The Consortium
strives to develop partnerships with Minnesota community based
initiatives that share in the mission of linking research
and practice in the arena of children, youth and families.
While we have many partnerships throughout the state and nationally,
one of the Consortium's goals is to facilitate information
exchange with partners who have statewide implications for
the well-being of children and families.
America's
Promise
On June 13, 2000,
the University of Minnesota became the first land-grant university
to join America's Promise as a University of Promise. During its initial
two-year commitment from 2000 - 2002, the University worked to deepen
the understanding of what children and youth need to succeed, communicate
and teach about healthy youth development, and strengthen the outreach
efforts that directly touch the lives of children and their families.
Our University of
Promise initiative yielded tremendous results including a database
of University-Community programs working to improve the lives of young
people.
Children’s Platform
The Minnesota Children's Platform Coalition, in partnership with Every Child Matters (ECM), seeks to increase the participation of child-serving staff, and the parents and grandparents of the children they serve, in civic affairs. Its goal is to engage these groups in the public policy-making and electoral process as a means to increase proven investments in children. To educate and engage the pubic, the Coalition will use the Minnesota Children's Platform, created collaboratively by the MN Platform Coalition, as well as materials developed by ECM for use on a national basis. The Children, Youth and Family Consortium is serving as an advisor to this coalition.
Community-Campus Partnerships for Health
CYFC Director Cathy Jordan is serving on the national and local planning committees for the CCPH spring 2006 conference in Minneapolis.
Covering All Families
The Covering
All Families web-tool was designed to help service providers
assist low-income families in Minnesota determine eligibility
for a broad range of services they may or may not know
are available to them. Such services include: affordable
health care coverage, affordable child care, school
meal benefits, and federal and state income tax credits.
This unprecedented attempt to discover common questions
about services targeted to low-income families and children was a collaborative
effort between the Children's Defense
Fund and the University of Minnesota's Children, Youth
and Family Consortium.
Determining
ultimate eligibility for any of these programs is not
the intent of this web tool. Rather, it seeks to provide
broad guidelines that will assist and encourage families
with applying for services. It clarifies the entry/access
points to these programs and give tips on how to make
the application process more efficient.
Early
Childhood Training Registry
The precursor to Minnesota
STREAMS to Quality, the Early Childhood Training
Registry database was designed to provide information
regarding early childhood development training opportunities
in Minnesota. It was was developed in
partnership with the Minnesota Department of Children,
Families and Learning, and local child care resource
and referral agencies.
Out-of-School Time Research Collaboration
One of the recommendations proposed by the Out of School Time Commission in 2005 was the creation of a collaboration between the University of Minnesota, Search Institute and Wilder Research for the purposes of creating and undertaking a coordinate research agenda to advance the field of youth development with regard to out of school time issues. The Children, Youth and Family Consortium is coordinating the initial retreat for this collaboration with the University of Minnesota Extension Service Center for 4-H Youth Development who will manage the ongoing collaboration.
Juvenile Justice Committee Forum Ad Hoc Committee
CYFC Director Cathy Jordan serves on this committee charged with planning a spring 2006 forum aimed at addressing strategies to transform the juvenile justice system in MN and to integrate the multiple, systems that serve youth at risk.
Parent
Leadership
In 1997,
a small group of parents from the Council for Parent
Leadership, a project of the Minnesota Parenting Association,
brainstormed criteria that would allow them to organize
and evaluate parent leadership training models available
nationally. A matrix was developed by the Council for
Parent Leadership with program research conducted in
partnership with the U of MN: including U of M Extension
Service, the College of Human Ecology, and the Children,
Youth and Family Consortium. The result was the creation
of the Parent Leadership Database; an on-line resource
for parents and others interested in developing their
civic leadership skills.
Ready
4 K Focuses on School Readiness
Ready 4
K Minnesota is an organization dedicated to ensuring
that every Minnesota child is ready for school. It grew out of
the work of the Early Care and Education Finance Commission,
which developed The Action Plan for Early Care and Education. CYFC has
been a partner in helping shape these efforts.
Suburban
Ramsey Family Service Collaborative
The Children,
Youth and Family Consortium (CYFC) formed a partnership
with the Suburban Ramsey Family Collaborative to develop
innovative ways to present research and best practices
in early childhood
development to parents, policy makers, and community
audiences. A Power Point presentation (note
large file, 4.3 MB) that can be tailored to meet the
needs of different audiences, and can be used by various
educators and presenters was created through the
partnership. This resource can be shared with other
mental health and family collaboratives around the state.
Unidos
Para Los Niños
Unidos Para
Los Niños was a coalition of individuals and organizations
concerned about the welfare of Latino children and their
families. The mission of the Unidos Coalition is to prevent
child abuse and neglect in the Latino community by providing
information to community members, by educating professionals that work
with Latino families, and by advocating on behalf of Latino children and
their families. Members include child protection workers, Latino social
service organizations, parents, and day care providers.
In 2001-02,
Unidos Para Los Ninos and CYFC joined forces to create
a web resource for Latino families and the professionals who work
with them. The Spanish/English database highlights curricula,
fact sheets, and program materials that are culturally and linguistically
appropriate and grounded in good research and practice.
