ARK of the Family

Poverty is measured in the United States by comparing a person's or family's income to a set poverty threshold or minimum amount of income needed to cover basic needs. People whose income falls under their threshold are considered poor. The U.S. Census Bureau is the government agency in charge of measuring poverty.

One in three kids — near­ly 24 mil­lion kids total — lives with a sin­gle par­ent, most­ly sin­gle moms. In fact, accord­ing to 2022 Cen­sus Bureau data, of the 10.9 mil­lion one-par­ent fam­i­lies with chil­dren under age 18, 80% were head­ed by a moth­er. This makes women the more fre­quent cus­to­di­al par­ent and the major­i­ty of those who need child support.

ARK Of The Family is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Hurst TX. We are committed to helping disadvantaged children and the moms who raise them have more opportunities and the resources they need.

Sin­gle-par­ent fam­i­lies, espe­cial­ly sin­gle-mom house­holds, are more like­ly to live in pover­ty com­pared to mar­ried-par­ent house­holds. For chil­dren, the con­se­quences of pover­ty are pro­found. A large body of research shows that kids who grow up poor are more like­ly to have:

Phys­i­cal, men­tal and behav­ioral health problems,

Dis­rupt­ed brain development,

Poor aca­d­e­m­ic performance,

Con­tact with the child wel­fare and jus­tice systems,

Employ­ment chal­lenges in adulthood,

And more.

Child sup­port can be a crit­i­cal source of income for sin­gle par­ents who may be strug­gling to pay for their children’s basic needs while also pur­su­ing eco­nom­ic stability.