Fetal alcohol program takes unique cultural approach

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A parenting program developed in Minnesota and aimed at helping Indian families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder goes national early next year.Hazelden, internationally renowned for its alcohol and drug addiction treatment programs, will publish the culturally-based parenting curriculum in March. The Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center in Minneapolis shepherded its creation for the past six years.The goal is to help parents be the best parents they can be and to help children born with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder maximize their learning potential as well as to discourage pregnant women from drinking alcohol during pregnancy, says Suzanne Koepplinger, executive director of the center. Alcohol harms the unborn child.The curriculum is “about parenting and creating a home environment that honors Native American spiritual practices and supports the child’s health and growth,” explains Hazelden’s Sid Farrar about what he sees as the program’s unique approach.Community Sketchbook focuses on the economic and social challenges facing communities, especially low-income communities and communities of color, and how people are trying to address them. It is made possible by support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The Minneapolis Foundation, and some Minneapolis Foundation donor advisors.Community Sketchbook articles may be republished or distributed, in print or online, with credit to MinnPost and the foundations.Aided by a facilitator, parents meet in small groups to learn about and discuss the traditional Indian approach to parenting.Says Koepplinger: “The ‘Gifts from the Sacred Circle: A Native Traditional Parenting Curriculum for Families Affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder’ is grounded in the cultural belief that a child is the greatest gift from the Creator. They are sacred; they bring their unique innocence, talents and abilities to enrich our lives.”It’s important, says Koepplinger, that the project all along the way has involved revered elders and traditional medicine people. Continue Reading

For these families in poverty, a better life

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Some years Thanksgiving, given its very name, is a tough holiday to get through, and this year, given the terrible economy, could be one of those.

Right: Korey Bell, Athena McKissick and their kids Keya, 5, and her brother Kohron, 4. (MinnPost photo by Cynthia Boyd)

Yet there are people like Korey Bell, an Ohio transplant who came to Minnesota in search of a better life. Life’s a lot better this Thanksgiving than last, he says. “I’m working now.”

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Minnesota clinics focus on children’s health — by handing out books

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Years ago, my kids were rewarded with string-handled lollipops or stickers to sweeten their visits to the pediatrician’s office.But there’s been a move afoot for some while now to reward tykes with a book instead — a gift that could change their futures. Reach Out and Read Minnesota annually serves more than 58,000 infants, toddlers and preschoolers through 76 medical clinics around the state. The program puts books into the hands of children from low-income families — those at high risk for reading and school problems — and encourages families to make reading a habit.There’s need for that. Lower-income students graduated at a rate of only 35 percent from Minneapolis Public Schools in 2009 and poor Minneapolis students are 75 percent non-white, putting them at greater risk, according to data collected by The Minneapolis Foundation for their One Minneapolis reportreleased this fall. A good reader does better in school.Community Sketchbook focuses on the economic and social challenges facing communities, especially low-income communities and communities of color, and how people are trying to address them. Continue Reading

