African American Child and Family Well Being Unit

With the 2024 passing of the Minnesota African-American family preservation and child welfare personality act in legislation, the unit became codified under Minnesota Statute 260.692 with the following duties:

• Assist with the development of African American cultural competency training and review child welfare curriculum in the Minnesota Child Welfare Training Academy
• Provide technical assistance, including on-site technical assistance, and case consultation to responsible social services agencies to assist agencies with implementing and complying with the Minnesota African American Family Preservation and Child Welfare Disproportionality Act
• Monitor individual county and statewide disaggregated and nondisaggregated data to identify trends and patterns in child welfare outcomes
• Develop and implement a system for conducting case reviews when the commissioner receives reports of noncompliance with the Minnesota African American Family Preservation and Child Welfare Disproportionality
• Establish and administer a request for proposals process for African American and disproportionately represented family preservation grants
• Coordinate services and create internal and external partnerships, in collaboration with the African American Child Well-Being Advisory Council
• Develop public messaging and communication to inform the public about racial disparities in child welfare outcomes, current efforts and strategies to reduce racial disparities, and resources available to African American children and their families involved in the child welfare system.

The African American Child Well-Being Unit must conduct systemic case reviews to monitor targeted child welfare outcomes, including but not limited to maltreatment, out-of-home placement, and permanency of African American children.

The African American Child Well-Being Unit must provide regular updates on unit activities, including summary reports of case reviews, to the African American Child Well-Being Advisory Council, and must publish an annual census of African American children in out-of-home placements statewide.

The African American Child Well-Being Unit shall gather summary data about the practice and policy inquiries and individual case concerns received through the compliance and feedback portal.

The unit was intentionally and purposefully created and is grounded in a foundational framework that includes:

• A greater emphasis on keeping children within their family/kin network, rather than placing them with non-relative providers
• Improving practice across the child welfare continuum, including safety and prevention, placement, and permanency.
• Ensuring families are given opportunities to ensure the safety of their children before removing them from their homes, in instances not including egregious harm
• Improved access to community-based, in-home, and individualized services for children and families
• Increased community engagement and blended decision making
• Resource provision for communities to deliver needed services for children and families
• Targeted systemic and practice interventions based on case reviews conducted with a cultural and equity lens
• Targeted data-informed practice and policy development
• Collaborative systemic partnership and strategic planning

The unit currently consists of 11 staff positions who support the unit's ability to exercise its duties as written in statute. The unit staff is comprised of individuals with diverse, personal, and professional experience with the All-American and African community, as well as our own buried lived systems experience. The unit has used a collaborative approach to hiring staff by utilizing community members as reviewers of potential applicant materials, as well as serving as interview panel participants.

Supervisor

Leads a team of dynamic and committed professionals that leads the department in ensuring culturally affirming prevention and family preservation strategies and a Department of Human Services (DHS) child welfare system response focused on understanding and addressing the disproportionate overrepresentation in Minnesota's child welfare and foster care systems for African American children and families.

American Child and Family Well-Being Advisory Council Consultant

This role oversees the coordination, administration, communication, and support of the African American Child and Family Well-Being Advisory Council to ensure collaboration and partnership between the council and the unit.

African American Child Well and Family Well-Being Policy and Practice Lead

This role will coordinate statewide policy strategies and provide leadership in partnership with government agencies and community organizations to prevent maltreatment of African American and African heritage children and promote family well-being.

African American Child Welfare Policy and Practice Consultant (2 positions)

This role supports child safety, culturally affirming prevention, and family preservation, and a child welfare system focused on addressing the disproportionate overrepresentation in child protection, foster care, and permanency systems for African American families.

Family Preservation and Disproportionality Grants Consultant

This role oversees grants appropriated by the Minnesota African American Family Preservation and Child Welfare Disproportionality Act and existing/expiring grants supported by other funding. The position will also oversee the administration of other smaller annual plans and contracts related to the work of the unit.

Child Welfare Targeted Case Review Consultant (2 Positions)

This role provides consultation, technical assistance, support, and oversight of Minnesota's child protection and child welfare practice continuum, specifically related to child welfare agency practices at the local level involving children and families of African Heritage.

Safety and Prevention Consultant (2 Positions)

This role will support prevention and safety and family preservation efforts, development, implementation, and maintenance of strategies to support prevention, and participate in internal and external partnerships and collaborations.

Child Welfare Feedback and Compliance Portal Consultant

This role participates in the design, development, implementation, and oversight of the Minnesota African American Family Preservation and Child Welfare Disproportionality Act compliance and feedback portal.

Policy and practice

Unit staff work across the child welfare continuum to ensure equity, cultural affirmation, and responsiveness in Minnesota child welfare policy and practice. Staff participate in various work groups related to housing practice, centered on but not limited to safety prevention, foster care, and permanency. Unit staff work with other department staff on the creation of bulletins, trainings, practice guides, as well as review internal and external legislative policy proposals to ensure the needs of African-American and African heritage communities are met.

