The Cass County Children’s Initiative (CCCI) is an incorporated non-profit team of county agencies, schools, community organizations and private citizens aimed at addressing the needs of families and children. It is part of a state-wide effort to establish “Collaboratives” by counties to pull partners together serving children and families to better provide support and services to empower families to be successful without duplicating efforts. Thanks to early foresight from the leadership in Cass County, the CCCI proudly claims to have been one of the first three Collaboratives in the State of MN starting in 1992.
The primary work of the collaborative is focused on family support and services, and children’s mental health support and services. Funding primarily comes from the Federal Government through Local Collaborative Time Study (LCTS) participation, along with Collaborative partner member fees paid annually.
“To strengthen collaborative relationships, monitor the continuum of services, and identify and support new ways to deliver services.”
All families will have what they need to do what is best for themselves, their children and their community.
Collaboration is an integral part of all decisions and programming put forth by the Cass County Children’s Initiative, is the foundation of our organization.
"As individual fingers we can easily be broken, but together we make a mighty fist."
The mental health challenges our country’s youth face call for shifting the focus of policy and practice from illness, to promotion of wellness and flourishing. This requires using evidence-based strategies with children and parents, and improving the quality of the environments where children and youth live, learn, play, and grow.
The mental health challenges our country’s youth face call for shifting the focus of policy and practice from illness, to promotion of wellness and flourishing. This requires using evidence-based strategies with children and parents, and improving the quality of the environments where children and youth live, learn, play, and grow.
In 1991, Governor Arne Carlson created a statewide task force to develop a vision for Minnesota children and families, including recommendations on needed changes in service delivery systems. The task force findings led to change efforts at both the state and local levels. At the executive level, a Children’s Cabinet was formed including Commissioners from eleven different state agencies that deal with issues concerning children. The purpose of the Cabinet is to create a flexible system for effective administration of services that avoids fragmentation and duplication, and facilitates cooperation among state agencies, local government, and the private sector.
Soon after, the State offered grants as incentives for the development of “locally-driven service delivery partnerships that help communities come together to improve results for children and families”. Locally-driven service delivery partnerships help communities come together to improve results for Minnesota’s children and families. Minnesota hopes to increase the number and percentage of infants and children who are healthy, children who come to school ready to learn, families able to provide a healthy and stable environment for their children and children who excel in academic skills.
The collaborative initiatives were founded on three key themes related to system reforms:
Locally, the Initiative initially organized and served as the umbrella for the start-up of Family Centers organized within the county, one in each of the five school districts (Cass Lake-Bena, Northland: Remer-Longville, Pillager, Pine River-Backus and Walker-Hackensack-Akeley). This was made possible in large part by a Pew Charitable Trust Foundation Grant. Each Center was supported in developing local councils (now independent governing Boards composed of local leadership) to determine responses based on local needs. It was recognized that individual communities within the county were diverse with unique challenges and needs. Each center was, and continues to be, empowered to develop in ways that best serve the children and families locally.
As the Family Centers developed organizationally and strengthened as entities providing tailored programs in each community, the Collaborative, continued to evolve collaboratively based on needs across the county. The State designated the Collaborative as both an official Family Services Collaborative and Children’s Mental Health Collaborative. Programs and operations were established to better address children’s and family’s mental health needs.
LCTS funds may be used to develop and provide preventive or early intervention services to children, adolescents and families at risk. These children, adolescents and families include, but are not limited to, those who are abused, neglected, emotionally and behaviorally disturbed, in need of medical attention, learning or physically disabled, runaways, homeless, deprived, school dropouts, delinquent, involved with domestic violence, economically disadvantaged and/or pregnant. Preventive services include the entire spectrum of prevention, for example, services that prevent out of home placement, poor health, truancy, poor achievement in school or delinquency.
Collaborative Programs currently being supported include: Home Visiting Programs (pre-natal through age 3) via the Family Centers and Public Health; mentoring programs; parent education; Children’s Therapuetic Support and Services through the public schools; Youth and Family Service Programs through the schools for K-8th graders; and a variety of programs through family centers that engage and empower children and families to be successful, thereby serving as preventive type programs.