I recently celebrated my 10-year anniversary serving as the President and CEO at New Moms. As I reflect on a decade of leading New Moms, I’m filled with a profound sense of gratitude for the journey. Our core values of love, grit, possibility, connection, and equity are the guiding force behind our work with the remarkable young mothers and their children we have the privilege to support. And over the last decade, I’ve watched New Moms become an even more distinctive and special place, with a nationally recognized model. Serving in this role has been the biggest privilege of my professional life. The New Moms community is full of grace, goodwill, and a relentless push toward excellence, and I’m grateful to be part of this unique and wonderful team.

Perhaps the question I’m often asked in my role is: “How do you know if New Moms is making a difference for the young families you serve?”

While I often find myself sharing data about our impact — our exceptional results on family well-being, economic mobility, and family stability measures — that presents an incomplete picture. Sometimes I give an example of a recent young family we served through a story about how their life changed as the result of accomplishing their goals. But that too, just tells part of the story.

The real answer is I can’t tell you…yet.

Because things, especially big, hard life transitions, take time. Getting a degree can lead to better job opportunities. Better financial options can ensure that you stay housed and have enough money for the essentials. And the stability of all these factors increases the emotional resources parents have for their children. But all these things take hard work, goal-driven persistence, and time.

We know that we’re just part of the story of a young family at New Moms. Our participants do the hard work and we come alongside them during a chapter on their journey — supporting, coaching, and cheering them on as they work to build strong families. And the result of their hard work? The impact of New Moms? That we will more fully know in a generation.

What I do know is that because of the support of New Moms, we are privileged to witness the beginning of this generational change. Dominique is now living in her own apartment and is beginning her career in her first job. Latoya refers back to the skills she learned at New Moms seven years ago which helped her weather job transitions during COVID and persist to pursue a career where she finds great opportunity — she’s even saving for a down payment on a home for her and her three boys! I do know that moms in our programs consistently express an increased confidence in their ability to lead their families and navigate the very real challenges that life brings their way. And I know that New Moms’ outcomes consistently surpass national averages compared to programs doing similar work. I know, because of each story, and the robust data that we collect, that New Moms is making a significant impact in this critical time in the life of a young family. It is this community of support that gives a young mom the space that she needs to build a foundation that will give her stability when she moves past her time with us.

New Moms celebrated our 40th anniversary last year, a natural moment to look back. Stories like Eliza’s, who was a young mom in our programs in 1995 and now provides leadership to New Moms as a member of our board of directors, show us that only when we look back can we really see the lasting impact of our work. We can see how an entire family was changed by their interaction with New Moms, and the children that were part of our community 25 years ago are now thriving adults. Multi-generational change is the long-game, and we’re here for it.

So, while 10 years feels like a long time, it’s not long enough to know the full impact. I’m going to stick around for a while longer because I want in on the impact — I want to be part of ensuring that every young family thrives.

Thank you for being part of this journey with me. Stick around and be part of the change!

With gratitude & hope,

Laura Zumdahl, Ph.D.
President & CEO

As part of our 2022 Valentine’s Day Celebration, young moms in our Academic Coaching program were asked to write love letters to themselves and/or to their children. Here are Amber’s letters in her own words:

Write a Love Letter to Your Children

To my children, my daughters, without you all I’m nothing. Everything I do is for you. I will keep going. I won’t give up. I am here through it all. Sick, hurt, happy, sad, mad, I’m here and always will be. Your pure little hearts. I can’t wait to see who you will become. You can do anything you put your mind to. You are beautiful and intelligent and just know I love you and always will.

Write a Love Letter to Yourself

To me, you’re strong. You have a good heart. You’re the best mother you can be. Your heart is pure and you love hard. Though your days get harder, have faith in yourself, put your best foot forward, and go get what you want. Your kind, sweet, and loving. It will pay off soon.

One in five college students in the United States are parents, and often schools cannot fully provide the kind of support young parents need to ensure success. Currently, only 8% of single mother students in Illinois complete an Associate degree within six years, compared to 60% of students without children, according to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. Additionally, one in three black women in college — who are already underrepresented in higher education because of systemic racism and historic barriers — are single parents. New Moms’ Academic Coaching program was created to address this disparity.

