Ohio Catholic Charities joins national pilot program to help moms out of poverty

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 19, 2025 / 10:00 am (CNA).

Catholic Charities in Youngstown, Ohio, will join a new pilot study, Lifting Moms Out of Poverty (LMOP), a program developed by Catholic Charities USA, in a bid to offer aid to mothers with small children.

“The intent of the program from Catholic Charities USA is to evaluate the effectiveness of programs that support young families with kiddos under 3 years of age,” Rick Squier, the executive director of the Catholic Charities serving Portage and Stark counties, told CNA.

“I’m excited that we have the opportunity to do this,” Squier said. “We’re going to be able to quantify the results of the program and say that when we do our financial literacy program with young families over the course of 18 months, they see dramatic increases in their ability to overcome when life happens.” 

“And then we have the opportunity to go out and write grants” based on the successful results, he said.

The pilot program will run for 18 months and will monitor the status of at least 20 families. Each family will take three surveys over the course of the year and a half with the goal of determining improvement in financial literacy, emotional perspective, and parenting skills. 

The agency serving Portage and Stark counties is currently monitoring 38 families and is using a combination of internal funds along with a $75,000 grant from Catholic Charities USA. 

According to Squier, 100% of these funds go toward the direct support of the families in the form of rent and utilities, transportation, education, or other similar core costs. 

Squier said the pilot program will be adapted to existing ones. First Step for Families, which already serves families in Portage and Stark counties, will benefit from the program. 

“What we did is take this program that already exists and add a little bit more client management into it … with our case workers,” he explained. 

“Now, they’re just spending a little bit more time and effort in connecting with the families and really working with them on the financial portion, the parenting portion, and seeing what we can do to alleviate the barriers that exist in their situation to get them ahead and get them to be more resilient.” 

At the end of the pilot program, The Catholic University of America will evaluate the results in order to formulate recommendations to send to Catholic Charities agencies in other dioceses. 

Ultimately, Squier said he hopes the pilot program will “really enable us to see what works best, so that we can provide support … lifting moms out of poverty.”