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December 17, 2021
- Grantee Story: Indigenous Visioning
- Mid-Grant Report and Recording
- Minnesota Department of Human Services Launches Common Application
- Trauma-Informed Toolkit: Resources for Healing Centered Practice
- Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation
- Early Childhood Education Business Support
- Coordinating Eligibility and Services: Meal Programs
- Help Me Connect
- Community Hubs
Grantee Story: Indigenous Visioning
Community Solutions for Healthy Child Development grantee, Indigenous Visioning, is partnering with the National Parent Leadership Institute to implement the Indigenous Parent Leadership Initiative with Red Lake and White Earth Nations in March. The parent leadership training integrates child development and leadership skills into a curriculum for parents and primary guardians. Read more about this program in the Rochester Post Bulletin.
Mid-Grant Report and Recording
The Preschool Development Grant is half-way through the renewal grant and has completed a Preschool Development Grant Mid-Grant Report. You can also watch a recording of a Town Hall where the information was presented (captions available in Spanish).
Minnesota Department of Human Services Launches Common Application
The Department of Human Services has launched MNbenefits, allowing users to simultaneously apply for benefits from the following nine programs in less than 12 minutes:
- Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
- Emergency Assistance
- Housing Support
- Child Care Assistance Program
- Diversionary Work Program
- General Assistance
- Minnesota Family Investment Program
- Minnesota Supplemental Aid
- Refugee Cash Assistance
The mobile-friendly application works across all browsers, computers, laptops and phones. It is available in Spanish, with more languages to come. It’s easy to upload documents. An account login is not necessary, eliminating a common barrier to access.
Trauma-Informed Toolkit: Resources for Healing Centered Practice
Visit the Minnesota Association for Children’s Mental Health's website Resources for Healing-Centered Practice to view the new Trauma Informed Toolkit, resources are added as they are developed. Resources include webinars, practical tools, podcasts, and online learning modules. The modules are aligned with the Knowledge and Competency Framework’s Content Area IX: Trauma Informed Care and Practice and will be in Develop.
Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation
Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation (IECMHC) Mental Health Consultation is a prevention service focused on building adults’ capacity to support children’s emotional development and decrease mental health challenges. It includes a combination of training, reflective consultation and skill building to support adults so they may support the social emotional development of young children. Benefits of IECMHC include:
- Reduce staff stress and turnover in child-serving agencies.
- Decrease mental health symptoms in young children.
- Reduce the educational disparities experienced by children of color.
- Reduce the expulsion of children from childcare and early learning.
- Increase early learning staff competence in addressing trauma, adversity and early childhood and family mental health conditions.
Learning communities are underway focused on school staff, child welfare workers and family, friend and neighborhood providers. This builds on existing work with child care programs. Learn more about Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation by emailing dhs.ecmh@state.mn.us for more information.
Help Me Connect
Since the launch of Help Me Connect in May 2021, the navigator has welcomed 29,000 unique visitors to the site in their search to find local early childhood and family well-being services. It's being used throughout all regions of Minnesota and has had visitors from all 50 states and 81 countries. The most commonly searched resources are autism, family home visiting, housing and food support. To date, the state has hosted over 65 trainings for providers who are working with pregnant and parenting families with young children, including staff from local public health, child welfare, early education, mental health, Head Start and health care. Learn more about upcoming trainings and the navigator on Help Me Connect.
Community Resource Hubs
Community Resource Hubs are in full implementation working towards three goals: making it easier for families to get what they need; increase access to services; and grow community engagement and feedback loops. The Hubs structure is designed to foster relationships, networking and bi-directional learning between grantees, collaborative partners and state staff. Highlights include:
- Services most asked for by families: financial assistance, health care, food and housing.
- Quarterly meetings include equity practice, evaluation, resource sharing, networking and more.
- Monthly communities of practice focus on intake and building partnerships. They also include state team time to address barriers and practice issues including childcare and workforce needs.
- Hubs participate in reflective mental health consultation.
- Robust quantitative and qualitative evaluation is taking place.
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