photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

Douglas County commissioners met on Wednesday, April 16, 2025.

Douglas County commissioners authorized staff on Wednesday to use outside grant funding to continue exploring the idea of a guaranteed income pilot program for low-income single mothers.

During their meeting on Wednesday, commissioners approved a subgrant agreement with the International City/County Management Association for what’s called the Economic Mobility Community and Opportunity Peer Learning cohort and mini grant program. Douglas County has been selected as one of 15 local governments across the U.S. to participate in the initiative, which aims to give local governments resources to find ways to enhance economic mobility for their residents.

According to a memo in the agenda, a part of the program will give Douglas County up to $24,000 to advance a project to improve the financial stability of county residents. Douglas County Administrator Jill Jolicoeur said there were two projects the county was continuing to explore — a guaranteed income pilot program for low-income single mothers or a child care scholarship fund.

During the 2025 legislative session, the Kansas Legislature passed House Bill 2101, which now prohibits any city or county from using tax dollars to fund guaranteed income programs unless the Legislature gives prior approval. County staff said it did not foresee using taxpayer dollars to fund a guaranteed income pilot program, and Jolicoeur said this grant wouldn’t be used to implement an actual guaranteed income program, either.

“We will not have the capacity or ability to implement a guaranteed income pilot with this grant,” Jolicoeur said.

Instead, the funding will help the county survey community members, especially the population it’s trying to help — low-income single mothers. The county will look to further understand their experiences and identify opportunities to help their economic well-being, Jolicoeur said.

Jolicoeur said there’s still a lot of work to be done to better understand what the solutions are, but this opportunity is a good start.

“We may at some point decide a guaranteed income program may not be the most impactful way to positively influence economic mobility in our priority population, but right now, that does continue to be the strategy that we’ve identified, (that) we’re going to keep working towards and studying,” Jolicoeur said.

The idea of a guaranteed income program for single mothers in Douglas County was proposed as part of the five-year Community Health Improvement Plan last fall. The plan’s poverty work group wanted to devote more resources to helping single mothers living below what’s called the “ALICE threshold.”

“ALICE” stands for “Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed” and refers to people who are above the federal poverty line but still don’t make enough money to cover the basic cost of living in their community. Over five years, the plan’s goal is to decrease the percentage of single mothers in Douglas County below this threshold from 64% to 50%.

Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health Executive Director Jonathan Smith said in a press release from the county that the grant and peer learning opportunity will be a “big boost” to the work happening with the community health plan.

“It gives us new tools and connections to support families who are navigating tough economic challenges,” Smith said in the release. “We’re excited to keep pushing for solutions that make Douglas County a place where everyone has a real shot at stability and opportunity.”

County Commissioner Shannon Reid said she was excited about the opportunity and hopeful for what staff would learn while being a part of the peer learning program.

The news release said Jolicoeur and Deputy County Administrator Sean Pederson will collaborate with the community health plan’s anti-poverty work group to develop the ideas, and a final report detailing outcomes and expenditures will be submitted by the end of the year.

Grant funding has helped stakeholders in Douglas County explore the idea of a guaranteed income program before — a $10,000 grant in 2024 to the United Way of Kaw Valley. The funding was used for some initial outreach and feedback efforts, including a series of so-called “data walks” along with screenings of a documentary, “It’s Basic,” which looks at pilot programs in other communities that have tested the effects of giving people an extra $500 to $1,000 a month with no strings attached.