The San Mateo County Baby Bonus Program is an innovative, locally focused demonstration project focused on understanding the value of cash aid and early childhood supports for new parents.
The Baby Bonus program provides monthly cash gifts and coordinated care supports for new parents. This program will offer these supports to parents to give them a little bit of flexibility and ease financial stress.
The evidence shows that giving people regular guaranteed income can improve their health and well-being. Studies, like the Baby’s First Years project, have found that giving low-income caregivers monthly cash helps them with parenting and supports their children’s brain development. The Child Tax Credit, which gave similar cash benefits, has also been shown to improve parents’ mental health.
San Mateo County has one of the greatest income disparities in the country. The cost of living can be extremely high, especially for families raising children. There is a growing body of evidence that family income impacts children’s attention, self-regulation, school performance, and long-term achievement. This is a barrier to the well-being of many children in San Mateo County. Between 5-10% of children live in poverty, and many more face economic insecurity. 28% of children 0–5 in San Mateo County are enrolled in Medi-Cal.
The Baby Bonus program mitigates that disparity by providing flexible income to families. It’s about making it easier for parents in their baby’s earliest years, so that their children can thrive.
San Mateo’s Pilot Program goes beyond existing baby bonus pilots by pairing unconditional cash gifts with coordinated care in the first three years of life. Our Baby Bonus Program takes an integrated approach to supporting families. By providing both guaranteed income and coordinated care, we are able to explore ways to reduce child poverty in our county.
The Baby Bonus Pilot will begin in early 2025. Throughout the pilot, we will be collecting data and stories from the families in this program to understand how important financial stability and accessible care can be to children.
Some participants will be invited to enroll in the randomized controlled trial, so we can compare different groups in terms of social and health outcomes. This includes things like food security, child welfare, mental health, and how often they visit the doctor. A team of experts from Stanford in early childhood psychology, pediatrics, economics, epidemiology, and public health has put together our evaluation plan. If you want more details about how we’ll measure these outcomes, contact us.
The Core Team partners are responsible for collaboratively designing, planning, and coordinating the Baby Bonus program. The following organizations participate in the Core Team, along with faculty from Stanford University.
First 5 San Mateo County has convened a diverse group of leaders with expertise encompassing guaranteed income programs, early childhood, children and family health, business, economics, and local community needs. This committee offers ongoing input to the design, evaluation, and resulting policy recommendations of the Baby Bonus Program.
Belinda Ariagas, LCSW, EdD
Founder and Executive Director, ALAS
Michelle Blakely
Deputy Director, First 5 San Mateo County
Joyce Cabrera
Parent Advocate and Social Worker
Lisa Chamberlain, MD, MPH
Director, Office for Child Health Equity, Stanford Department of Pediatrics, and Associate Director, Stanford Center for Early Childhood
Colleen Chawla
Chief, San Mateo County Health Department
Sophie Cole, MD
Volunteer Physician, Samaritan House Free Clinic, and Mayor, Town of Hillsborough
Noelia Corzo
San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, District 2
Claire A. Cunningham, JD
Director, San Mateo County Human Services Agency
Patrick Curran, MPH
CEO, Health Plan of San Mateo
Rosanne Foust
President and CEO, San Mateo County Economic Development Association
Kitty Lopez
Executive Director, First 5 San Mateo County
Lenny Mendonca, MBA
Former Chief Economic and Business Advisor, Governor Gavin Newsom
Ray Mueller, JD
San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, District 3
Melanie Jimenez Perez, MPA
Program Manager, Santa Clara County Executive’s Office
Jim Pugh, PhD
Co-founder and Executive Director, Universal Income Project
Jackie Speier
San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, District 1
Former Congresswoman and Founder, Jackie Speier Foundation
Reshma Thadani, MD, MPH
Physician, Stanford University School of Medicine and Ravenswood Family Health Network
We are grateful to the generous funders of this Baby Bonus pilot program: Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, First 5 San Mateo County, Health Plan of San Mateo, Jackie Speier Foundation, San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, San Mateo County Health, Silicon Valley Community Foundation, and Sobrato Philanthropies, as well as support from Stanford and an anonymous donor.
Your support is instrumental in helping families across San Mateo County, ensuring that children and families have access to the resources they need to thrive from birth. This program is a testament to the collective commitment to early childhood development and the belief that investing in our youngest residents is investing in the future of our entire community. Thank you for making this transformative initiative possible!
If you are interested in contributing to this program, please contact Sheryl Young, Philanthropic Ventures Foundation and Jackie Speier Foundation at syoung@venturesfoundation.org or (650) 245-9090.
The San Mateo County Baby Bonus Pilot Program grew out of listening sessions that former Congresswoman Jackie Speier held with women that are low-income to inform the focus of her work and new foundation. As a result of those listening sessions, she convened the Imagine San Mateo County Rising: Ending Child Poverty Summit on August 18th, 2023. The summit was co-sponsored by Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the County of San Mateo, Eustace-Kwan Family Foundation, Kaiser Permanente, Philanthropic Ventures Foundation, and the San Mateo County Office of Education. At that time, she announced the seed funding for the Baby Bonus Program initiative.
With 25 years of expertise in early childhood systems and family support, First 5 San Mateo County was asked to manage the planning and implementation of the pilot program. First 5 San Mateo County currently leads the Core Team, which includes Health Plan of San Mateo, San Mateo County Health, San Mateo County Human Services Agency, Stanford Medicine Children’s Health, and the Jackie Speier Foundation.
This Core Team listened to San Mateo County families of children ages 0-3, that are eligible for or enrolled in Medi-Cal, to understand their needs and preferences, as well as researched other national studies and pilots of basic income programs. This group then is using that information to co-design the pilot program, including the evaluation of the program and any resulting policy recommendations that will come from it.
For general questions about the program, please contact First 5 San Mateo County at first5smc@smcgov.org. Please note that we cannot assist with enrollment into the pilot program.
© 2024 First 5 San Mateo County
Kitty Lopez has served as the Executive Director of First 5 San Mateo County since 2013, focusing on strategic investing, community leadership, policy and advocacy development for young children, 0-5, and their families.
Kitty has served as Co-Chair of the Advisory Body for Build Up for San Mateo County Children’s Initiative, with Board of Supervisor, Dave Pine, since 2018. Congressman Kevin Mullin is Honorary Co-Chair. This initiative was established to preserve, grow, and increase the number of early care sites in San Mateo County.
Kitty previously served as the Executive Director of Samaritan House, one of San Mateo County’s leading Core Service Agencies and safety-net nonprofits serving low-income families and individuals with food, shelter, clothing, health care, counseling, education classes, and holiday assistance from 2002 to 2013.
Kitty taught kindergarten, second grade, and high school in southern California and San Francisco and was a consultant in schools with children who have autism and special needs. Additionally, Kitty worked in a residential substance abuse treatment center in San Francisco and psychiatric hospital for children and youth in San Diego. Kitty’s roots in supporting children began as a 16-year-old volunteer at the Braille Institute in Los Angeles where she taught swimming to children and adults with visual impairments.
She attended University of California Santa Barbara earning a California Teaching Credential and B.A in Psychology. Kitty is active in her community serving as Vice Chair of the San Mateo County Event Center, and Past President and Current Member of the San Mateo Rotary Club. She is currently serving as Past President of the First 5 Association of California. On March 2022, Assembly Speaker pro Tem Kevin Mullin selected Kitty Lopez as the 2022 Assembly District 22 Woman of the Year.
