Jeremiah Program’s two-generational approach supports single moms on their way out of poverty

Being a single mother is one of the toughest jobs in the world. And for many stuck in a cycle of poverty, investing in their own personal and professional goals is an afterthought when there’s a family to feed.

This week’s Joy Beat honoree says single mothers don’t need to make that choice. The Jeremiah Program is a nonprofit dedicated to helping families build brighter futures. Through college and career coaching, quality childhood education and a supportive, empowering community, the Jeremiah Program is disrupting generational poverty for single mothers and their kids.

Alison Carter Marlow, executive director of Jeremiah Program’s Boston campus, joined GBH’s All Things Considered host Arun Rath to share more about its mission. What follows is a lightly edited transcript.

Arun Rath: So, I only sketched it in very broad terms. For people who aren’t familiar with the Jeremiah Program, give us a bit more about the background of the mission.

Alison Carter Marlow: Happy to do so. Jeremiah Program was founded in Minneapolis back in 1998, so we’re about 27 years old now.

We were founded by a priest who was looking around his neighborhood and seeing a number of moms who were not safely housed, who had young children, and who, perhaps, didn’t have access to pursue their dreams for college or gainful employment. He engaged in a capital campaign and built a campus that housed moms and provided child care on-site. A child care center is a feature in all of Jeremiah’s residential campuses.

Fast forward, 27 years later, there are nine campuses, five of which house moms and four — like Boston, Brooklyn, Las Vegas and Baltimore — that do not house moms but still try to provide all of the wraparound supports, all of the coaching and all of the investments that might help a mom go on and pursue a college credential and put her children on a path to college enrollment as well.

Rath: We know that the need for support for single mothers — especially in major cities like Boston — is really high. How does the Jeremiah Program help people navigate the really complex issues that people in low-income communities face?

Carter Marlow: Yeah, I appreciate you pointing that out. It’s certainly not just about a will to pursue the degree. We know that, systemically and historically, certain groups have been denied equal opportunity and access to college, quality K-12 education and stable housing. We know that there are populations that face tremendous odds to access quality post-secondary education.

One of the bedrocks of the Jeremiah Program: Each mom is paired with a family coach, and each coach and each group of moms is really centered in a community that is encouraging those moms, listening deeply to those moms and what their goals and objectives are — not only for themselves, but their children and their families.

[The coaches are] coming beside them, troubleshooting, problem-solving and really navigating the multiple steps there are in this current landscape. Even FAFSA now — even tuition and financial aid — is uncertain, and so family coaches come beside our moms and try to enlist all of their good thinking. Most of our family coaches are single moms themselves who hold bachelor’s degrees and are well-positioned to give solid advice and help build tools for our moms to navigate these systems.

Rath: Just facing the immediate needs is a big enough task, but, as I mentioned, one of the aims of the Jeremiah Program is to disrupt generational poverty. Talk a bit about how you achieve that. This is — I think the term your organization uses — a two-generational approach.

Carter Marlow: Two generations at a time. That is actually a talking point for us. The first is that — and we’ve heard this time and time again — college is not for everyone. But the fact is, college still remains one of the strongest levers, one of the most sure ways an individual can access living wage employment, career-track employment. We believe deeply in the power of a college degree.

We also know, though, once a mother has earned that credential, her children are that much more likely to pursue and access college themselves. That mom makes it possible for her kids; they can see all the work she’s done and what she’s overcome to earn that degree, and it becomes realistic and obtainable for the children.

The income that a college degree produces for a family can be $1 million more, and above, what a high school diploma can earn. The disruption of poverty is the thing that says well-educated moms and kids can change the world, can change their circumstances, can achieve and afford places like Boston — afford the rents, afford transportation, afford child care — with jobs that allow them to do that. So, we really do see college as being the turnkey for that change and that disruption.

Rath: We’ve talked in some detail about the issues here, but I want to talk in even more specific detail because you work with individuals. I want to hear about some of the success stories that you’ve seen in your time.

Carter Marlow: We have a ton. So, I joined Jeremiah, really, in the heart of COVID in 2020. We were on track with about five graduates a year — Boston’s campus launched around 2016. COVID disrupted that, to say the least.

But each year since 2021, we’ve seen more and more moms graduate. One in 2021, three in 2022, four in 2023. We had six graduates in 2024, and we have eight moms on track to graduate this year with either an associate’s or a bachelor’s degree. So, those are huge wins. We just had an event just last week where we recognized the 20 Jeremiah moms who we’re calling “academic all-stars” — women who achieved between a 3 and 4.0 GPA.

These women are incredible. They are supporting families on one income — sometimes part-time income because they’ve got to care for their children. We know that child care is extreme — I believe Massachusetts actually ranks first as the state with the highest child care costs . These moms are juggling and doing and accomplishing a whole lot with not as much as you or I might have or want in order to support themselves and their children.

We invest in children as well as moms. We subsidize private tutoring and summer enrichment programs, and we make deposits for the children for each semester [of college] that she completes. So we’re making deep investments in both the mothers and the kids, all with an eye on obtaining college down the line.

But I’d have to say our graduations and our academic all-stars are probably some of the proudest moments we’ve had, and will have, with this program.

Rath: You know, when we started out doing the Joy Beat, we didn’t intend to feature so many community organizations like yours, but it really seems that community and joy go hand in hand.

Carter Marlow: I would agree with that, and in light of the atmosphere we’re in now, what individuals can do — I think what women do, and particularly what mothers do — is incredibly magical and special. They do amazing work in very hard times.

If you’d like to nominate someone or something for the Joy Beat, leave us a voicemail at (617) 300-2328 [BEAT].