Minnesota Invests in Prevention Through Family Resource Centers

Every Thursday at the Family Resource Center in Rochester, Minnesota, is diaper club day, where families in need stop by and pick up free supplies. Some stick around, letting their kids run around the playroom while the adults socialize. They might meet one of three family advocates, who connect parents to resources and help fill out forms like applications for childcare.

Many visiting families don’t quite meet the criteria for other social services. They make a bit too much to qualify for public benefits, and although they may struggle to feed, clothe or house their kids, the child welfare system has no grounds to intervene.

Kelli DeCook, director of child welfare services at the nonprofit Family Service Rochester that runs the center, said it fills that critical gap.

“I constantly hear providers in the community — whether it’s people at schools or therapists or nurses or people in the community working alongside families — say the only way that families can get help is by making a child protection report,” DeCook said. “This can be an early intervention.”

The new Rochester center opened earlier this year in a former elementary school, about one and a half hours south of Minneapolis. It is the county’s first community service program of this type and follows a national model of similar family resource centers.

The rise of family resource centers like Rochester’s — and its ambitions, which include opening more brick-and-mortar centers across Olmsted County — have been buoyed by philanthropic investments in bringing the model to Minnesota. And recently, the state state has begun to invest in these and other types of community centers through grants from the Department of Children, Youth, and Families that were announced in January.

Each family resource center looks a bit different depending on the community’s needs, but they are all based on three pillars: protective factors to keep families out of the child welfare system, including parental resilience and social connection; family support and engagement; and a parent advisory board that informs the center’s leaders.

Some studies have shown that the model lowers the number of child maltreatment investigations, improves families’ self-sufficiency and health and lowers the rate of referrals to child welfare agencies. The trend is growing nationwide, though advocates in some cities have raised concerns when CPS agencies are directly involved, saying foster care prevention services should not be provided by workers with the power to remove children from home.

Finding vital connections

The family resource center model took off in Minnesota in Scott County, just south of Minneapolis, four years ago. The first center opened at a library in Shakopee, with a freestanding location in the same city in 2023. Today, the centers operate at four locations.

Margareth Gurreonero, 34, found her way there in October 2021, shortly after she arrived in this country from Peru with her husband and young child.

“We went through big changes — leaving family, switching languages — but we did very well, and part of that is because we could find a community. That was the support that we needed at that moment.”

— Margareth Gurreonero, Family Resource Center Client

At the time, she was pregnant with her second child and didn’t yet have medical coverage. She knew the birth would be costly, yet didn’t think she had much choice but to pay out of pocket. Someone at the Family Resource Center told her the family was eligible for health insurance, and helped her apply. The insurance ended up covering the full cost of the birth.

Early on, Gurreonero took advantage of the food pantry and free household supplies like shampoo. She also socialized with other parents, including fellow immigrants who spoke Spanish. Her kids, too, made friends and regularly took part in arts and crafts activities at the center.

The community aspect was especially needed as Gurreonero adjusted to a new city far from home and struggled with being a stay-at-home mom after working a demanding job in marketing in Peru.

“After I went there for the first time, I couldn’t stop,” Gurreonero said. “We went through big changes — leaving family, switching languages — but we did very well, and part of that is because we could find a community. That was the support that we needed at that moment.”

Joanna Woolman, executive director of the Institute to Transform Child Protection at the Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, said she’s encouraged by state efforts to fund these programs.

“We generally provide resources when people come into the system, so it’s like we created a mechanism where the most extreme intervention gets you the most resources,” Woolman said. “If you want to get foster care funding or adoption support, you have to have a kid in your family enter the system, go into foster care, and then get adopted. You’re not eligible for similar financial benefits if you choose to have that kid remain with a family member or ultimately do a transfer of legal custody.”

‘One-stop shop’ resource centers

There are now 21 family resource centers operating in 10 Minnesota counties. Eight other counties are developing them now, and an additional 25 counties are in early planning stages.

The St. Paul-based Sauer Family Foundation helped fund the development of the state’s first family resource center in Scott County. In addition to the $5.5 million the Sauer Family Foundation has already contributed since then, the foundation has also committed another $10 million over the next 10 years to help support evaluation of the centers and efforts to connect the growing network.

Brenda Mahoney, former director of the Family & Children Services division of Stearns County Human Services in St. Cloud, is helping to expand the network as a project coordinator for the Association of Minnesota Counties. For her, the expansion marks a milestone in child welfare in the state.

“I’m retired from the human services system, but this interested me to come back into working because it’s on the prevention end and it’s community-based, and it’s where I always hoped that we would get,” Mahoney said.

The growth of family resource centers has been further propelled by new state funding. In 2023, the state Legislature approved $7.1 million for the Department of Children, Youth, and Families. This year, the state announced its first 10 grantees, which can spend their allotments through the end of fiscal 2027.

The state funds can be used to operate different kinds of resource centers, including kinship navigator programs or Full Service Community Schools. But five of the 10 grantees — Clay County; Hennepin County; North St. Louis County Family Service Collaborative; Family Service Rochester; and Southwestern Minnesota Opportunity Council — have indicated their intention to use the grants to establish family resource centers.

“I’m retired from the human services system, but this interested me to come back into working because it’s on the prevention end and it’s community-based, and it’s where I always hoped that we would get.”

— Brenda Mahoney, former director of Family & Children Services, Stearns County

“This initiative takes a whole-family approach, focusing on family strengths and coordinating services across programs,” the department’s Commissioner Tikki Brown said in a statement. “The goal is to provide access to a range of supports that meet families where they are, with systems working together to ease the burden on families.”

The St. Louis County Family Service Collaborative, located in the northeastern part of the state bordering Canada, is building three family resource centers. In addition, they’re planning to buy an RV that will operate as a mobile center in more remote parts of the count

Dawn Shykes, senior director of family and youth services at Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota, which is overseeing the grant funding for the collaborative, said needs assessments conducted in the county revealed that families wanted housing and transportation assistance as well as opportunities to socialize and connect with others.

“Families can kind of look at it as a one-stop shop for services and resources,” Shykes said.

The Sauer Family Foundation is a financial supporter of The Imprint. The foundation played no role in our decision to publish this article, per our editorial independence policy.

Reprinted from The Imprint Youth and Family News MN Invests in Prevention Through Family Resource Centers