By Marie Huey, Public Policy & Advocacy Coordinator
February’s Ann Kaner-Roth Policy hour provided an opportunity to hear from state agencies about their current early childhood projects.
Governor’s Children’s Cabinet
Stephanie Hogenson, Policy Director for the Governor’s Children’s Cabinet, started off the hour by talking about the work of the Children’s Cabinet.
The overarching goal of a Children’s Cabinet is to alignstate leaders around children and families. By better coordinating data, money,people, and policy, the cabinet seeks to make it easier for families to accessservices.
Governor Walz and Lieutenant Governor Flanagan re-launchedthe Children’s Cabinet in August 2019. They made a few structural changes tothe cabinet, which included co-chairing the cabinet and adding state agenciesto the group. The Children’s Cabinet is now comprised of commissioners from 22state agencies–every agency except for the Department of Veteran’s Affairs andthe Bureau of Mediation Services.
The commissioners convene to discuss how to better coordinate their services. Additionally, when agencies propose new policies, they are asked to explain how the proposals will impact children and families.
The Children’s Cabinet identified five priority areas to address:
- Mental health and well-being
- Access to child care and early education
- Housing stability
- Healthy beginnings (maternal and infant health)
- Educational opportunity
Using the Results Based Accountability Framework, thecabinet will work toward measurable goals both within their agencies and withthe legislature. Five cross-agency action teams are working on these goals andare made up of program staff.
The departments are currently working on fiscal mapping—adata collection tool that tags and tracks agency resources spent on childrenand families. This will help give an overarching view of how funds are spentand how they could be better coordinated. The work in all of these areas isbeing done with a goal of creating a 2021 Governor’s budget with an extremefocus on children.
The Children’s Cabinet is also interested in a pro-bonoanalysis of cross-agency licensing coordination for child care programs. Thereis a requestfor proposal (page 17) available now.
Preschool Development Grant
To update us on the Preschool Development Grant Birth toFive (PDG), Megan Waltz and Terry Roloff from the Minnesota Department of HumanServices joined the group. Minnesota received a renewal grant for the PDG tobuild on the one year planning grant which ended last year. The funding for therenewal grant is $8.9 million per year from December 31, 2019-December 20, 2022.
Like the work of the Children’s Cabinet, the PDG is across-agency effort. Staff form the Minnesota Departments of Education, Health,and Human Services are working together to move it forward along with theChildren’s Cabinet. The goal is to improve the way families connect withresources for young children. One key component of this is data infrastructure.The agencies will work to better coordinate the data thy currently collect.
Another important part of the PDG is the community hubs,called Help Me Connect. These will build off of Help Me Grow, the referral linefor children birth to age five. Help Me Connect will be implementation hubswhere families can connect in person with people who can help them navigate theresources available in their communities. There will be a relationship-basedapproach to make sure families are connected as smoothly as possible and do nothave to share their stories repeatedly in order to access what they need. HelpMe Connect will go beyond the developmental referrals of Help Me Grow toinclude other economic stability supports including housing, food assistance,etc.
Implementation hub grants will be available as part of thePDG. Existing entities can apply, or communities can create new entities tofulfill this role. The goal of the PDG is to test out some different optionsand figure out what works best in various communities throughout the state.
Additionally, the PDG includes Community Solutionssub-grants to support the legislation passed last year to address racialdisparities in outcomes of young children and families.
Workforce supports are another element of the PDG and willinclude a variety of strategies, from Mental Health Consultation to marketingto recruit and retain the early childhood workforce. Community engagement is anessential part of the PDG, as is evaluation.
Stay tuned as the PDG continues to move forward, and find all the latestupdates on the webpage.
