By Danielle Smith
Since launching in 2024, Philly Joy Bank has given more than $2.2M in cash assistance.
Warning: Please note the sensitive nature of this story, which contains mentions of pregnancy termination, depression, intimate partner violence, and life-threatening diagnoses.
Erica Gaye wasn’t familiar with the concept of guaranteed income when she heard an ad on the radio one day. It said residents of certain Philadelphia neighborhoods could apply to receive cash payments during their pregnancy and into their child’s first year of life. Pregnant with her fourth child, she figured it was worth investigating.
“Just thinking about how my situation was in my past pregnancies and how I was kind of struggling with some things here and there, I just thought that maybe if I apply for this program that things will be a little different,” Gaye said.
To say that things have been “a little different” for Gaye this time around would be an understatement. The 33-year-old Nicetown resident and single mother enrolled as one of the inaugural participants in the Philly Joy Bank last year.
While she credits the program for enabling her to take additional time off from work, pay bills, and provide for her children’s needs, she also credits it with helping her find community, leave an abusive relationship, and rediscover the “Joy” referenced in the program’s name following a critical diagnosis later in her pregnancy.
When I talk about the program, I always slip up and call it the Philly love bank, because I just feel so much love from strangers that I never felt before. So automatically, I just say love.
Understanding the Philly Joy Bank and Guaranteed Income
Launched in June 2024, Philly Joy Bank is a guaranteed income pilot program for 250 pregnant people from three neighborhoods — Cobbs Creek, Strawberry Mansion, and Nicetown-Tioga, neighboring Germantown. Guaranteed income is the provision of cash payments to a defined group of people without requirements for receiving the money or restrictions on how it’s spent.
A report released in April by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that more than 150 guaranteed income pilots have launched in the U.S. since 2017, showing substantial progress in efforts to reduce wealth inequality.
Guaranteed income has been shown to greatly improve outcomes related to financial stability, physical and mental health, family wellbeing, economic mobility, and autonomy and dignity.
Each mother joined the Philly Joy Bank between 12 and 24 weeks into their pregnancy, and will receive $1000 a month for a period of 18 months.
There were four application requirements — you had to be 18 or older, in the second trimester of pregnancy, earn less than $100,000 a year, and live in one of the three focus neighborhoods.
Nia Coaxum, a program manager with the Philly Joy Bank, says the requirements are intentionally minimal, and there are truly no questions asked about how the payments are spent.
“One of the key themes within guaranteed income is respecting the dignity and autonomy of recipients, really allowing them to use the cash as they see fit to best address their needs,” Coaxum explains.
The Joy Bank is a project of PhillyCAN, or the Philadelphia Community Action Network.
The CAN is a group of community partners made up of lived experience experts, policymakers, healthcare professionals, city agencies, and nonprofits, all working toward better health outcomes for mothers and families, with a focus on reducing infant mortality and addressing racial disparities.
Data-Informed Decisions Led to Focus Neighborhoods
The creation of the Philly Joy Bank was informed by data from 2017 to 2020 that highlights why the program is vitally important. In 2018, Philadelphia’s infant mortality rate was 8.1 per 1000 live births, almost 40% higher than the national rate of 5.8 per 1000 live births. For Black mothers in Philadelphia, the number jumps to 12.5. In 2022, infant mortality rates in the United States saw the first year-over-year rise in two decades, increasing by 3%.
1 in 11 babies were born with low birth weight in Philadelphia in 2018, meaning they were delivered under 5.5 pounds. That number jumps to 1 in 15 for Black mothers. Coaxum says birth weight statistics played a key role in determining where to launch the program.
“Obviously, this is a pilot program, and since we can’t serve the whole city right now, we chose those three neighborhoods because they have the highest rates of very low birth weight in the city, which we are using as a proxy for infant mortality,” she says.
In keeping with the goals of PhillyCAN, race and income level were also taken into account.
There is a clear financial need among Philly Joy Bank participants, 49% of whom reported annual household incomes under $10,000 when applying to the program. Nearly a quarter reported incomes of $10,000 – $24,999, with another roughly 20% at $25,000 – $49,999.
Federal poverty guidelines for 2025 are set at $15,650 for a single individual household, rising to $32,150 for a family of four.
According to census data, roughly 24.4% of residents in zip codes 19144 and 19138 live in poverty, compared with about 20% of residents citywide. That number increases slightly for Black residents of 19144 and 19138, to 25.8%. Citywide, 24.5% of Black Philadelphians live in poverty.
Of the three neighborhoods covered by the Philly Joy Bank, two have poverty rates higher than Germantown. Strawberry Mansion and Nicetown-Tioga are at 40.6% and 42.7% respectively, while Cobbs Creek’s poverty rate is slightly lower than Germantown’s at 23.1%.
As far as future expansion plans, potentially including Germantown, Coaxum says they haven’t gotten there yet. The last group of participants will close out their 18-month time frame with the Joy Bank in September 2026, at which point all the data and findings can be evaluated.
“We don’t know if and when we will be expanding yet, but we are working towards that through talks regarding advocacy and sustainability,” she says.
Germantown Ties to Guaranteed Income
Crossroads Women’s Center (CWC) supports mothers in Germantown facing poverty, food insecurity, housing insecurity, disability, domestic abuse, benefits access, and more.
They see guaranteed income as one way to combat financial instability and give moms a much-needed leg up. Phoebe Jones, coordinator at CWC, notes that many families got a taste of guaranteed income when the child tax credit was expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The good thing about the Philly Joy Bank and guaranteed income is also what the child tax credit gave us for a brief time during the pandemic, and that is basically unconditional money,” Jones says.