Why Minnesota’s poorest kids will stay poor

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Minnesota’s poorest children are at high risk of never overcoming the debilitating effects of poverty, despite a state program intended to better their lot, according to a new study by the Children’s Defense Fund-Minnesota.According to “Minnesota’s Invisible Children: Children in Families Receiving MFIP,” about 70 percent of those receiving financial support through the Minnesota Family Investment Program Assistance are children, yet “MFIP is woefully inadequate in keeping kids out of poverty,” says Marcie Jefferys, the fund’s policy development director and author of the report.”MFIP keeps children from destitution, but they remain poor and are often pushed deeper into poverty by current policies,” the report notes.That should worry Minnesota lawmakers and business people looking ahead to the state’s future work force needs, she says, because:Community Sketchbook focuses on the economic and social challenges facing communities, especially low-income communities and communities of color, and how people are trying to address them. It is made possible by support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The Minneapolis Foundation, and some Minneapolis Foundation donor advisors.Community Sketchbook articles may be republished or distributed, in print or online, with credit to MinnPost and the foundations.”The environments in which children grow up affect all aspects of their development. Poverty, especially deep poverty, is often toxically stressful for children and can disrupt the architecture of their developing brains.” Of the 71,000 kids receiving MFIP last year, more than half were age 5 or younger, a time of rapid brain development, according to the study.On the other hand, improving these families’ economic well being and increasing children’s access to services such as Early Head Start and quality child care are “important efforts Minnesota could make to reduce future public expenditures, increase the productivity of its future workforce and improve the lives of its youngest citizens,” the report says.Early help”We know who these kids are. We can name them. You get high bang for the buck, a high return on investment” by making sure these children get the help they need early on, Jefferys says.She says the Children’s Defense Fund is issuing the report to lawmakers and state administrators with the hope some social service policies will be changed to help children.Overall, about 15 percent (192,437) of the state’s children live at or below the poverty line, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Erin Sullivan Sutton, assistant commissioner of the state Department of Human Services, this week praised the report for throwing the spotlight on very poor children and “reaffirming something we already know:” that “as a state we are not doing as well by these children as we should be.”Source: Minnesota Department of Human Services”We should not be leaving children in extreme poverty,” Sutton says, confirming that Human Services personnel are reviewing current policies surrounding MFIP, which she describes as a “welfare to work” program. Continue Reading

New Children’s Cabinet meets — and finds there’s plenty of work to be done

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A kid who is sick and tired and hungry and scared isn’t ready to sit and learn, child advocates say. And that’s all too often the plight of Minnesota’s poor kids.Now members of the state’s new Children’s Cabinet, a collaborative effort with members from three state agencies, hope to help those kids in new and more effective ways.”We have a crisis on our hands in Minnesota with the numbers of babies born into poverty,” with the number of families in poverty and the numbers of children behind in school, Minnesota Education Commissioner Brenda Cassellius told a gathering of about 100 child advocates this week. “All of us ought to be yelling at the top of our lungs: ‘This is unacceptable in Minnesota.”’The state has more than 190,000 poor children — 80,000 of them living well below the poverty line — and most children of color.Community Sketchbook focuses on the economic and social challenges facing communities, especially low-income communities and communities of color, and how people are trying to address them. It is made possible by support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The Minneapolis Foundation, and some Minneapolis Foundation donor advisors.Community Sketchbook articles may be republished or distributed, in print or online, with credit to MinnPost and the foundations.Too many of them are not getting all the help they need to succeed, representatives of the state departments of education, health and human services acknowledged at a meeting called by the Minnesota Children’s Platform Coalition, whose members applaud the state’s efforts to better the welfare of its youngest citizens.In a way, the department folks were preaching to the choir, some attendees said.”It’s encouraging to hear the information and statistics that advocates have been using for many years being expressed by the administration,” says Marcie Jefferys, policy development director at the Children’s Defense Fund.High poverty ratesChild advocates have long been concerned about the effects of high poverty rates and racial disparities on children, as well as the lack of collaboration and cooperation across state agencies and a lack of attention to early childhood efforts, she says.Still, maybe now there will be some movement to change.Right: Brenda Cassellius (MinnPost photo by James Nord)Cassellius ticks off sobering stats: 15 percent of Minnesota’s children live in poverty, 60 percent of them American Indian, 42 percent of African-Americans, 33 percent of Hispanics, 10 percent of Asians and 8 percent of whites. “Our achievement gap mirrors the exact same numbers,” Cassellius said.”Our disparities are really alarming,” agreed James Koppel, deputy commissioner of the state Department of Health in an interview after the event. Continue Reading