“We believe intentional investment in the postsecondary persistence and achievement of young moms will have lasting positive influences on families and communities,” said Gabrielle Caverl-McNeal, Senior Director of Employment and Academic Coaching at New Moms. 

New Moms serves young moms and children who are experiencing poverty and/or homelessness. When they come to us, 97% are experiencing extreme poverty. Approximately 50% have dropped out of school, while 50% have high school diploma/GEDs, and are eligible for postsecondary education. 100% report trauma histories. Their grit and determination have carried them this far, but unstable situations, toxic stress, and systemic barriers limit their abilities to handle the small things, and develop long-term habits that will lead to success.

Postsecondary degree completion has outsized return on investment (ROI). Single mothers in Illinois holding an Associate or Bachelor degree are 45% & 67% less likely, respectively, to live in poverty than high school graduates. 

This is why ECMC Foundation, which is funding a significant portion of the pilot program, is making this investment in the postsecondary persistence, anticipating that this will lead to more mothers of color graduating from college and working in family-sustaining, living wage jobs. This pilot program is also funded in part by the State of Illinois.

Together with the City Colleges of Chicago, New Moms is piloting a three-year program, with the goal of increasing degree attainment for young moms in Chicagoland. The results of this project will have important implications for the national conversation on how to support young moms pursuing degrees and will be evaluated by Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago.

“City Colleges of Chicago is dedicated to eliminating barriers and addressing inequities that impact access to higher education for underserved communities,” said Juan Salgado, Chancellor of the City Colleges of Chicago. “We are grateful to partner with New Moms in the mission to increase entry to college. The new Academic Coaching program is a powerful example of our shared investment in supporting young parents as they pursue their education.”

The pilot will recruit 25 Chicagoland young moms pursuing a long-term academic certificate or Associate degree. Participants will work with coaches to select the accredited institution of whose schedules, course offerings, and credentialing align with their goals. Most have selected City Colleges of Chicago, a partner of New Moms. During the program, each participant will receive monthly support, including a $500 monthly stipend while enrolled in the program, individual and group coaching, as well as transportation and childcare support. Young moms will remain enrolled in the program for up to 3 years, or until they complete their degree, with additional follow-up support offered post-graduation.

“Research shows that holistic support, including financial support, is one of the most effective ways to improve outcomes for low-income students,” Gabrielle Caverl-McNeal said. “Student-parents facing scarcity and poverty achieve their goals more frequently when their environments are less stressful, when they have the support of positive relationships, and when they have developed core life skills.”

These brain and behavioral science-based principles — reducing sources of stress, building responsive relationships, and strengthening core life skills — provide the basis for the Academic Coaching program. 

“New Moms has successfully integrated insights  from brain and behavioral science into our existing programs and we’ve seen the positive impact on young moms and their children,” said Melanie Garrett, Chief Program Officer at New Moms. “These include increased feelings of belonging and connection, economic mobility, and family well-being.”

Evaluation of this project will have significant implications for the fields of postsecondary persistence and workforce development. Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago will conduct a formative evaluation of the pilot, which will include the collection and analysis of qualitative data. This will be done in two rounds of interviews with a sample that includes both program participants and young mothers who are not enrolled in the program and with program staff and community college personnel. They will analyze the data and present their findings in an interim report and a final report which will be made publicly available.

New Moms and its partners are excited to begin this three year journey and look forward to contributing to the national conversation on how to support young moms as they pursue degrees.

ABOUT ECMC FOUNDATION

ABOUT CHAPIN HALL

If you have any additional questions, please contact Jenna Hammond, New Moms’ Director of Development & Communications, at jhammond@newmoms.org or 773.413.3451 ext. 114.

By: Ashlee Krawczyk, Employer Engagement Specialist

In the previous two entries in this series we highlighted companies like MaidPro and Rush University Medical Center which understand the workforce was not built for working mothers – inflexible schedules, strict 90 day probation policies, and access to quality jobs are just a few of the barriers our moms face – and have made adjustments to create accessibility. 

These companies offer our moms quality jobs, professional development and networking opportunities. Moms can also count on these employers to understand their role as mothers, hear their concerns and make adjustments for them. 

