10 Years of the Flint Kids Fund with Dr. Mona Hanna

We’re back with a new season of Philanthropy Speaks!

In this season-opening episode, host Lydia Starrs from the Community Foundation of Greater Flint looks back on 10 years of the Flint Kids Fund and what it has meant for Flint families since it was created after the water crisis.

Lydia is joined by Dr. Mona Hanna, pediatrician, public health advocate, founding donor of the Flint Kids Fund, and founder of Rx Kids, along with Dan Kildee, President and CEO of the Community Foundation of Greater Flint. Together, they talk about how Flint chose a different path by focusing on prevention, listening to community voices, and investing in youth for the long haul.

The conversation reflects on what the Flint Kids Fund helped spark across the community, how Rx Kids is changing what support can look like for families from the very beginning, and what the next decade of youth health and wellbeing in Flint and Genesee County could hold. It’s an honest look at what’s worked, what’s still needed, and why collective giving continues to matter.

Learn more about the Flint Kids Fund at cfgf.org/flintkidsfund. Learn more about Rx Kids at rxkids.org. 

Transcript

lydia: 0:00

this spark, this engine of innovation started here in Flint. There is not a day that goes by when I don't hear from another community across the nation saying we wanna be like Flint. Like, can you have, imagine 10 years ago we'd be getting calls saying we wanna be like Flint. It's the last thing you ever heard, right? So we started this amazing, impossible, reimagined way of caring for kids that is prevention driven, science-based, child-centric, which is really kind of contrary to what happened with the water crisis, is it was reaction. So here we imagined once again how to care for each other. Welcome to Philanthropy Speaks, the podcast where Flint and Genesee County community voices lead the conversation. Each episode, philanthropy speaks through lived stories, local leadership, and the people building a stronger community. I'm your host, Lydia Stars, from the Community Foundation of Greater Flint. Let's hear what philanthropy has to say today. This year we're marking a milestone, and that's 10 years of the Flint Kids Fund. The Flint Kids Fund was established in 2016 in the wake of the Flint water crisis. It has since invested over$16 million in programs. It has been a whole decade of listening, investing, and partnering to support the long-term health and development of Flint's youth. We're joined by two leaders whose voices shape this work. First, Dr. Mona Hannah. Dr. Mona is a pediatrician professor, public health advocate, founding donor of the Flint Kids Fund, and the founder and director behind RX Kids. Dr. Mona's research exposed the Flint water crisis to the public, and joining us is Dan Kilty, president and CEO of the Community Foundation of Greater Flint. Dan served for over a decade in Congress and during the Flint water crisis, he was on the front lines, on the policy side, advocating for federal resources and demanding accountability. Hi, Dan. Hi, Dr. Mona. Hello. Hi, Lydia. Welcome to Philanthropy Speaks. Thank you for. Joining us on this cold day in Downtown Flint. I'm so glad to see you both, and have this conversation. It's quite a milestone that we're going to observe. And so I'm excited to speak on this while a lot of things are happening in community right now that, I think just underscore the importance of this fund. And, and then the commitment to Flint children and families. So it's great to be here. I wanna start off with a reflective question for both of you. 10 years later, when you think about Flint Kids Fund, what rises to the surface? Oh, that is a great question. I think for me, there's, there's so many beautiful things about this fund. This is, a symbol of how a community came together,, and how we were determined not to be remembered by the crisis, but to be remembered by what we were able to do next. And, and for me, the Flink Kids Fund is, is that it is how we have operationalized our commitment to Flink kids. And making sure that they have the brightest future possible. Yeah, I agree. The, the piece of it that really sticks with me is the commitment that a community made to support kids in Flint. Obviously mostly affected by the Flint water crisis, but recognizing there are lots of other challenges that those kids were facing every single day that nobody paid any attention to until the water crisis. And now with the Flint Kids Fund. Not only was there an effort to deal with some of those challenges that those kids face, but there was a commitment to do it over the long term, not just to be there when the crisis was in the headlines, but just like this year, again, more grants coming from the Flint Kids Fund to support the trajectory of these kids throughout the entirety of their lives. To, to me, that sends a pretty strong statement, to the community that we're here. And we're gonna stick with you. I think also one of my favorite things about this fund is, when this was set up, we flooded the community foundation with donations and they came, I, I don't remember the statistics. They came from all over. The world. Mm-hmm. Uh, almost every state we had, we had contributions. People around the