Femisphere is working to help Pittsburgh single moms and their families thrive

As a single mother of four children, Rochelle Jackson of McKeesport knows first-hand about the struggles single moms face every day and the obstacles they navigate.

As an advocate, she knows that single moms often are invisible to policy makers and are almost never a part of decision-making.

“I think having these two perspectives gives me the unique ability to be a part of introducing a new way of looking at poverty reduction, one that puts single moms directly into the equation,” says Jackson, who was recently named project director for the Women and Girls Foundation’s new Femisphere initiative.

A $1 million grant from the Henry L. Hillman Foundation will help launch Femisphere and its ongoing efforts to assist single mothers in gaining access to support services they need to work or attend school.

“Our vision is to transform Pittsburgh into a Femisphere – an ecosystem that provides everything women and girls need to live, work, and thrive,” says Heather Arnet, CEO of the Women and Girl Foundation (WGF).

“At a time when women’s rights are under attack, and basic social services are threatened, we need to commit in big bold ways to supporting women and girls,” Arnet says. “Status quo is no longer good enough. With generous support and collaboration from our partners, we will now have the resources to develop solutions that can unlock the true power of women and girls and position Pittsburgh as a national model of a Femisphere.”

The current stage of Femisphere focuses on the intersection of work and family. The Hillman grant will support Femisphere initiatives for the next two years, which will include providing program and grant support to:

• Community College of Allegheny County, to connect more moms to the opportunity to participate in a health careers training program, which provides tuition, childcare, and transportation assistance;
• Pittsburgh Association for the Education of Young Children (PAEYC), to advocate for increased state investment in and access to quality childcare;
• The Women’s Law Project, to fight back against attacks and threats to women’s rights and currently available social services; and
• A statewide coalition of more than 100 organizations to make Paid Family and Medical Leave a reality for Pennsylvania families.

“One of our top priorities is to make Paid Family and Medical Leave a reality for all Pennsylvanians,” Arnet says. “The lack of Paid Family Leave causes millions of families to be economically insecure each year. Only 13 percent of workers have any access to paid family leave through their employer, and yet 60 percent of family caregivers are actively employed outside the home.”

According to a 2016 Femisphere report released by WGF and the Allegheny County Department of Human Services, 77 percent of households living in poverty in the city of Pittsburgh are single female-headed households with young children.

“Despite economic development investments and Pittsburgh’s technology renaissance, most low-income moms have not yet benefited from these neighborhood investments,” Arnet says. “That is why we launched this Femisphere initiative – to challenge our community to put women at the center of economic development and poverty reduction efforts. That is the only way we will see true, robust and equitable economic revitalization occur in the city of Pittsburgh.”

Femisphere is like a movement – and a movement only works if people join it, says Jackson, who worked as a public policy advocate for Just Harvest, a nonprofit working to curb hunger in Allegheny County, and as an advocate and organizer for its Welfare Justice Project.

“One of the main challenges single moms face in this region is that they are often marginalized, and their poverty is often blamed on choices they have made, and that couldn’t be further from the truth,” she says. “Femisphere will give a voice to single moms and expose the real reasons for their poverty.

“Femisphere is not just about changing the lives of single moms and their children,” Jackson adds. “It is about changing a whole community because when single moms and their children thrive, the whole community prospers.”