Child welfare and Family Preservation Programs

The Minnesota Children’s Trust Fund serves as a catalyst to prevent child abuse and neglect by working with national and local partners to strengthen children, families and communities.

Parent Leadership

The Minnesota Department of Human Services Children’s Trust Fund works in partnership with Minnesota Communities Caring for Children (formerly Prevent Child Abuse Minnesota) to implement Parent Leadership for Child Safety and Permanency. The initiative promotes parent involvement and shared leadership to support child welfare system enhancements.

A collaboration between the Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families and Minnesota Judicial Branch, the Children's Justice Initiative works with local juvenile courts, social services agencies, county attorneys, public defenders, court administrators, guardians ad litem, tribes, and other key stakeholders in each of Minnesota's 87 counties and two American Indian Child Welfare Initiative tribes to improve the processing of child protection cases and the outcomes for abused and neglected children. The overall objective is to find safe, stable, permanent homes for abused and neglected children, first through reunification with the child's parents if that is safe or, if not, through another permanent placement option. When identifying and implementing improvements, the initiative's goal is for all stakeholders to operate "through the eyes of the child" so as to achieve child safety, permanency, and well-being. 

Find information about implementation of MAAFPCWDA, the Minnesota African American Family Preservation and Child Welfare Disproportionality Act and it's implementation, supporting greater protections for African American children and children who are overrepresented in Minnesota’s child welfare system. 

Minnesota Child and Family Service Reviews provide counties with a baseline performance measure across seven child safety, permanency and well-being outcomes, and 24 related performance items. This data, along with information from the individual county self-assessment and community stakeholder reviews, is available to support counties in their program improvement planning and overall child welfare quality improvement efforts. For more information, visit the Quality Improvement Practices and Tools page on PartnerLink.

The Minnesota Child Welfare Training Academy (MNCWTA) is a collaboration between the Department of Children, Youth, and Families and the Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare (CASCW) at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. MNCWTA provides competency-based training for Minnesota counties and tribes, promoting culturally responsive services rooted in strengths-based, family-centered best practices that support child safety, permanency and well-being. 

Northstar Care for Children helps more children grow up in safe and permanent homes by consolidating and simplifying the administration of foster and adoption assistance programs to support families caring for children. More information can be found can be found on the department's Northstar Adoption Assistance Program webpage and the Northstar Care for Children page in PartnerLink.

The Parent Support Outreach Program (PSOP)  is a voluntary, supportive, strength-based, family-driven program that provides support and services to prevent child maltreatment from occurring. Families can refer themselves, or be referred by community or social service agencies. PSOP works to achieve and maintain safety for children, enhance the well-being of children and families, and support families so that they can meet the needs of their children by themselves and through support systems. PSOP staff conduct comprehensive assessments of families’ needs and strengths, and together, make decisions about what services or community resources can best achieve success.

Contact county agencies for referral information. 

The five protective factors at the foundation of Strengthening Families are characteristics that have been shown to make positive outcomes more likely for young children and their families, and to reduce the likelihood of child abuse and neglect. Learn more about the protective factors on the Center for the Study of Social Policy website.