According to the U.S. Census, 40% of children in Kansas City are growing up in single-parent homes, compared to a national average of 34% (American Community Survey, 2019). This statistic has far-reaching implications for lifelong health and well-being. The Annie E. Casey Foundation reports that “children raised in single-parent homes are more likely to drop out of school, to have or cause a teen pregnancy and to experience a divorce in adulthood” (Kids Count, 2020). Single-mother families make up 75% of the single-parent families in Kansas City and are about five times as likely to experience poverty as married-parent families (U.S. Census Bureau, Income and Poverty in the U.S., 2015). Poverty increases a mother’s stress in a variety of ways, including job loss, unhealthy housing, dangerous neighborhoods, conflict with partners and other negative life events, which thereby leads to mental illness and depression (Linver, Brooks-Gunn, Kohen, 2002). This is particularly true when single mothers do not have access to supportive networks (Brown, Moran, 1997).
Our Founding
The Single Mom KC (TSMKC) was founded in 2009 by Misty Honnold in defiance of these troubling statistics. Misty, a single mom, knew first-hand the exhaustion and isolation that came with bearing the full responsibility of parenthood and provision for a family. She was determined to create a different story for herself and her children. Misty’s efforts kicked off a movement for other single-mom families, and soon a grassroots organization of women were coming together to provide hope, courage, and community to each other.
Our Programming
Today, TSMKC has formalized its foundational priorities of hope, courage, and community into a comprehensive, holistic program that equips families with spiritual and emotional growth. TSMKC invites the 61,600+ single-mother families in the KC metro area to join together in communities of solid, stable, growing families to break the patterns of the past. TSMKC is peer led and highly collaborative, with trained single-mother leaders implementing a majority of its programming.
The Single Mom KC seeks to serve holistically, empowering and encouraging single moms in every area of their lives. It does this by providing:
- Connection and community with other moms
- Workshops that embrace, educate, nourish, and offer hope
- Practical, spiritual and leadership development opportunities
- Children’s programs for kids to explore and grow
- Clothed with Dignity Boutique where moms can “shop” for free every month
- A faith-based organization