Powderhorn Empty Bowls gathering creates art to feed the needy

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Once a year Michael Ziomko crafts 500 or so of his signature iron-black soup bowls to give away. And potter Jennie Lanners adds another couple hundred of her own colorful design, all for a neighborly good cause.Filled with a steaming vegetarian soup, the handmade bowls are not only symbols of the need to feed the hungry but also the theme for Powderhorn Empty Bowls, a fundraiser and community-builder the two potters founded four years ago.Last year the event drew 1,500 people and raised $22,000 to help stock neighborhood pantries.Community Sketchbook focuses on the economic and social challenges facing communities, especially low-income communities and communities of color, and how people are trying to address them. It is made possible by support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The Minneapolis Foundation, and some Minneapolis Foundation donor advisors.Community Sketchbook articles may be republished or distributed, in print or online, with credit to MinnPost and the foundations.Since its inception five years ago it has raised and given away $74,000 to charities in the economically hard-pressed community fanning out from Minneapolis’ Powderhorn Park. Local potters have hand made and donated more than 4,300 bowls. Scores of volunteers make and serve soups and breads. Continue Reading

Poverty surging in Twin Cities’ suburbs

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In Maplewood, a charitable Angel Fund is buying shoes so a kindergartener can attend school. In Bloomington, the local food shelf is scrambling to meet soaring demand. And in Brooklyn Center, city officials approved a new ordinance to cope with the community’s abundance of vacant houses.The Great Recession has hit most Twin Cities suburbs hard, and now fresh data is confirming what city, school and social-service officials have been observing close up: poverty in our metro-area suburbs is surging.A new analysis of recently released U.S. Census numbers shows that the poverty rate in Minnesota’s suburban cities has risen to 7.6 percent in 2010 – an increase from 4 percent in 2000 and 5.8 percent in 2007.Community Sketchbook focuses on the economic and social challenges facing communities, especially low-income communities and communities of color, and how people are trying to address them. It is made possible by support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The Minneapolis Foundation, and some Minneapolis Foundation donor advisors.Community Sketchbook articles may be republished or distributed, in print or online, with credit to MinnPost and the foundations.Some suburban cities — Brooklyn Center, Crystal and Maplewood, among them – are experiencing significant gains in numbers of poor residents.You can go directly to MinnPost’s interactive map showing suburb-by-suburb poverty numbers and other important information here.Well over half — 56 percent — of the Twin Cities metro area’s poor population now live in the suburbs, compared to 46 percent a decade ago, according to an analysis of Census data conducted by Elizabeth Kneebone, a senior researcher at the Brookings Institution.In 2000, there were close to 90,000 people living below the poverty line in the suburbs of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Continue Reading

Report shows Somali kids test kindergarten-ready: Why?

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Ask educator Bill Wilson why Somali students do well in school and he’ll answer with authority: “Their families put so much value on education.”That’s a question I felt compelled to ask after reading the “One Minneapolis: a vision for our city’s success” report released last week by The Minneapolis Foundation.Intending to follow up on the stats, I only touched on a finding that merits not only a “wow,” but also a “why?”Here it is: 76 percent of Minneapolis school children coming from homes where Somali is spoken test kindergarten-ready, not terribly far behind the 82 percent of English-speaking kids who are kindergarten ready, and better than some other groups. The graphs below reflect children’s literacy readiness as measured in the fall of their kindergarten year.Community Sketchbook focuses on the economic and social challenges facing communities, especially low-income communities and communities of color, and how people are trying to address them. It is made possible by support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The Minneapolis Foundation, and some Minneapolis Foundation donor advisors.Community Sketchbook articles may be republished or distributed, in print or online, with credit to MinnPost and the foundations.Seventy-six percent of Somali-speaking children were ready for kindergarten in 2009. (Graphics courtesy of The Minneapolis Foundation)Factor in that many of these Somalis are immigrants and the inquisitive among us would ask: What’s the secret of their success?Some social-service providers hypothesize it’s because Somali moms are home teaching their kids.Others explain higher kindergarten readiness by saying many Somali parents arrived in the United States better educated than some immigrant groups and so are better able to teach their children. (A communications person with the Minneapolis Public Schools could not locate anyone able, willing or available to explore the numbers in detail.)But many experts also argue the importance of early childhood programs for kids.”The majority of [Somali] mothers are home,” says Carolyn Smallwood, executive director of Way to Grow, an early learning program for kids of all colors and their parents. Continue Reading