Minnesota

Minnesota utilized IDTA to launch the State Supreme Court’s Children’s Justice Initiative Alcohol and Other Drugs (CJI-AOD) Workgroup to enhance the capacity of the lead entities to further develop cross-systems partnerships and improve practices related to serving families with substance abuse problems in the child welfare system.

Their final products included:

• Statement of Shared Values and Guiding Principles (PDF - 38 KB) – Signed by the Commissioners, this document articulates each entity’s expected contributions and commitment to support, and facilitate implementation, and is a model that localities can use.
• Communication Structure and Protocol (PDF - 430 KB)
• Catch the Vision Tool Kit of Recommended Practices for Working with Families – Practice guidelines based on lessons learned nationally as well as from the three pilot counties and other regions within Minnesota that have implemented successful strategies in working with families.
• Parent Partner Focus Group PowerPoint Presentation (PPT - 191 KB)
• Parent Partner Focus Group Summary (PDF - 153 KB)
• Parent Partner Handbook (PDF - 1.2 MB)
• Parent Partner Job Description (PDF - 43 KB)
• Parent Partner Research Summary (PDF - 80 KB)
• CJI-AOD Training Plan (PDF - 64 KB) – Structured to ensure local agencies and service providers receive the necessary training and TA to support the implementation of Tool Kit strategies to improve engagement and retention of families in supports and services.
• CJI-AOD Recommendations for Sustainability (PDF - 298 KB) - A set of long-term implementation and sustainability recommendations to institutionalize the collective vision and promising practices into existing agency strategic planning efforts in order to ensure expansion of the project.

A hallmark of Minnesota’s work was their commitment to ensuring that parents were represented in the process and given a legitimate role in shaping the outcomes identified for the technical assistance. To wit, each lead entity contributed resources to contract with a Parent Partner who coordinated a series of regional focus groups with recovering parents who had a history of involvement with child welfare and the courts, and subsequently developed a number of collateral products to facilitate future parent partner involvement. These included a Parent Partner Handbook with Job Description; a Focus Group Summary Report, and a Parent Partner/Recovery Mentor Model Research Summary Report. Minnesota’s CJI-AOD Workgroup took advantage of the optional post-IDTA follow-up support to develop:

• An evaluation plan to measure outcomes that result from Tool Kit implementation;
• A training and technical assistance plan to support phased roll-out of the Tool Kit.
• A Tool Kit maintenance checklist for ensuring that the Tool Kit is kept up-to-date.

For more information, Children's Justice Initiative Alcohol and Other Drugs Project
http://www.mncourts.gov/default.aspx?page=642