The Center also uses its platform to advocate against family separations initiated by the Department of Human Services (DHS). CWC says separations are most often the result of poverty, not abuse in the home, and sees the child tax credit as a form of guaranteed income that could keep kids out of the foster care system.
Carolyn Hill volunteers with CWC and had her nieces taken from her care in 2012. She believes that cash assistance could have kept her family, and many others, together.
“It would stop DHS from taking our children. Because by us not having the money, they consider us in poverty, so they’re saying it’s neglect, and they’re taking our kids. And the child tax credit could help keep the kids at home if the mothers had extra money,” Hill says.
Data from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities shows that the expansion of the child tax credit in 2021 lifted 3.7 million children out of poverty. After it expired in 2022, child poverty more than doubled in one year.
Erica Gaye and Madison’s Journey with the Philly Joy Bank
Gaye hopes that moms in Germantown and beyond will be able to experience the benefits of the Philly Joy Bank, echoing sentiments we hear from many struggling parents in the neighborhood.
“…we all go through the same thing. You have a baby, you have to go on maternity leave; some jobs doesn’t get paid maternity leave. And it’s hard out here…the average person is living from check to check, and a little goes a long way,” Gaye said.
Outside of the funding, the Philly Joy Bank also resources mothers with support groups, financial counseling, lactation consultations, safe sleep education, and doula services.
Gaye took advantage of a few of these services, but the network of support proved especially crucial during a difficult time in the pregnancy when she began to struggle with depression.
“I didn’t really have a support system, and I feel like the moms there…and even the other program coordinators, they kept checking on me and seeing if I was okay,” Gaye said.
At her 20-week anatomy scan, Gaye’s fetus was diagnosed with Sheldon-Hall syndrome, arthrogryposis, kyphoscoliosis, and pulmonary hypoplasia, a combination of conditions preventing the joints and lungs from properly developing, which can prove fatal.
Eventually, the prognosis had become bleak enough that doctors asked her to consider termination, believing that the baby would need intensive interventions that ultimately wouldn’t save its life. They told her that if she wanted to carry to term, she should make plans for a funeral.
Gaye decided to continue with her pregnancy, fearing her ability to reconcile the feelings of “what if” had she chosen another path. She delivered a baby girl, now six months old, named Madison. Her first choice for a name was actually Miracle. Gaye scrapped those plans when she learned of Madison’s diagnosis because she didn’t want the name to feel like a disappointment.
“She’s still my little miracle baby,” Gaye says.
Compounding the multitude of factors affecting Gaye’s health and well-being throughout her pregnancy was the status of her relationship with Madison’s father. Gaye says that the money she received from the Joy Bank saved her from a domestic situation that far too many women experience.
“I was in an abusive relationship with him physically and mentally, and the fact that I had that extra thousand a month along with my original income, it just kinda helped me leave that situation alone because I didn’t feel like I was depending on him to help me with stuff with the baby or with my house, so I didn’t have to entertain unwanted behavior, because I didn’t need to,” Gaye said.
The Philadelphia Maternal Mortality Review Committee released a report in 2022 that showed data on 110 pregnancy-associated deaths between 2013 and 2018. Of those 110 deaths, 1 in 5 had a history of intimate partner violence. 45% suffered from mental health issues.
The multiple risk factors posed to both Madison’s and Erica’s health and well-being demonstrate the depth of the challenges that groups like Philly Joy Bank and the CAN seek to address and prevent.
Despite serious threats to survival faced by many mothers and pregnant people, especially those living in poverty, Coaxum maintains that providing opportunities for fun, recreation, and relaxation should not be overlooked.
“Sometimes critics think when folks are receiving money, they should only be able to use it on food, rent, gas. But we’ve heard from our participants that this has allowed them to buy things that maybe folks wouldn’t consider necessities for their kids, just fun things, spend more time with their kids, maybe take them to an activity, take their kids to the movies,” Coaxum notes.
In addition to taking more trips with her kids to restaurants, museums, and Dave & Buster’s, Gaye was proud of herself for putting Joy Bank money toward one long-held desire she was used to passing up.
“I would always look for the cheapest stroller ever, so with that extra money I was able to get my dream stroller for my daughter, and I felt as though I deserved it and she deserved it, and with the extra money I was able to get it without sweating,” Gaye joyfully recalls.
Looking to the future, Gaye knows she has more months behind her in the program than she has ahead. Madison came home following a two-month stay in the NICU, and Gaye reluctantly returned to work five days after that.
Despite her desire to remain home longer, she lamented that $1000 a month by itself isn’t enough to sustain her family. She’s grateful that Madison receives 18 hours a day of home nurse care, offering some respite while she plans for a 2026 without the Philly Joy Bank.
Gaye’s time with the program ends in February, but she’s been saving the money where she can and says the program has prepared her to transition out.
“I’ll spend it on what I need to spend it on, and the rest, I’ll put that to the side. So when that time comes, I do have that extra money…but for me, learning about budgeting skills and all that, I’ve tooken that into my everyday life, so I feel as though…my normal income will stretch a little bit more. It will still be hard, but it’s nothing I can’t handle,” she says.
Adjusting her approach to handling hard things is one of the biggest lessons Gaye has learned from the Philly Joy Bank. A self-described loner, she says she now appreciates being able to lean on others for support.
“…eventually you’re gonna break, and you’re gonna need someone to catch you when you fall. So, that’s one thing I learned, that you definitely need a community.”
This post was originally published on Basic Income Today.