An average day for Ni’esha Wright, local resident and director of community health at Cradle Kalamazoo, looks a little different than before. Mornings, evenings and any moment in between is now spent savoring the sweetness of getting to know her 9-month-old son, Shiloh, who offered a bouncing, bubbling smile during our interview. Ni’esha is one of hundreds of mothers in the City of Kalamazoo who took part in the historic Rx Kids program during its launch this year, a program she says has helped her tremendously.
A Joyful New Chapter
Ni’esha Wright’s transition into motherhood has been mostly smooth, save for a few adjustments. For her, the experience of bringing her son into the world has been strengthened by the considerable amount of support she’s received from those around her. To Ni’esha, the title of “mother” couldn’t have come at a better time.
Honestly, it feels surreal. I constantly am like, ‘Is this a simulation? Did I actually give birth? Was I actually pregnant?’ Yes, I had some bumps in the road, but the transition was honestly beautiful.”
Ni’esha Wright | Rx Kids Kalamazoo Participant
Dignity at the Center
Ni’esha’s journey into motherhood truly couldn’t have come at a better time, indeed, as she joined the more than 800 families in the City of Kalamazoo who enrolled in the historic Rx Kids program in 2025 since its launch in February. The program, which originated in Flint and expanded to Kalamazoo, is now the nation’s largest prenatal and infant cash prescription program.
“Rx Kids is giving families the dignity to be the CEO of their own life, the CEO of their family,” said Jameca Patrick Singleton, executive director of Cradle Kalamazoo and vice president of community health for YWCA Kalamazoo. “The right to be self-determined is huge. We’re not looking over your shoulder and telling you what you need, when you need it, how we think you should use it. We are allowing you to do what you need to do for your family.”
After a successful first year, during which 94% of the babies born in the City of Kalamazoo were enrolled, the program has prescribed over $4 million to families.
From Support to Stability
As the community champion for Rx Kids in Kalamazoo, Cradle Kalamazoo has played an integral role in spreading the word about the program, working with local organizations to provide wraparound services that complement it and ensuring participants understand how easy it is to enroll.
“I got the joy of having both ends of it while I was pregnant,” recalled Ni’esha. “Jameca was like, ‘You better sign up. You better sign up!’ It was fairly easy going through the whole entire process. The application was not hard. Uploading the documents or getting any of the documents was not difficult at all, either. They made it as simple as possible for people to sign up, and then the only other thing is a monthly survey just to say, ‘How is it going?’”
Like all participating families, once Ni’esha was enrolled, she received a $1,500 prescription cash payment during pregnancy, followed by a $500 monthly payment, which will carry her through the first 12 months of her son’s life. For her, these monthly funds helped cover costs related to an unexpected move shortly after giving birth, car repairs and much more.
“Having the $500 kind of helped me recoup some funds to continue preparing for the baby,” she said. “It has also helped me set up my baby’s future as I started putting that money into a separate account for him and purchasing any of his dire needs from that money.”
Investing in What’s Possible
Although Rx Kids launched to City of Kalamazoo residents in February 2025, Kalamazoo funders began researching direct cash programs in 2023. Early funders, KZCF, United Way of South Central Michigan, Stryker Johnston Foundation and the City of Kalamazoo, discovered Rx Kids as it was nearing its launch in Flint.
“We saw that Dr. Mona Hanna at MSU and Professor Luke Shaefer were leading it, so we got connected with them to hear what they were doing,” said Alyssa Stewart, chief community impact officer at KZCF, the local fiduciary of the program. “They were happy to meet with us and bring us up to speed. We were super excited about the fact that this was an evidence-based model that could be a great fit for our maternal and child health ecosystem. It felt very manageable.”
With the goal of reducing infant mortality and strengthening private and public sector relationships, KZCF set out to raise the dollars needed to combine with state funding to launch the program. Within one year, local funders worked together to raise the $10 million needed to launch the program, with a $5 million gift from Stryker Johnston Foundation and the first-ever Mobilizing Grant from KZCF of $1 million.
“In all KZCF, committed $1.5 million between our initial gift of $500,000 and our first Mobilizing Grant because, simply put, we believe in Rx Kids,” said Alyssa. “Rx Kids is a very simple program, without stigma and barriers, that our community’s families can depend on. I’m proud that we took this leap of faith and really pushed to be on the cutting edge.”
A Future Within Reach
During this critical launch year of the program, Cradle Kalamazoo has seen an incredible response, noting countless stories of families who have used the cash payments to improve their quality of life and, when possible, spend more time with their babies. As support and momentum for Rx Kids continues to grow, the future appears brighter and better for countless families throughout the City of Kalamazoo who are bringing healthier babies into the world and enjoying the reassurance this new program provides. “I hope Rx Kids means stability,” said Ni’esha. “I hope it means that parents, other parents, as the majority in our city, do not receive a high amount of income — I hope it means that they don’t have to fight to live check to check, and that they have a little room to be able to stabilize themselves and their families and just thrive in Kalamazoo. We really need that.”
KZCF is grateful to every institutional funder who has supported Rx Kids Kalamazoo and partnered with us to ensure the program’s historic success.
- Advia Foundation
- Bronson Children’s Hospital
- Bronson Health Foundation
- City of Kalamazoo
- Dorothy U. Dalton Foundation
- ENNA Foundation
- Harold & Grace Upjohn Foundation
- Irving S. Gilmore Foundation
- Marvin & Rosalie Okun Foundation
- Old National Bank Foundation
- Stryker Johnston Foundation
- Suzanne Upjohn DeLano Parish Foundation
- United Way of South Central Michigan
Note: As this story went to print, Rx Kids Kalamazoo provided over $5 million in prescription cash payments to more than 1,000 families across the City of Kalamazoo. Additionally, Rx Kids announced three 2026 expansion locations, including the City of Galesburg, Oshtemo Township and Wakeshma Township.
