Memo
Date:
September 13, 2013
To:
MCH Task Force
From:
Megan Waltz
Subject:
Prenatal to Three Process
Background
The Prenatal – Three Planning Process is a joint effort of the Minnesota departments of Health,
Education, and Human Services. The goals of this process are:
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To create an action oriented set of policy recommendations that will both improve outcomes
and reduce disparities in the areas of health, well-being, and education for infants, toddlers,
their families, and their communities; and
To build broad public support with multiple community partners for efforts to ensure success of
Minnesota’s infants and toddlers through strategies focused on health, wellbeing and education
of our youngest children and their families and communities.
The Prenatal to Three Framework is a document which outlines a vision, guiding principles,
values, outcomes and indicators to support this work. The framework was accepted as a
dynamic document by the Children’s Cabinet in February 2013. The outcomes and indicators in
the Framework align with both the Maternal Child Health Block Grant (Title V) and the School
Readiness Report Card as well as with Healthy Minnesota 2020.
Utilizing the Framework as a tether and a platform, the second phase of the Prenatal – Three
Systems Planning Process has begun. A kick-off event, Building Power for Babies, was held on
June 3rd at the Science Museum of Minnesota in connection with the Wonder Years exhibit. The
Wonder Years exhibit focuses on the science of early brain development and provides a useful
background to this work.
Building Power for Babies
The Building Power for Babies Event on June 3 was hosted at the Science Museum of Minnesota
and funded through a National Science Foundation grant supporting the Wonder Years exhibit.
One hundred and ninety people from all over the state representing many disciplines and
agencies, parents and advocates attended the event and took part in morning and afternoon
sessions devoted to kicking off phase 2 of the Prenatal to Three Planning Process. The morning
was devoted to the plenary sessions led by Terrie Rose and Laura Porter. They discussed the
science of brain development, the critical nature of safe, stable, nurturing relationships and
environments, and how to build the capacity for child, family, and community resilience.
Commissioners Cassellius, Ehlinger, and Jesson rounded out the morning with their supportive
remarks. Participants gathered in their regional teams for the afternoon breakout conversations
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which focused on the “why” of the work we do with infants, toddlers, and their families. Travel
for the regional teams was subsidized in part by the Start Early Funders.
Development of Regional Teams
In partnership with the Minnesota Initiative Foundations Early Childhood Initiatives, a regional
approach for building public will and integrating geographic and disciplinary diversity into our
systems approach was developed. Seven regional cross-disciplinary teams have been formed to
participate in the second phase of our planning. Their work began at the Building Power for
Babies event both during the plenary sessions and the breakout conversations. The plenary
sessions have helped set the stage for developing a common narrative throughout the state as to
why early relationships and environments matter in the course of our lifespan. The breakout
conversations focused on why this work is important at the community level.
These conversations have grown throughout the summer as the 6 Greater Minnesota regions and
the metro have entered into more in-depth dialogue about concrete actions that support building
the capacity for resiliency within communities and systems-level policy recommendations. To
date, six regional conversations have been accomplished in Fergus Falls, Redwood Falls,
Bemidji, Owatonna, Duluth, and Little Falls. A Metro regional team meeting has been scheduled
for September 10th. As well, we have been working to schedule an interagency team meeting for
early childhood staff in Health, Education, and Human Services.
Methodology
Each region begins with a short presentation focused on disparities, equity and the relationship to
policy. The presentation describes some key vocabulary around equity and policy so that the
groups have a common understanding of how their work impacts the larger population. Then
each group follows the community dialogue template which begins with a group dialogue
focusing on the critical nature of safe, stable, nurturing relationships within the scope of a
promotion and prevention framework and how these types of relationships build the capacity for
child, family, and community resiliency. This effort builds off of a short video clip from the
Harvard Center on the Developing Child titled, Building Adult Capabilities to Improve Child
Outcomes: A Theory of Change. Following the video, the groups break out into World Café
type conversation in order to discuss four questions which lead them to think creatively about
policy solutions that will impact the youngest children and their families within each region.
There has been great effort toward ensuring consistency within the template throughout the
regions.
Data
In a simultaneous effort, data collection to provide baseline data for the Framework has been
ongoing. Efforts to collect data from three agencies disaggregated by race, ethnicity, and income
for 23 indicators have proved challenging. Staff continue to work cross-agency to provide data.
Technical Assistance
MDH staff continue to receive technical assistance from Zero to Three and other national
partners such as BUILD and The Ounce for these prenatal to three planning efforts. Minnesota
is working to determine how best to utilize a technical assistance visit provided to us by Zero to
Three. This visit may be utilized for many different purposes including but not limited to
meeting facilitation and process review. Monthly check-ins with ZTT staff has been helpful in
this process.
Partners
Many partners have requested updates and conversations related to the Prenatal to Three process
this summer including the Early Learning Council and the Subcommittee for Rural and Special
Populations, Child Care Aware of MN, The Minnesota Head Start Association, The MinneMinds
Campaign and Start Early Funders, staff at the Center for Early Education and Development
(CEED), The Healthy Minnesota Partnership, and others. Staff has given updates on process but
not the results of the regional dialogues as it seems premature to do so before the engagement
process is complete.
Next Steps
MDH staff are working to compile the results of the Greater Minnesota dialogues and preparing
for the remaining meetings for the Metro Regional Team and the Interagency Team. We are
currently compiling the recommendations we’ve heard thus far. Next steps include:
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Facilitate final conversations;
Compile recommendations;
Work with teams to prioritize recommendations;
Continue to compile base line data for the Framework;
Provide updates as necessary to partners; and
Develop final recommendations for the Children’s Cabinet by January 2014