Helping families achieve economic mobility is just one of the benefits of our employer partnerships. Our employers also see benefits when partnering with our Job Training Program including saved time and money. Our Job Training team acts as an extension of an employers’ HR department and all of our services are free. 

New Moms not only refers candidates for positions, but also prescreens their qualifications for employers. Our Career Coaches play a large role in job matching, so we only refer candidates we feel would be a good fit for a position.

“As Career Coaches, we work diligently to ensure that our candidates have addressed any situations that may be a hindrance to a successful career with our employer partners,” said Musa Macenyane, a Career Coach at New Moms. “We also provide ongoing support for both employees and employers to ensure a long and successful partnership.”

Jennie Misner, Owner of Venture Imports, LLC and New Moms employer partner said, “Our main mission has always been to employ people in the Global South. As we’ve grown, I realized we should extend our mission to the US. Our company is all about creating employment so New Moms was a perfect fit.”

Misner came to New Moms in early 2019 looking for a Warehouse Assistant. She said that other organizations could offer temporary workers, but New Moms had candidates looking for permanent, long-term positions.

“We were quite desperate for warehouse help and I didn’t have time to even do interviews,” Misner said. “New Moms was recommended to us by another community organization, and they were a lifesaver! They were able to almost immediately recommend someone to help us out.”

Julissa is a job training alum who has worked at Venture Imports for over a year and a half now. As a Warehouse Assistant, Julissa handles online orders, enters shipping information, prints invoices and packs orders accordingly. Julissa said she enjoys moving around and learning new things at work each day and appreciates the flexibility of her job. 

“Being a mom and working is pretty stressful at times, especially when things come up like me or my daughter being sick or having no childcare,” Julissa said. “Unlike other jobs I’ve had before, [Jennie] has always been understanding and compassionate. She makes sure I’m okay, and if for any reason I need to leave, she completely understands. I also have the opportunity to make up my hours if I need to.” 

Julissa also credits New Moms for her success on the job. From communicating with supervisors to taking accountability for her actions, Julissa said that New Moms prepared her for her role at Venture. 

“[New Moms] taught me about time management, which I use every day to get tasks done around the warehouse,” Julissa said. “Also, New Moms helped me learn to cope with mom life and work and dealing with stress.”

Both Jennie and Julissa encourage others to partner with New Moms, either as an employer or a participant. Both acknowledge that New Moms contributed to Julissa’s smooth transition into permanent employment. 

“I’m grateful for having the opportunity to work at Venture,” Julissa said. “I have learned so much and enjoy coming to work everyday. If it wasn’t for [New Moms], I wouldn’t have found this job and been prepared for it.” 

If your business is interested in becoming an employer partner, you can fill out our “Hire a Graduate” form through our website. A member of the Job Training team will connect with you about next steps and answer all of your questions! 

Check out our other employer partner spotlights – MaidPro and Rush.

By: Ashlee Krawczyk, New Moms Employer Engagement Specialist

A mom’s journey toward success doesn’t end once she graduates from our Job Training program. Most of the time, her career is just beginning, and employers can play a huge role in her long-term success. 

Being an employer partner is a unique way to make a long-term commitment to New Moms and the young moms we serve. We have a number of partner companies and organizations, both large and small, who are dedicated to hiring young moms from our Job Training program. 

In this series, we connected with a few of our employer partners to discuss how they began their partnership with New Moms, how the partnership changed their workplace and why hiring from the community is important to them. 

Christian Harris, the owner of MaidPro, a family-run cleaning service located in Oak Park since 2013 said he first heard about New Moms a few years ago while working with the Oak Park Homelessness Coalition. Since then, Harris has been an active employer partner with New Moms. He has not only attended New Moms resource and job fairs but has also interviewed and hired our moms. 

“When I heard about the New Moms mission, I realized that it would be a perfect partnership,” Harris said. “We are able to offer stable employment and schedules that won’t infringe on their most important job — motherhood.” 

Harris said it’s important that he creates a sense of job stability and security for the moms he hires. He recognizes that the first job of any mother is just that — to be a mother. By providing a flexible schedule that doesn’t require working nights or weekends, moms don’t have to choose between being a present mom and keeping their job. 

“As a result, moms with young children have been interested in working with us over the past 7 years,” Harris said. “This allows them to still pick up their kids after school, make it to the evening sporting event, take the kids to the park on the weekend, or take the day off to care for a sick child.”