world said, we, we hear you. We see you, Flint. We are here and we are standing by your side. And that was so heartwarming for me to recognize that, hey, we're not alone. And that there's people out there that care. People that have never been to Michigan, never been to Flint, but they care about our kids. And I think that's one of my favorite things about this fund is that it is, it's not just people of Flint that contributed, it's the whole. Nations, the so many other countries, so many folks from all over that said, we care for you and we're here with you. It reminds me of when it all started. I was a member of Congress back then and course you were. Yes. You remember? No way. I'm actually trying to forget it. But it, it, uh, it occurred to me as I was getting all these calls from people, like, how can I help? It occurred to me, well, I'll talk to the community foundation, and of course we sat down and. It was at that time that the Flint Kids Fund was being stood up, so it gave people who really wanted to do something, a chance to do something other than send water us another truckload of bottled water, but make an investment in 2016 to the kids of 2025, a hundred percent, or 2035. To me, that's what's so beautiful about this. This fund was so smart like it was. It was heartwarming once again to get bottled water also from across the nation. I remember like a UAW in Ohio and a, and a, a girl's ballet class in Indiana. All these folks from across the country were also bringing us water, but it was smart of us to think, wait a minute, like water's a today. Solution. Like, we need the water, we need fresh water, but like, what about tomorrow? Like, how are we gonna make sure and guarantee that the kids of tomorrow, 10, 15, 20 years down the road have what they need? So it was really brilliant of us to set up this fund. We really were brilliant. You're so smart. You truly were. And I really, you know, I, I came in a year after the fund had been established with the intent of being a person on staff who could really. Be in community and hearing what was needed, what was going on. It was really, you know. Deep response period still in community around meeting even those most basic needs of getting bottled water to families, right? And to be here now almost nine years later with the foundation, I really like to think about all the things that are still here that we supported, right? Mm-hmm. Amazing work happened. You know, Genesee Health System, they got their own mental health mobile unit bus, right? Mm-hmm. They borrowed one initially and then they decided this is such an amazing. Resource, we are going to invest in a bus. Mm-hmm. The Flint Fresh mobile food market still sits outside of the farmer's market, you know, on a weekly basis. It's still a resource. I just think of all the, the really amazing, oh my gosh, early childhood investments. Um, yes. You know, there's, the list goes on and on. All the awesome things that this fund helped set up that helped catalyze. That has delivered real, tangible resources and support for families to this day. Yeah. So it's really incredible to see that even though we may not financially support all those programs with, you know, the fund any longer, they. They continue to sustain and exist and be resources for Flint children and families. I'm always really excited to think and talk about the endurance, right? Yeah. I mean, playgrounds,, you know, breastfeeding support services, literacy programming, the Flint kids read efforts. There's so many things that we're catalyzed by this fund and now have been sustained by other sources, international models, national models. We, a lot of the work that we've done in the. The nonprofits that lead that work are, you know, being lifted up as national models for other communities and that's really cool. The thing that impresses me too, you know, particularly coming from where I was before in Congress and looking at the scale of the problems and the scale of the funding to look at what we're able to do with the Flint Kids Fund, and this is true of the community foundation generally. Flint Kids Fund specifically, where a relatively small amount of money goes a very long way. I think about, for example,, our support for the Boys and Girls Clubs, the the hoop House project that we did there. Mm-hmm. Taking an idea that they had to teach kids more about good nutrition, not just by teaching them how to eat better. Mm-hmm. But actually helping them understand where that food comes from and, and taking a part in it, and creating something themselves. A lesson that they'll keep with them for the rest of their lives. Learning how to take better care of themselves. To me, that's an investment. It seems like a small amount, I don't know, 30 or$40,000. Yep. That's going to last the entire lifetime of those kids who are a part of that initiative because we change the way they look at food change, the way they think about their own habits, change the way they eat that has a positive impact on their health. We know it specifically helps kids who might have some other deficits, you know, for example, those affected by lead in the drinking water. Mm-hmm. But good nutrition. Helps lots of, for everybody, lot of aspects of, of life, brain development. Mm-hmm. All the things that make