As part of the Ramsey County, MN.’s partnership with the National Association of Counties Research Foundation (NACoRF) and National Collaborative for Infants and Toddlers (NCIT), a project of the Pritzker Children’s Initiative (PCI), the county is making bold steps to plan and develop a customized universal connection and referral system (UFCR) in partnership with agencies to target families with children under the age of three who receive Temporary Assistance for Needy Families(TANF) funds and connect them to supportive early childhood services.
Creating a Unique County-Based Centralized Intake and Referral System for Young Children and Families: What’s needed?
While some states and counties launched a Help Me Grow or Family Connects model, the Ramsey County – Early Childhood Initiative (RC-ECI) has applied a customized approach for increasing families’ connection to high-quality services. The county’s goal for 2019 required robust systems change designed to meet the unique needs of Ramsey County’s children and families who receive TANF funds and ease the stress that staff felt to know every early childhood resource, by applying streamlined approaches.
The key components of this effort were to design processes to identify families with children 0-3 years old in the county (oftentimes engaging in multiple services and systems); create a centralized intake and referral system across the human service agency to improve coordination; and encourage families’ engagement in high-quality early childhood supports to reduce risk factors and promote strong well-being for the whole family. To start this process, Ramsey County realized that building awareness about early childhood resources and data among families was the first critical step along the journey of potential data sharing before inviting other stakeholders and collaborative partners to the table. Therefore, families were invited to complete the “Parents Voice Survey” to assess their awareness of early childhood resources and offer suggestions for what they needed. The interim report findings revealed that 91% of respondents agreed that Ramsey County should be more efficient in connecting them to early childhood resources by sharing information about their child, the assistance program they are involved in, and contact information internally with other departments. For instance, eighty-two percent of parent respondents agreed that sharing similar information with external trusted partners is critical for connecting their child(ren) to vital resources.
The county also brought together a diverse range of stakeholders across community, local and state agencies to: share learnings about the service utilizers and their needs; establish a set of shared goals and strategies; and brainstorm potential solutions. From there, the county decided to develop a data sharing matrix that delineates the pertinent Minnesota statutes and a set of shared protocols for identifying families and referring them for services.
During 2019, the county’s efforts focused on families who receive support services from multiple programs throughout the county agency to offer referrals primarily to the Public Health - Home Visiting and Child & Teen Checkup programs. Moreover, staff of the County’s departments are key to getting families connected to essential early childhood resources. They provide the “warm hand-off,” which can make all the difference in ensuring families with infants and toddlers establish connection and participation in early childhood services. The participation by families keeps them engaged in their service plan which can lead to positive outcomes and increased commitment. The county identified some strategies for creating a protocol for staff to strengthen this connection and keep families more engaged in services. Strategies include creating a group training for staff, reference list of the resource benefits, and one-to-one coaching for using new forms and systems.
The Next Steps Ahead for Ramsey County:
The County will continue community engagement activities such as surveys, focus groups and facilitated conversations to better understand families’ concerns and ideas about what early childhood services are needed and how to, in the future, respectfully share data and link records to benefit the child’s connection to and continued participation in early childhood resources. These strategies align with the nationally recommended Trauma Informed Care practices which ask government and providers who work with children to use the principles of safety, transparency, choice, collaboration, and empowerment.
The Ramsey County Board of Commissioners (RCBC) also supports the work of the RC-ECI by attending Advisory meetings and extending the initiative’s visibility with community and government partners. In April 2019, the RCBC passed a resolution of support for the early childhood initiative. And then in Fall 2019, the Ramsey County Manager incorporated this into the strategic plan as an early childhood objective, which was passed by the RCBC.
The 2020 plan is for RC-ECI to work more collaboratively with parents and community, particularly those that have been historically been disenfranchised in the decision-making process. This engagement work is intended to gain trust and improve the county’s alliance with community members to define what specific vision there is for a comprehensive referral, data collection and sharing and records linkage system, along with the establishment of protocols. A system created and endorsed by Ramsey County parents will, ideally, align with the Minnesota Department of Education’s Preschool Development Grant that proposes to offer a one-stop-shop for referral services and navigation of resources for prenatal and 0-8 year old children.