work that reshapes how families — and particularly Black mothers — are seen and valued.

This is generational work,” Nyandoro reflected. “We’re planting seeds for trees we may never get to sit under.” That perspective resists the pressure to produce quick wins at the expense of lasting change. Instead, it centers repairing systems that have long extracted from and exhausted families rather than supporting them.

Across the country, Human Services’ grantee partners are working alongside mothers and building on their strengths. Organizations like Covenant House in New Orleans, COTS in Detroit and Springboard to Opportunities in Jackson show what’s possible when systems respond to families’ real lives — supporting mothers as leaders and strengthening pathways to economic success and opportunity for their children.