social services

Our Savior's Community Services serves 'Beer for a better world'

By Dale Connelly, KFAI Radio

Our Savior’s Community Services is woven into the mission in the Phillips neighborhood of Minneapolis, meeting the needs of those people who are facing homelessness, giving helping hands to the immigrants and refugees. The independent non-profit, which started as a community outreach effort to Our Savior’s Lutheran Church, helps with English classes and preparation for citizenship, and provides an emergency shelter and transitional housing for those without a place to stay. In a new wrinkle, Our Savior’s mission will harness the social power of beer to promote the work of the organization and raise some funds.

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Improving access, easing hunger

By Colleen OConnor Toberman, Minnesota 2020

Encouraging some people in poverty to access assistance programs like food support (formally the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP) can be tough. This is especially true of senior citizens. While about 65 percent of eligible Minnesotans participate in SNAP, only 41 percent of eligible seniors do. The reasons for this disparity are plentiful: stigma, lack of awareness, the desire for independence, and the challenges of applying, to name a few.

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Minnesota 2020

Health care appropriations target children's services

By Susan Hegarty, Session Weekly/Session Daily

Besides authorizing Medical Assistance coverage for early intervention treatment of children with autism, a bill re-passed by the House late Friday would require large employers to offer insurance benefits for autism spectrum disorder therapy.

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St. Paul ponders future of Dorothy Day Center for needy

By Cynthia Boyd, MinnPost

The Dorothy Day Center, right, provides a shocking contrast to St. Paul successful entertainment and sports venue, Xcel Energy Center across the street. (MinnPost photo by Jana Freiband)

Many cities have familiar gateways: St. Louis, has its Arch; San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge; New York City, the Statute of Liberty.

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Omnibus health and human services finance bill passes House with several bipartisan amendments

By Susan Hegarty, Session Weekly/Session Daily

Rep. Tom Huntley, chair of the House Health and Human Services Finance Committee, speaks to the media in the House gallery April 22 to give a preview of the omnibus health and human services finance bill. (Photo by Andrew VonBank)

Health care workers who have experienced reduced pay and benefits in recent years because of state deficits could receive 2-3 percent pay increases.

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Advocates for needy say bipartisan support emerging for increased spending

By Cynthia Boyd, MinnPost

A possible amendment to the health and human services budget that has been bandied about by some members of the House Health and Human Services Finance Committee this week would raise grants to families with children for the first time in 27 years. (Courtesy of MN Senate Media Services)

Despite recent DFL leadership calls at the Legislature for $150 million in cuts in the proposed health and human services budget, there appears to be a bipartisan effort afoot to increase assistance for needy Minnesota families.

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Why is state health and human services spending growing so fast?

By Cynthia Boyd, MinnPost

House Speaker Paul Thissen: “It’s going to swallow up our entire budget.” (MinnPost photo by James Nord)

Getting a grasp on state budget numbers is at least as mind-boggling for most of us as trying to understand just how far Earth is from the sun -- 93 million miles, btw.

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Proposed scholarship funding would get more kids in preschool

By Sarah Lemagie, Session Weekly/Session Daily

Supporters of a bill that would fund preschool and child-care scholarships made their case on Thursday to members of the House Education Finance Committee.

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Childcare assistance makes work pay

By Colleen OConnor Toberman, Minnesota 2020

Childcare is a costly part of many families’ budgets at any income level, but particularly for Minnesotans. Our state ranks among worst in childcare affordability; annual care for one infant averages $13,580 here (more than in-state tuition at the U of M). That’s nearly 16 percent of the median income for a two-parent family—and 52 percent of the median income for a single parent. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends that childcare consumes no more than ten percent of a family’s income.

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Minnesota 2020

House and Senate budget targets include investments, but also harmful cuts to health and human services

By Christina Wessel, Minnesota Budget Bites

The budget targets released by the House and Senate last week invest in many of the building blocks of our economic future, but also call for cuts to health and human services that could harm Minnesota’s most vulnerable residents.

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Minnesota Budget Bites
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