Harris also said partnering with New Moms has changed how MaidPro approaches certain policies and processes. 

“When we began hiring from New Moms, we realized that [the young moms] all wanted to be excellent employees,” Harris said. “However, we never explicitly told them exactly what we expected from them.”

Harris said that MaidPro is now more intentional about explaining their expectations to staff from the beginning. Their onboarding process now includes Expectation Contracts to ensure management and staff are on the same page. 

This passion, flexibility and innovation are what make MaidPro a great employer partner for New Moms. Harris is willing to make changes to his company to create a more equitable and accessible workforce, especially for young mothers. 

“We can only exist because of community support, and it is important for us to show that same support to our community,” Harris said.

By working with strong community leaders like Harris, our moms are able to connect with employers who are dedicated to helping them succeed. 

If your business is interested in becoming an employer partner, you can fill out our “Hire a Graduate” form through our website. A member of the Job Training team will connect with you about next steps and answer all of your questions!

Check out our other employer partner spotlights – Rush and Venture Imports, LLC.

By: Ashlee Krawczyk, Employer Engagement Specialist

In our last employer spotlight, we highlighted Christian Harris’ work towards creating a more equitable and accessible workplace for his employees at MaidPro. By adjusting schedules and setting clear expectations, Harris established an environment of flexibility and communication — two things everyone needs to be successful at work, especially young mothers.

Based on our 24 years of workforce development experience, we know those aren’t the only factors that lead to success for young moms. Company culture and values are every bit as important to a mom’s prosperity as a flexible schedule. 

At New Moms, we acknowledge the intersections of race and poverty through our own commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and it is important that our employer partners not only value diversity, but also embrace, understand and work towards equity in their workplace. We want to partner with companies and organizations who are committed to closing gaps and bridging divides. 

Rush University Medical Center is a good example of how to build equity in the workplace. Rush is one of the top healthcare providers in the nation with three main hospital sites across Chicagoland. Rush has a deep understanding of the social disparities faced by Chicago’s West Side communities and has committed to working with organizations like New Moms to develop health equity and close the life expectancy gap.

This past year, Rush implemented the Rush Community Application Hub (RCAH) to connect the West Side community with quality healthcare jobs. Chanel Smith, a Talent Acquisition Consultant at Rush, spearheaded the program to push Rush’s commitment to equity even further. Her main job at Rush is to pre-screen candidates for various roles around the medical center. She also leads the RCAH program and creates partnerships with community-based organizations on the West Side. 

Smith said she learned about New Moms while working at another organization which provides services to youth-in-care and parenting youth. When she began working on RCAH, she knew she wanted to include New Moms as a community partner. She was already familiar with the population we serve and knew that they need access to quality job opportunities.

Smith also said the work New Moms is doing to partner with young moms for long term success is aligned with Rush’s mission to engage, serve and build a stronger West Side. 

“New Moms is working to provide opportunities and resources to those who may otherwise not have them, and would fall victim to the disparities we see too often,” Smith said. “A job that provides economic value and presents the pathway to a career can be very instrumental in the growth of individuals, families, and communities.”

By creating the RCAH, Smith can now hire qualified candidates directly referred by New Moms and other community-based organizations. As a result of this partnership, our job training program has seen a steady pipeline of interviews and employment offers in the last year. Smith’s work has increased access to quality healthcare jobs for those who may not have considered Rush as a potential employer before. 

“Prior to the collaboration with New Moms, Rush had a very strong DEI culture and policies already in place,” Smith said. “[Through RCAH,] we are able to create a pipeline of qualified applicants to review for our hiring needs. It also helps us as an organization connect with the residents in a way other than providing medical services.”

The RCAH program also offers other resources to job seekers outside of job opportunities. Chanel visits New Moms every quarter to co-facilitate professional development workshops and answer questions about opportunities at Rush.

“I love connecting people to opportunities, and to share my workforce and HR industry knowledge to assist people in their development and employment advancement,” Smith said. “We believe these [sessions] will help community members boost their employment chances with not only Rush Medical Center, but other employers as well.”

If your business is interested in becoming an employer partner, you can fill out our “Hire a Graduate” form through our website. A member of the Job Training team will connect with you about next steps and answer all of your questions! 