Technical Assistance

The African American Child and Family Well-Being Unit provides targeted technical assistance to counties across Minnesota to support the consistent and equitable application of child welfare policies and practices impacting African American and African heritage children and families. This work is critical to reducing disparities and promoting culturally responsive approaches across the child welfare continuum.

The Unit offers a range of support, including case consultations, training, policy guidance, and strategic planning assistance. By responding to county requests and partnering on improvement efforts, the Unit helps build local capacity to implement best practices rooted in racial equity, family preservation, and community engagement.

In addition, the Unit facilitates communities of practice and knowledge-sharing opportunities to align efforts statewide and promote learning across jurisdictions. Whether addressing specific case-level concerns or supporting system-wide change, the Unit's technical assistance is grounded in collaboration, accountability, and a shared commitment to improving outcomes for African American children and families.

MAAFPCWDA Phase-In Specific Technical Assistance

In addition to general child, welfare technical assistance, the unit also provides Taylor technical assistance to both Hennepin and Ramsey Counties as part of the Phase-In program outlined in the Minnesota African-American family preservation, and child welfare disproportionality act. This Assistance is provided to support the successful implementation of the phase-in program which will promote successful statewide implementation of the act in 2027. Unit staff can work directly with the phase counties on various aspects of implementation, answer questions clarify policy application as well as provide case consultations mapping, and related efforts to support the county's ongoing implementation.

Safety and Prevention

The African American Child and Family Well-Being Unit is committed to keeping African American and African heritage children safe, supported, and with their families—where they belong. Central to this mission is a focus on prevention: addressing challenges early, reducing system involvement, and eliminating unnecessary entry into the child welfare and foster care systems.

The Unit works in partnership with families, community leaders, and culturally specific organizations to identify and respond to the root causes of involvement in child welfare—such as poverty, lack of access to services, and systemic racism. By strengthening protective factors like economic stability, mental health support, parenting resources, and community connection, the Unit helps families build resilience and stay together.

These efforts are guided by the belief that prevention is the most effective path to safety and well-being. Through proactive, community-driven strategies, the Unit is helping to create a more just and responsive system—one that supports, rather than separates, African American families.

MAAFPACWDA implementation

Unit staff have been continuously involved in the implementation of the Minnesota African-American Family Preservation and Child Welfare Disproportionality Act by serving on internal planning committees, external statewide working group, action teams, and providing physical assistance and support to the larger statewide working group tasked with supporting the statewide implementation of the act

To learn more about the department's efforts to implement the Minnesota African-American Family Preservation and Child Welfare Disproportionality Act, visit the department's MAAFPACWDA Implementation page.

Council Establishment

In 2022, the unit began developing a permanent advisory body to ensure the voices and experiences of African-American and African heritage communities were uplifted and represented through partner collaboration and engagement.

Through an open engagement and recruitment process, the unit staff partnered with members of the community to select a diverse panel of community experts with both professional and personal experiences in African and African heritage communities, as well as child welfare, to serve on the council. In 2024, with the passing of the Minnesota African-American Child and Family Well Being Unit, the council became codified in statute under Minnesota 260.691.

The council consists of up to 31 members appointed by the commissioner and must include representatives with lived personal or professional experience within African American communities. Members may include but are not limited to

• Youth who have exited the child welfare system
• Parents, legal custodians, relative and kinship caregivers, or foster care providers
• Community service providers, advocates, and members
• County and private social services agency case managers
• Representatives from faith-based institutions
• Academic professionals
• A representative from the Council for Minnesotans of African Heritage
• The Ombudsperson for African American Families
• Other individuals with experience and knowledge of African American communities

Council members must be selected through an open appointment process under section 15.0597. The terms, compensation, and removal of council members are governed by section 15.059. The Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families remains the appointing authority for the advisory council.

Council Duties

The council's duties are as follows:

• Review annual reports related to African American children involved in the child welfare system. These reports may include, but are not limited to, the maltreatment, out-of-home placement, and permanency of African American children;
• Assist with and make recommendations to the commissioner for developing strategies to reduce maltreatment determinations, prevent unnecessary out-of-home placement, promote culturally appropriate foster care and shelter or facility placement decisions and settings for African American children in need of out-of-home placement, ensure timely achievement of permanency, and improve child welfare outcomes for African American children and their families;
• Review summary reports on targeted case reviews prepared by the commissioner to ensure that responsible social services agencies meet the needs of African American children and their families. Based on data collected from those reviews, the council shall assist the commissioner with developing strategies needed to improve any identified child welfare outcomes, including but not limited to maltreatment, out-of-home placement, and permanency for African American children;
• Make recommendations to the commissioner and the legislature for public policy and statutory changes that specifically consider the needs of African American children and their families involved in the child welfare system.
• Advise the commissioner on stakeholder engagement strategies and actions that the commissioner and responsible social services agencies may take to improve child welfare outcomes for African American children and their families.
• Assist the commissioner with developing strategies for public messaging and communication related to racial disproportionality and disparities in child welfare outcomes for African American children and their families.
• Assist the commissioner with identifying and developing internal and external partnerships to support adequate access to services and resources for African American children and their families, including but not limited to housing assistance, employment assistance, food and nutrition support, health care, child care assistance, and educational support and training; and
• Assist the commissioner with developing strategies to promote the development of a culturally diverse and representative child welfare workforce in Minnesota that includes professionals who are reflective of the community served and who have been directly impacted by lived experiences within the child welfare system. The council must also assist the commissioner with exploring strategies and partnerships to address education and training needs, hiring, recruitment, retention, and professional advancement practices.

