A group of low-income black mothers living in Washington DC who have been accused of child neglect will receive cash as part of a study to determine whether providing needy moms with extra income could prevent their children from being placed in foster care.
A dozen black mothers randomly selected by researchers from Harvard Law School’s Access to Justice Lab will receive $500 a month through October — and then a lump sum payment of about $3,000, The Washington Post reported.
The women selected have been investigated by the district’s Child and Family Services Agency for alleged child neglect, the report said.
Another 12 mothers will be paid $50 to $60 for participating in a 20-minute survey and up to an hour-long interview with the Mother’s Outreach Network, which is distributing the funds.
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The Mother’s Outreach Network will soon start distributing funds to low-income black mothers accused of child neglect in Washington DC. Mother’s Outreach Network
“For this particular problem, folks are in a form of legal jeopardy,” Jim Greiner, the faculty director at Harvard’s Access to Justice Lab, said of parents accused of child neglect.
“There’s a lot of strong feelings on both sides — and what we think should happen in that case is evidence,” he said. “Let’s actually look at what happens when you take steps to alleviate poverty.”
Greiner said the Mother Up program will be limited to black mothers whom the Child and Family Services Agency investigated for child neglect and found the accusations to be substantiated, but still allowed their children to remain in the home.
The Mother Up program is still in the “pre-planning” phase, but will now start enrolling eligible mothers to receive the funds.
Greiner acknowledged there may be backlash to the program from those who think “it’s a terrible idea because it’s going to provide a monetary incentive to neglect children.”
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But, he said, others “think that the underlying problem is poverty, in which case, providing money is a fantastic idea because it’ll directly alleviate the problem.”
One such advocate, Clare Anderson, a senior policy research fellow at the University of Chicago’s Chapin Hall, said decades of research have proven that when families have less access to money, clothing, housing, food, legal support and health care, they are more likely to face child welfare investigations.
Another study, she said, shows that nearly 85% of families investigated by child welfare agencies have incomes below 200% of the federal poverty line — which was $49,720 for a family of three in 2023.
“There’s this societal narrative that child abuse and neglect is an individual action by an individual doing harm to a child,” Anderson told the Washington Post.
The Mother Up program will be limited to black mothers whom the Child and Family Services Agency investigated for child neglect and found the accusations to be substantiated, but still allowed their children to remain in the home. Google Maps
“The evidence shows us that policy choices are contributing significantly to the activation and deployment of CPS in the lives of families.”
Robert Matthews, the director of DC’s Child and Family Services, also said he has “no doubt that poverty plays a huge role in how most of the families come to CFSA’s attention.”
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Last year, the department separated 10 children from their families due to neglect — making it the most cited reason a child was removed from their home, the Washington Post reports, citing the agency’s report to the DC city council.
Of the children currently in foster care in DC, a majority are black, it reports.
“The system is penalizing families for being poor,” said Melody Wood, executive director of Mother’s Outreach Network.
“We also want to combat negative narratives about black women, black mothers in particular, whose children are involved in the system,” she noted.
BALTIMORE (WBFF) — A Maryland man was sentenced to over two decades in prison for sextorting young girls through social media platforms, the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office announced Monday.
25-year-old Isaiah Poole, of Suitland, was sentenced to 25 years in prison, followed by 20 years of supervised release, for one count of producing child sexual abuse material.
The sentence was announced by the U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland, Kelly O. Hayes, alongside Special Agent in Charge Jimmy Paul, FBI Baltimore Field Office.
According to official records, Poole manipulated and coerced at least six girls — ranging from ages 9-14 — to send him sexually explicit photos and videos of themselves through Snapchat and other social media accounts.
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Pretending to be a teenage girl, Poole manipulated the girls to produce and send him the images under the ruse of playing truth or dare.
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He would direct the young girls to expose their genital areas and engage in sexual conduct, according to authorities.
After some of the girls informed Poole that they didn’t want to send him any more images, he would then threaten to send the images to their families and friends.
Additionally, Poole distributed the sexually explicit images he received from two of the girls.
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U.S. Attorney Hayes commended the FBI for its work in the investigation, along with the Maryland State Police and Prince George’s County State’s Attorney’s Office for their valuable assistance.
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Ms. Hayes also thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Alex Treiger and Brooke Oki who prosecuted the case.
A student journalist in Washington, D.C.; Grok image
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During the fall of 2026, the Student Free Press Association, parent organization for The College Fix, will offer paid internships at Washington, D.C.-based media organizations.
Who is eligible?
The internships are open to college students and recent college graduates.
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Where will I work?
SFPA will match its intern with an appropriate host organization. Previous fellows have worked at National Review, Real Clear Politics, Daily Wire, Daily Caller, Reason, Washington Examiner, Washington Free Beacon, The Dispatch, EWTN, and Just The News, among others.
(To learn more about their experiences, go here and here.)
How long will it last?
The internship will run for about 14 weeks, beginning in September. The specific start and end dates will be determined with the intern and media organization.
What will it pay?
SFPA will provide a stipend of $8,400.
Are there other benefits?
In addition to supplying the internship, the Student Free Press Association will offer customized career advice and networking opportunities.
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When is the deadline?
Applications must be received by July 15, 2026.
How do I apply?
Email a brief resume, cover letter, and links to three writing samples to internships [at] thecollegefix.com, subject line: fall 2026 internship.
LAKE CITY, S.C. (WPDE) — A community art project with roots in Florence County is now on display on one of the nation’s biggest cultural stages.
ArtFields, the nationally recognized art festival based in Lake City, was selected as South Carolina’s official host for the National Scrollathon, a collaborative artmaking project that brings together people from across the country to share their stories through fabric scrolls.
The project is now being unveiled at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., giving Lake City and the Pee Dee region a place in a nationwide artistic celebration.
Created by brothers and artists Steven and William Ladd, Scrollathon invites participants to design personal fabric scrolls that reflect their experiences, hopes and dreams.
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The individual pieces are then combined into a larger work of art that represents communities from across the United States.
Earlier this year, dozens of residents in Lake City participated in the project through an initiative called “Tied Together,” creating scrolls that shared their personal stories and connections to their community.
Carla Angus, an ArtFields consultant, said the project’s impact comes from bringing people together through creativity and storytelling.
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“Everyone who was invited receives these strips of material and fabric, and they select their colors, they select what they want to put together and they create a story behind their scroll,” Angus said. “That’s what’s so powerful about the project because it brings all these different people together with different backgrounds and different experiences.”
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In addition to Lake City, Scrollathon events were held at other South Carolina cultural institutions, including the Gibbes Museum of Art and the International African American Museum.
Now, those local contributions are part of a much larger display.
More than 250,000 participants from all 50 states and U.S. territories contributed to the National Scrollathon.
The collection is being showcased at the Kennedy Center, where visitors can experience what organizers describe as a visual representation of the American story.
For Angus, seeing scrolls created in Lake City displayed alongside contributions from across the country is a proud moment.
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“When I look at those scrolls, I know those are thousands upon thousands of individuals that have shared their stories,” Angus said. “Now they have become one unified piece of artwork.”
Angus described the experience as surreal and said it demonstrates how art can connect people regardless of where they come from.
“It’s almost surreal because what we want to do is connect people through the arts,” Angus said. “To be a part of something that is so large, bringing so many states together, it shows how powerful art can be.”
The National Scrollathon will remain on display through Labor Day as part of the Kennedy Center’s yearlong celebration of America’s 250th anniversary and the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
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For Lake City and Florence County residents, the exhibit represents an opportunity to see their stories become part of a national conversation, one scroll at a time.