a difference in a person's life. That money is paying us back decades from now. Yeah, absolutely. All right. I wanna spotlight a program that is deeply connected to this whole journey. RX Kids. Mm-hmm. Mona, this is your brainchild and it's the first community-wide prenatal and infant cash prescription program in the entire country. Can you walk listeners through RX Kids and what's been most surprising or powerful about its impact so far? Yeah, so this is not my brainchild. This is not genius. This is not new, and this is not innovative. Is normal common sense work that's done across the world. But it also came from listening. It came from the infrastructure that we had built after the water crisis where we actively were listening to community. So for example, in our pediatric public health initiative, we have a director of community engagement. We have a parent partner group. We have a group of kids who are incredible and they've been advising us. And, and telling us what's important to them, and we've been sharing all the awesome things that they helped put into place in Flint. The literacy programs, the trauma-informed care services, the supports, the expanded Medicaid, the list goes on, and what we kept hearing from our families. It's like, this is all great, but it is so hard to get by. Like, yeah, thank you for giving me this book at the doctor's office and thank you for telling me to read my kid. But I'm working three jobs and I don't know if I can, you know, you know, keep the housing I'm in. I don't know how I can put food on my table. So that kept resonating that despite all the goodness that we have done as a community, that we were still struggling to treat. This root cause issue of poverty in kids. So we heard it from people. We also started seeing it in our data, so the Flint Registry, some amazing program that we built, thanks to Congress after the water crisis, to see how people were doing to get them connected to services. Also, in that data hardship kept coming up like, I am struggling census data. So not only from hearing from folks, but seeing the data that it was still really hard to get by. So in the same spirit of kind of the resistance to the water crisis, like so much of the story of the water crisis isn't about like the bad thing that happened. The bigger part of the story is like our resistance that we fought back, that we refused the status quo, and that we were not okay with poison water, and we came together and built something amazing. So in that same spirit of like not being okay with poisoned water. We as a community had a realization like, wait a minute, why do we have to be okay with babies growing up in poverty? Like, how is that okay? How is that okay in the richest country in the history of the world to have so many babies growing up in poverty? And we know the science every hour, every day that goes by when a baby is born without the resources they need, we know how that impacts their health and their wealth. And their future opportunity. So RX Kids is this refusal of the SAS quo. It is this bold effort to eliminate poverty for moms and babies. That's when families are poorest. So every pregnant mama gets$1,500, every baby gets$500 a month, and it is for everybody. And that's what sets us apart. This is not for poor people or for a lottery. There's no means testing. It is for the entire community, and that is sending a message to folks that, hey, you are deserving, that you know that this is something we should be doing for everybody. That this is how fundamentally, as a society, we should be taking care of each other and working to build a resilient community rather than asking so many of our kids every single day to do more, be stronger, be more resilient. Be tougher. Sign up for this program and this program and this program, and it takes a step back and puts the onus on society to make sure kids have the resources they need. I'll tell you the thing I love about Rx Kids of the many things I love, but one thing that really stands out for me is that it's powerful, it's impactful, and it's really simple. It's so simple. I mean, you just basically say a child born here. Is not going to get through that first year of life without support, without being seen, without being recognized, without having the things that they need in order to thrive. And for, Dr. Mona and myself and so many of us, this starts with a principle that we believe in. Oh, that no child in the wealthiest country on earth at the wealthiest moment in its history. Yeah. Should live in a place where they don't have. Everything they need in those early parts of their life in that, in that very beginning, which sets the entire trajectory for them going forward. So for many of us, it's rooted in a principle, but I don't like to have to make this argument. But for those who are not moved by the principle, they ought to be moved by their own interests. It's in the interest of our community. And our whole country that we start these kids off. Right. Not just because then they're more productive. That's helpful, more creative. That's fantastic. But they actually cost society less. Mm-hmm. If we can avoid a hospitalization mm-hmm. If we can avoid, you know, child welfare involvement, low birth, if we can avoid low birth weight mm-hmm. If we