By January 1, 2026, and annually thereafter, the council shall report to the chairs and ranking minority members of the legislative committees with jurisdiction over child protection on the council's activities under subdivision 1 and other issues on which the council chooses to report. The report may include recommendations for statutory changes to improve the child protection system and child welfare outcomes for African American children and families.

For more information about the council, please contact aacfwbac.information.dcyf@state.mn.us or visit the council webpage at. Need the council webpage address. Need to add the council webpage address.

To view open council vacancies, please visit the Minnesota Secretary of State office website.

As required in Minnesota 260.694, the department is responsible for establishing and maintaining a Minnesota African-American Preservation and Child Welfare Disproportionality Act portal. This portal serves as a place where members of the public can ask general questions about the act as well as share concerns or complaints about potential noncompliance by county agencies with specific elements of the act. Unit staff monitor the portal daily and respond to all questions, concerns, and complaints that are submitted by the public to ensure compliance with the act. Minnesota has a "state-supervised, county-administered" child welfare system, which means that the state provides varying levels of oversight, guidance, and support to counties, but counties do have some ability to make decisions specific to child welfare practice in their county within state policy. Due to this structure, neither the department nor the unit has legal authority to formally change the outcomes of county or court decisions.

As required by the Minnesota African-American Family Preservation and Child Welfare Proportionality Act, the unit conducts targeted case reviews to support compliance with the requirements of the act. This includes, but is not limited to, compliance:

• Efforts to Prevent Placement
• Safety Planning
• Engaging Non-Custodial Parents and Relatives Engagement
• Court documentation
• Ensuring frequent visitation
• Cultural competency training requirements
• Other child welfare policy requirements

Unit staff conduct consistent periodic reviews of county cases to ensure compliance with the requirements of the act, identify trends in patterns of practice, and identify opportunities for technical assistance to improve practice.

Cases are selected through a detailed, random sampling process and stratified to ensure fidelity and objectivity in the review results. The findings and results of his reviews are compiled into summary reports. These summary reports are shared internally with department staff, as well as with the African-American Child and Family Well-Being Advisory Council.

The unit administers grants related to varying elements of child welfare based on federal or local funding allocation. These grants target various elements of child welfare, including child welfare and foster care prevention, permanency, supports program, creation and implementation and others consistent with its framework unit uses a data informed in collaborative grant process to ensure members of the community are aware of potential granting opportunities are supported to the grant process in our selected, based on the use of an equitable and culture, responsive review and selection process.

Current grant or DCY RFP opportunities

For additional granting or RFP opportunities outside of the Department of Children and Families, please visit MN Grants.This website provides a single entry point to State of Minnesota grant opportunities, where grant seekers can search for grant opportunities by state agency or by subject area. In some cases, you will be directed to the agency website for more information.

The African American Child and Family Well-Being Unit is committed to eliminating disparities and disproportionalities experienced by African American and African heritage children and families in Minnesota's child welfare system. A cornerstone of this work is authentic, consistent community engagement. The Unit has centered the voices, experiences, and expertise of Black communities in shaping policies, programs, and practices that impact their lives.

Through listening sessions, focus groups, community forums, and collaboration with African American-led organizations, the Unit has developed a deep understanding of the systemic barriers that contribute to family separation, over-surveillance, and a lack of culturally responsive services. These engagements have informed the development and implementation of the Minnesota African American Family Preservation and Child Welfare Disproportionality Act.

This ongoing partnership with the community continues to guide the Unit's strategies, ensuring that child welfare reforms are rooted in racial equity, cultural healing, and the belief that families thrive best when they are supported—not separated. The Unit remains accountable to the community and is committed to building a child welfare system where African American children and families are respected, valued, and able to thrive.

The African American Child and Family Well-Being Unit is dedicated to supporting African American and African heritage families by strengthening connections to the resources they need to thrive. Recognizing that systemic barriers often prevent families from accessing critical services, the Unit works to bridge the gap between community members and the state and local programs designed to support their well-being.

The Unit helps families locate and access resources related to housing, education, mental health, economic support, parenting, and child welfare. The goal is to ensure that families receive the right support at the right time—before challenges become crises. This work is part of the Unit's broader commitment to advancing equity, promoting family preservation, and creating a future where all families can thrive.

• Minnesota Child Welfare Training Academy
• Minnesota Office of Ombudspersons for Families
• Council for Minnesotans of African Heritage
• Minnesota Office of African American Health