|
Minnesota Partnership for Adolescent and Young Adult Health |
|
|
View this as a webpage
June 2025
 Note: We are moving to a new newsletter schedule. Going forward, this newsletter will be released every other month instead of every month.
Minnesota Partnership for Adolescent and Young Adult Health (MNPAH) is an action plan to guide adolescent and young adult health in Minnesota. This collaboratively developed plan was created to motivate, engage, and inspire action. It recognizes the important contributions and amazing ideas that exist across our great state. Each month this newsletter will highlight a priority from the plan and showcase an adolescent health partner in Minnesota.
In this edition
Our featured partner for this newsletter excels in mental health and crisis response for adolescents.
First Call for Help and the Crisis Response Team of Itasca County have been providing mobile services to residents of greater Itasca County since 1999. Immediate response and rapid access to mental health supports in rural Minnesota are core components of this unique team. In the fall of 2023, they developed an Adolescent Crisis Response Team dedicated to stabilizing mental health symptoms in youth. This development was the result of an increase in support needs for youth coupled with a surge in social stressors for young people at a critical time in their lives. The response team is a specialized team of community-based providers who provide assessment, intervention, and stabilization services to youth in mental health distress or those experiencing suicidal thoughts.
The unique build of this team combines mental health assessments, chemical health assessments, 2-1-1 community resource lines, and immediate referrals into a wraparound service designed to address whole health within an easily accessible structure. Services are inclusive to all adolescents regardless of location or ability to pay. Response members are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to respond to adolescents and the families of adolescents in crisis through the utilization of their walk-in center and through mobile response that dispatches team members where the adolescents are located. Each adolescent or family defines their own level of crisis and drives the design of growth and recovery. This team goes beyond the mere provision of assessments and safety planning by providing intervention strategies and risk reduction tools, modeling supportive behaviors, and introducing harm reduction. The team also provides immediate access to screening, community education, distraction toolboxes, de-escalation techniques and supplies, and rapid access to long term community-based services. The response team offers on-going stabilization services to support the path to recovery, in addition to a family resource database filled with adolescent specific resources, education, links, and referrals.
The team has provider collaborations throughout the community, including mental health providers, faith communities, shelters, and other programs committed to ending suicides within the county. These progressive partners within the county are dedicated to being a part of the fabric of support necessary to close gaps in services and allow for the crisis team to succeed in their mission. The team works to reduce the number of youth placed out of the home, unnecessary emergency room visits, and adolescent suicides, and to expand the number of adolescents served. For more information about the Adolescent Crisis Response team, visit the First Call webpage.
|
Share your actions and success stories with the Minnesota Partnership for Adolescent Health
The Minnesota Partnership for Adolescent Health is introducing a new form for community partners to tell us how they are engaging with the partnership.
These success stories will be used to:
- Understand the Minnesota Partnership for Adolescent Health's impact.
- Continuously improve our support for the Partnership.
- Showcase work to celebrate success, make connections, and inspire others!
This form has been added to the Minnesota Partnership for Adolescent Health webpage. Please share widely with your partners!
Youth Leadership Opportunity—HealthPartners Teen Leadership Council
Applications are now open for the HealthPartners Teen Leadership Council for the 2025-2026 school year!
The leadership council is a free program for high school students across the Twin Cities and western Wisconsin who care about health, wellbeing, and creating positive change in their communities. The council is looking for teens with passion and potential—whether they’re natural leaders or just beginning to find their voice.
Do you know a teen who might be interested, or someone who just needs a little encouragement to step into their leadership potential? Share this opportunity with them!
Applications are due June 29.
Learn more and apply.
|
|
2025 Summer Institute in Adolescent Health
Shaping Healthy Communities: Unleashing the Power of Youth
In a time of rapid change, young people are navigating uncertainty and feelings of disconnection. One thing remains clear - community is a powerful source of health, wellbeing, and fulfillment. Strong communities are built on three core pillars: relationships, purpose, and civic action.
At the 2025 Adolescent Health Summer Institute, participants will explore how to strengthen these pillars with and for our young people. Attend the 2025 Summer Institute and become a catalyst for positive change as we work together to build stronger, more connected communities where all young people can thrive.
Date: July 28-31, 9 a.m.- 4 p.m.
Location: The Dakota Lodge, 1200 Stassen Ln, West St. Paul, MN 55118
Registration.
|
|
Youth intervention programs
The Minnesota Office of Justice Programs at the Minnesota Department of Public Safety is requesting proposals to fund youth intervention programs. The program aims to provide an ongoing stable funding source to community-based early intervention programs for youth. Youth Intervention Programs are non-residential programs providing advocacy, education, counseling, mentoring, and referral services. Grantees serve youth who are experiencing personal, familial, educational, legal or chemical problems. Program design may be different for the grantees depending on youth service needs of the communities being served.
Proposals are due at 4 p.m. on June 17.
Learn more and apply.
School-Based Health Center Grant
The Adolescent and School Health Unit is excited to announce a request for proposals for the Minnesota School-Based Health Center Grant (SBHC).
The goal of this grant program is to support existing SBHCs and facilitate the growth of SBHCs by establishing new or expanding existing SBHCs in Minnesota.
This funding opportunity will support two separate categories:
Category 1: New and Emerging Grant for new and emerging clinics
Category 2: Operational Clinic Grant for established and operating clinics
|
|
The Minnesota Partnership for Adolescent and Young Adult Health
This collaboratively developed plan was designed to support community-based efforts with a unifying vision, and collectively agreed-upon priorities to motivate, engage, and inspire action. Efforts can be led by a wide variety of groups such health systems, youth-serving organizations, or young people. If your agency has a program that you would like featured or an event or resource you’d like to share with this network, please send it to us at Health.AdolescentHealth@state.mn.us.
|
|
|
|
|
|