can avoid all the things that we know are measures of success for kids and try to put them on the most positive path, not only does it have a. I think a moral imperative associated with it. It's really good economics. It's an investment that pays us back tenfold 20 fold. Right? And not even in like a decade, which is often what I talk about when with investment in kids like, oh, they'll do better in school later and they'll be, they'll be economically productive. We are seeing an acute return on investment because we are preventing those NICU admissions and we are preventing involvement in child welfare and that is saving money right now. In addition, this is. What I love about this program is it's a trickle up program. Dollars are going directly into the hands of moms and families. This whole trickle down economics hasn't worked. This neoliberals didn't work out very well. And we have some of the widest income inequality in our country ever. So we are putting money directly into the hands. Of moms and families and they're spending it right away. They're spending it in small businesses and grocery stores and at landlords, and that's creating hundreds of jobs downstream. Hundreds. An economic report by the Upjohn Institute, independent of us, said in Flint. Just in Flint. About 200 jobs were created in the first year of the program, downstream jobs, and up to$3 recirculated in the local economy for every dollar that was prescribed in cash. Yeah, those are incredible, early outcomes. Amazing. So even if you don't care about mamas or babies or health or the moral imperative. Yeah. Like it's good for the, you know, it's good for the economics. Absolutely. All right. Thinking about, investments, I wanna ask a question about, you know, grants that we supported through Flint Kids Fund. Mona, is there anyone that really stands out to you that was just really special to you? I know we, we've mentioned a few already, but was there one that, looking back, it's kind of. So many. So I think, I loved our State of Flint kids work. So this was this data-driven, but also very much highlighting the voices of children effort to see how kids were doing. I think the most common question I get asked everywhere is, how are Flint kids doing? And so this was this kind of effort to say, Hey, this is how Flint kids are doing. So we have a dashboard, we have a website. We also created a beautiful report, that helps kinda share how our kid's doing. And it was actually during the State of Flint kids work where, the. It was during, it was during COVID and we were meeting with our kids and it was on Zoom and there was a 10-year-old girl who said,, and we were talking about how hard it was in COVID and, you know, the social distancing and then law school and how important it was for folks to kind of, you know, keep going and be strong. And a 10-year-old said, but why do I have to be so resilient? Like, I just went through a water crisis and now I'm going through a pandemic. Like, why, why me? Like, why am I disproportionately impacted by all these things that, that I didn't control? It's no fault of my own., So I think, supporting those kinds of efforts, as you have done, have really kind of helped us, you know, figure out what is the most important work to do. So, 10 years in, we've made progress, but there's still so much ahead of us. What does Flint's next decade of child health and wellbeing need to look like? Well, from my point of view, we need to start by staying the course. I mean, it's almost the sort of the hippocratic oath of policy. Let's do no harm. Mm-hmm. Let's push back against some of these efforts that we're seeing right now, for example, in the state legislature to pull back on this commitment. Let's keep what we have, but then. Build from that. Expanding, for example, the food. I'm a big fan of the food and nutrition programs, the, healthy food prescriptions for women and infants. Mm-hmm. For example. Mm-hmm. For women and kids. Yes. To me that's like, just a great way to say we see you. Mm-hmm. We, we know that this is a way to support you while you're visiting your doc. We're gonna get you on a positive path. We need to grow that, expand those sorts of programs. I completely agree., So, you know, Flint is really special, with Rx kids. We're. Right now RX kids is in 20 Michigan communities, which is just amazing. Once again, this spark, this engine of innovation started here in Flint. There is not a day that goes by when I don't hear from another community across the nation saying we wanna be like Flint. Like, can you have, imagine 10 years ago we'd be getting calls saying we wanna be like Flint. It's the last thing you ever heard, right? So we started this amazing, impossible, reimagined way of caring for kids that is prevention driven, science-based, child-centric, which is really kind of contrary to what happened with the water crisis, is it was reaction. It was driven by austerity and cuts to public health. And, you know, so here we imagined once again how to care for each other. And so I also agree that we should go bigger. I am undeterred our outcomes are. Gobsmacking, they're incredible. We have moved measures that nobody's been able to move, and we have moved them quickly. De population level decreases in premature babies, low birthright