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Our Story
Helping Erie's Mothering women break barriers, achieve their personal, professional, and parenting goals, and transform their lives and their families!
Founded through a grassroots effort to foster a caring community surrounding all Mothers, Erie City Moms (ECM) supports, uplifts, and champions Mother Figures from all walks of life. We convene up to 30 Moms Groups annually across Erie’s most disinvested neighborhoods and conduct mentoring, advocacy, basic needs, and housing initiatives to help propel Mother Figures forward. These investments in Erie’s Mothers not only transform women but also the people they love and the spaces where they live, work, serve, worship, and play.
Just one beautiful story of hope, meet longtime member, Alondra. When ECM first heard about her, Alondra was pregnant and homeless, sleeping between her truck and one of our leader’s couches. She had a good job but life's circumstances had created a seemingly insurmountable situation for her and her kids. In fall 2016, she found an apartment to share with her then-infant and elementary-age daughter. ECM provided furniture and groceries, and an invite to join our Moms Group, Moms Night Out. Alondra became an active member and quickly connected with ECM mentors. Together, they walked through job losses and wins, relationship challenges, parenting hurdles, balancing a budget, repairing her credit, and growing her leadership skills. She soon was serving as a leader at ECM and was eventually paid as our first Moms Group Director. With the help of Good Friends from Coldwell Banker Select, Alondra became a first-generation Black single-mother homeowner in 2021.
While our work in Erie's urban core began in 2016, we received our 501c3 in 2022. Since inception, we've built relationships with and advocated on behalf of more than 1,000 Mother Figures and 2,500 children, working with them to meet their goals and improve their lives.
ECM’s work is preventative and impacts the local economy. When an urban mother is stable and thriving, she has a positive social and economic impact on nearly every arena of her life including her children, their inner-city school, her workplace, their neighborhood, and the city and region. Erie City Moms’ work also relates to the social determinants of health (SDOH), non-medical factors that influence health outcomes for women and their children, such as isolation, housing, education, and social capital.
Moms Groups
ECM launched its first Moms Group, Moms Night Out, in 2016 on Erie's lower Eastside with a small group of diverse moms, grandmas, and aunts committed to building a community together. ECM's second and third Moms groups, Mingle with Moms, began in 2019 when the nonprofit was awarded the distinguished designation of a United Way Community School Partner. All Moms Groups include free dinner, childcare, transportation if needed, a story of hope and resiliency, and connections to healthy community and local resources.
Mentoring
Erie City Moms' programming also includes The Good Friend Initiative, one-on-one and group mentoring focused on braving maternal mental health and wellbeing, increasing social capital and community resources, gaining financial literacy, building job skills, improving caregiving skills, and increasing independence.
Housing
Erie City Moms assembled a formal Housing Team in 2021 comprised of realtors, business leaders, lawyers, contractors, and churches to tackle many home safety and quality-of-life issues for members struggling with housing insecurity and homelessness. A few tactics we use, include:
• Secure and pay for apartment rental.
• Educate and equip Mothers in the following topics: Financial literacy (including credit repair), home maintenance, first-time home buying, home ownership, physical and mental health services as needed, and community support systems/services.
• Help Moms invest in the community/neighborhood they live in through community events and volunteerism.
• Create a safety and quality-of-life checklist that includes items, such as smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, first aid kits, age-appropriate child safety hardware, and a washer and dryer.
• Establish relationships with quality landlords.
As needs increased, Erie City Moms' Housing Team expanded its goals to help Moms attain homeownership–true housing security, In August 2023, we purchased and began renovating a blighted 2,624 square-foot property at 226 East 10th Street in Erie. This two-unit residence will be used to house qualifying families and help them save and traing for homeownership. Called H.O.M.E.: Home Ownership for Mothers in Erie, qualifying women will be equipped to purchase a home of their own anywhere in Erie County within 24 months.