Check out our other employer partner spotlights – MaidPro and Venture Imports, LLC.

Our nation is in pain, the city we love is in pain, and the moms and children we serve at New Moms are in pain.

Our work at New Moms is deeply generational. We have always focused on the profound and lasting change that comes from empowering 2 generations of youth, moms and their children, as they courageously follow their dreams and lead their families out of poverty. But I want to be crystal clear, the families we serve – majority of them Black – have suffered under systems that have been designed to perpetuate inequalities and disparities in their communities and families. The need for New Moms to exist is deeply connected to the impact of long-standing systemic racism and inequality in society.

To fully live into our mission at New Moms, we must be committed to challenging the systems that have oppressed the Black members of our communities for generations. We reject the continued disinvestment in Black neighborhoods and the devaluation of Black lives. We stand in solidarity with our participants, staff, and our communities and declare that Black Lives Matter and that we will continue to fight against racism that seeps into so many aspects of our lives.

We must do this together, lifting up the inherent value of the lives of the Black women and men in our communities. We must listen to, and learn from, the voices of people of color. And we must do the work to change ourselves and our communities in pursuit of the dream of the Beloved Community we hope to see fulfilled.

As the President & CEO, I am committed to leading this charge to the best of my ability. And I invite you to partner with us in championing the value and worth of the young Black lives we serve at New Moms. Your prayers, support, and willingness to listen, learn, and change are meaningful contributions to this critical work.

Grace & peace,

Laura Zumdahl, Ph.D. President & CEO

After that epiphany, I decided to learn and digest all I could about executive skills, the twelve mental abilities that enable us to organize, plan, react and get things done. Most importantly, I wanted to discover how we could maximize the strong and mitigate the weaker executive skills of our coaches and participants for better employment and retention outcomes, because ya know…workforce development! 

Brain science research demonstrates that executive skills (ES) take up to 25 years to fully develop. This means at New Moms we are particularly well suited to this work, as participants are under 25 years old and at a prime time in brain development for their Executive Skills to grow, shift, and strengthen. 

So, what are the Executive Skills? Everyone has them. These are the Executive Skills we focus on at New Moms: 

In order to learn and apply our own ES to our everyday work and interactions with each other, staff attended intensive Executive Skills training and ongoing consultation with an ES expert, Dr. Dick Guare. We began using ES words and phrases more explicitly and learning how they manifest as behaviors. We incorporated the terms “strengths” and “struggles” when discussing ES and setting SMART goals with participants and each other. We view struggles in this way:

• Ever been called lazy? Task initiation is probably an area of struggle. 
• Is a colleague annoyed with you for moving a meeting back an hour? She may struggle with flexibility. 
• Ever flip someone off in traffic? Perhaps you struggle with emotional control.  
• Your spouse or partner in constant need of validation? Metacognition is probably a struggle for them. 
• Someone asks you to repeat yourself more than twice? Working memory might be a struggle for them. 

Get the picture? 

We began to apply our knowledge of Executive Skills by modifying our program environment: simplifying forms, shifting procedures, and incorporating technology to help mitigate the effects of Executive Skills struggles. We created ES training for participants, and they facilitate daily pre-shift workshops focused on ES so they could learn to recognize and build these skills in themselves and their children. We posted an ES skills board with participants and staff to enhance understanding and visualize how these show up on teams. Participants talk openly about their Executive Skills, and we see strong gains in literacy and numeracy, employment retention, and productivity increases at our social enterprise as a result of our Executive Skills strategies.

At New Moms we believe in the strength and ability of all our participants to work towards their employment and economic goals. I invite you to learn more about why Executive Skills matter and the specific ways we address them at New Moms in our hot-off-the-press Executive Skills Implementation Case Study. We also created a companion Implementation Toolkit for our colleagues in the field to design and apply their own Executive Skills-informed strategies in their programs. By understanding how brains develop, how trauma and scarcity can affect Executive Skills, and the incredible resilience of adolescence, we can design a strengths-based workforce development program that improves outcomes for staff and participants. Join us in this movement!

– Gabrielle Caverl-McNeal, Director of Workforce Development

Watch Gabrielle talk more about Executive Skills here:

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