babies, a prevention of NICU admissions. These being born early and staying in the nicu, that is gonna impact you forever. And we are preventing these things. A 32% decrease in in child welfare allegations, like preventing child abuse and neglected. So, you know, the list goes on and on of the outcomes. So. You know, Flint, started this. We had our program is prenatal to 12 months of age. So was the city of Kalamazoos. But the rest of the places in the state, it's a prenatal to six month program. Just based on the money we've been able to raise. So I wanna keep pushing the envelope. I want us to add more months, add more years. Why? Let's go to 15 months, add more months, add more years, and even in our home community. Expand the geography of the program. Yes. Right now it's Flint focused and we didn't have some resources. So, so much need. Yes. And, and that means us coming up with some Yes. Way to match the dollars that are made available through the flexibility that's built into this program. Yeah, I, I would, it's a great opportunity. It's, it breaks my heart. I was in clinic this week and three babies I saw this week were just outside of Flint's city limits. And they're also struggling. Everybody is struggling. So our goal, we have had massive investment from the state. We just got 270 million is to expand the program across the state. But that's a, that's a down payment, that's a minimum. Our goal is to make this statewide and to really extend it for as many months, if not years as possible. And we have great examples. I think it was South Korea, they started their child allowance for just the first year of life. And then it was so popular. Now it's up to age eight, right? So I wanna push the envelope, and, and make this bigger and longer, but keep doing what we're doing. And for people who maybe don't really understand why this is important, the corollary that I often refer to is, it was. 80 years ago that this country, more than 80 years ago, decided that we were not gonna allow, the elderly to live in poverty. Mm. We created the Social security program. Mm-hmm. It's a great program. Mm-hmm. It invests in people at the later stages of their life, but we can't ignore the fact that we have another cohort of the population equally at risk that affects their entire trajectory, not just the last few years of life, but the entire trajectory of their lives. So this is. Basically social security for kids, it's saying, look, we see you. You are important. We know you have needs. We're gonna make sure those needs are met, and we know that there's a return on the, on that investment. It's certainly true of social security, the most popular program. Yep. In. Really in the entirety of federal policy or, or any kind of government policy. I would like to see us through this program, make this, that version of security for people, infant security, and if we can do that. We're a better society, and that is what is done in other countries. 70% of the world have some sort of cash child, child cash allowances, and they see it as social protection, social security, social investment. They take care of the old, they take care of the young, they take care of the disabled. They don't take care of the people that work, but they take care of these. Other folks. So now a, after Social Security passed, so the, the elderly used to be the demographic that we're the most poor, but we passed Social Security. But now it's children. Children are the demographic that are struggling the most and that is not okay. And we can fix this and we have a proof point, the expanded child tax credit. During COVID in 2021, incredible. We proved that we could be like other countries and we gave families monthly unconditional child allowances, and we dropped child poverty to the lowest level ever. And amazing, amazing child outcomes improved. But that was not renewed by the US Senate. By one. Fricking vote, one vote. And millions of kids went back into poverty. So that also inspired RX kids, like, Hey, we can do big hard things in this country. We can invest in children. We can think of this like social security. So it was important to do something like RX Kids at a scale that hadn't been done to keep these conversations in the public imagination, because our end goal is always informing a policy. Well, I don't have any doubt that someday RX kids will be statewide. We're working on it national. We're working well, like our federal legislators. The people I used to work with, I still talk to them once in a while. They're really excited about this. Mm-hmm. Rosa Deloro, for example, who's really the, the architect of the child tax credit. She sees this and says, oh my gosh, this is what we should be doing. These are people who really understand how federal policy can impact lives, and I'm, I'm excited about it, I think. Mm-hmm. Even though we're going through a little bit of a. Period of reflection, let's just call it in the federal role, we're gonna get back Yes. To a place where these new ideas, yeah, we don't have to just go back and restore everything that was in place before. We gotta take these new ideas that are really efficient, right? This is a really efficient program, very low overhead, and put that. In our federal promise, in our social contract. Well, and I would also say