Human Services

Children & Families

Statewide Outcome(s):

Children & Families supports the following statewide outcome(s).

Strong and stable families and communities.

People in Minnesota are safe.

Context:

Children & Families provides administrative support for programs serving low-income families, children, and low-income adults. This area includes administration of forecasted programs: the Minnesota Family Investment (MFIP) and Diversionary Work Programs, General Assistance, Group Residential Housing, Minnesota Supplemental Aid, and MFIP Child Care Assistance, as well as non-forecasted grant programs that provide funding for housing, food and child welfare services.

These services help to ensure that low-income people receive the support they need to be safe and help build stable families and communities. Programs administered in this area seek to keep more people fed and healthy by increasing nutrition assistance participation (especially for seniors), to keep more children out of foster care and safely with their families, to decrease the disproportionate number of children of color in out-of-home placements, and to increase access to high quality child care. Statewide administration of these programs ensures that federal funds are used in accordance with federal regulations, resources and services are distributed equitably across the state; and quality standards are maintained.

Funding includes a combination of state and federal dollars. Major federal block grants that support programs in this area include Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, the Child Care and Development Fund, the Social Services Block Grant and the Community Services Block Grants, totaling over $380 million a year. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is also administered in this area.

In 2011, an average of 469,904 people per month received help under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and there were 17,716 reports of child abuse and neglect, involving 24,962 children.

Strategies:

Children & Families provides administrative direction and support to counties, tribes and community agencies. Support includes:

·         Policy development and program implementation

·         Grants management

·         Training and technical assistance to counties, tribes and grantees

·         Evaluation and auditing of service delivery and quality assurance reviews to ensure that effective services are delivered efficiently and consistently across the state.

This administration provides oversight of statewide child welfare services that focus on ensuring children's safety while supporting families, ensuring core safety services focus on preventing or remedying neglect, and providing basic food, housing and other supports to the most at-risk adults and children.

Children & Family Services supports the following strategies in the DHS Framework for the Future: 2012

(https://edocs.dhs.state.mn.us/lfserver/Public/DHS-6464-ENG):

·         Keep people fed and healthy by increasing nutrition assistance participation by seniors through targeted outreach efforts

·         Keep more children out of foster care and with their families

·         Decrease the disproportionate number of children of color in out of home placements

·         Increase access to high quality child care

·         Create pathways to employment

Results:

Children & Families provides administrative support to a broad array of programs and services for low-income families and adults, and children. Included below are some key measures related to SNAP and child protection programs.

Performance Measures	Previous	Current	Trend
Percent of Children Not Experiencing Repeated Abuse or Neglect Within six Months of a Prior Report1	95.1%	95.6%	Improving
Percent of Children Either Reunified With Parents or Living With Relatives in Fewer than 12 Months from Last Removal from Home1	84.5%	85.7%	Improving
SNAP Participation Rate for All People in Poverty2	51%	56%	Improving

Performance Measures Notes:

1.   Child Welfare Report, measurements compare 2010 data (previous) to 2011 data (current). http://www.dhs.state.mn.us/main/id_000152

2.   Data on SNAP participation is for the years 2009 (previous) and 2010 (current) and come from the Food Support Access Index.