it has been widely bipartisan, supported, you know, this is a maternal infant program, so we have a lot of support from pro-family and pro-life people. It is massively. Efficient. So the libertarians love this because it doesn't grow government bureaucracy. And by and large, you know, the, we're not, there's not massive layers of staff that are hired. This is such an efficient program. You know, progressives love this. So there's a wide swath of people, that, you know, support this program. President Trump was talking about a$5,000 baby bonus, to help with the birth rate. Vice President Harris and her proposal had a$6,000 newborn credit. Inspired by RX kids. So there are conversations, about how to do this kind of thing in all kinds of different political sectors because I fundamentally believe we are a country that loves babies. Who doesn't love babies. We are a country that loves babies, and this is a very simple way to kind of put, you know, dollars behind those words. Well, I'd love to keep chatting about this, but we have other places to be. I know Dr. Mona has a,. Engagement in Ann Arbor here pretty soon. So I'm gonna wrap us up, but before we close, one final question to you both. What is one lesson the Flint Kids Fund taught you that you'll carry with you? Kids matter and this community believes that that's a powerful statement because it's not, it's something we know, but we don't know how to manifest it. We don't know how to make it, like, make it real. This is how we do it with the pro, with the kind of work that the Flint Kids Fund supports. We know that it works. It's a proof point and I'm proud of it. Yeah, I would echo that it's been joy, to be part of this fund. It's been, just incredible to see the collective impact, that this fund has had to see, the solidarity of folks from all over who have supported this effort, who have believed in our work. I love the kind of the forward thinking mission from the. That we really respected the science of trauma and lead exposure and knew that this work was long-term work. And I think that really set us apart. This wasn't just about like a hurricane relief and get people to their house. This was about making sure people were supported long-term. And I think that was, was once again just really smart and it's been just such a joy to be part of this work that has had. Real direct impact,, on the lives of not just kids in Flint, but really has, has served as a model, for the nation. The other thing I just, I feel like we should say is that people can't just celebrate it or be proud of it, but they can support it, right? They can be a part of it, right? This is going to go on for a long time. But the reach that we have, the number of kids we can reach is affected by the resources that we have. There are lots of folks out there who have a generous heart, but don't necessarily know how to get their generosity to the place in greatest need. The Community Foundation is a vehicle for that, and the Flint Kids Fund is a fantastic way to invest in our own future, in our own kids. So I suggest anybody go to our website, take a look at the, work that the Flint Kids Fund supports, and if you're moved, be a part of it. Make a contribution. We'll put it to good work. Yeah, I just, I, I just wanna echo that. When we were thinking about this bond and, Dan had convened a bunch of us, it just, it was just so obvious that this belonged at the community Foundation. And you know, throughout this arcs kids work, I've been working with community foundations across the state, and I love community foundations. They are truly the heart and. Soul of a community, they know what a community needs, they can respond quickly. There are folks that are from the community. So this is, a trusted, credible place. And,, I would also encourage folks to, to keep giving, to keep giving to this community foundation, to your own community foundation. Because the work is real,, and the work is good. Yeah, we're 10 years into this fund, but we are for good, forever for everyone. That's right. We're not going anywhere. We're gonna be here for the long run. Thank you both for taking time to chat today. It was great to see you. Thank you to, to reflect on, on 10 years of Flint Kids Fund. I can't wait to do this in 10 more years. And thanks to to Lydia and the entire community foundation team, we, yes, we do good work, but we do so because we have great people doing the work. So thank you for all you've done with this. And we give, we should give a shout out to who was the president when this started? Oh, Kathy. Kathy Horton. Yes. Yeah, so shout out to Kathy and, and all the leaders and and staff who were flooded. We had thousands and thousands of donations and infrastructure had to be built. And so,, kudos to everybody. Dr. Mona, Dan, thank you both for joining this conversation and for your leadership. Over the past decade, the Flint Kids Fund began in a response to a crisis, but it has become a long-term commitment to Flint's youth, and that's really special to reflect on. For anyone who wants to learn more about the Flink Kids Fund visit. CF gf.org/flint Kids Fund. This has been Philanthropy Speaks. I'm Lydia Stars. We'll be back next time with another conversation about the people and ideas Strengthening Flint and Genesee County.