(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - Welcome to "Almanac North."

I'm Maarja Hewitt.

Today we are joined by foster care experts, officials from St. Louis County, and representatives from two foster organizations, will help us understand what is the foster system like for children, how it works, and the process to become a foster parent.

That's coming up later on "Almanac North."

But first, on Wednesday, Governor Tim Walls announced $6.2 million in new grants to expand childcare across the state.

The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development has awarded 21 organizations with Childcare Economic Development Grants, the state's largest ever round of funding for the program.

The funding is expected to increase childcare program capacity by over 2200 slots.

"Making Minnesota the best state for children and families starts with childcare," said Governor Walls, Lieutenant Governor Flanagan added, "We want to ensure families across the state have access to high quality, affordable childcare, and that childcare businesses have the support they need to succeed."

DEED's Childcare Economic Development Grant Program provides funding to communities to invest in new or expanding childcare businesses, including facility improvements, worker training, attraction, retention and licensing, and other strategies to reduce the childcare shortage.

(upbeat music) We are now joined by North Homes Children and Family Services' Marketing Director, Wade Chiodo, and Foster Care and Adoption Licenser, Jill Ruthford.

Wade, Jill, thank you so much for joining us.

- Thank you.

- So maybe we could start with an overview of North Homes Children and Family Services.

What do you guys do and what services you provide?

- We provide community-based, continuum of quality, compassionate care for children and families.

We're across the state of Minnesota, we have five core value or five core programs.

We have foster care adoption, residential, community-based, CTSS, school-based, outpatient clinic, adult services.

We serve lots and lots of clients across the board.

Like in quarter one, in our outpatient, we served over 2000 folks.

- Oh, wow.

- Or clients, and in foster care we did over 100 and we have lots of programs that service across the state of Minnesota.

- And looking at the foster care programs, you're not isolated to like Grand Rapids or like a specific county?

You cover a wide range of Minnesota, right?

- Correct, we can cover the whole state of Minnesota.

Whereas counties have to be in their county of where the person is residing, we are able to go anywhere.

And we have a couple of our folks that do home-based, so they are in the metro area.

I also travel to the North Metro a lot, have a lot of families there.

So I have also families in Grand Marais, so we're all over the map.

- So when you're going through the licensing process, do you work with the counties then to license in those specific counties, or how do you do your work as a licenser?

- Sure, so we do coordinate with the counties.

However, the licensing process itself, we do that separately.

We do almost the same types of things, but we are at a higher standard because we are council and accreditation.

So we have a couple extra things that we have to go through for the licensing process that you don't do at the county level, but that's because we have a higher level of care and needs, taking care of our families.

- So what are some of the common reasons you see children enter the foster care system in our region?

- Most of the time kids are entering the foster care system because there's a need or a care that they're not receiving at home.

And it can be anything from a substance abuse problem, a physical abuse problem, it's a wide range of reasons.

- Yeah, it's important to note that these kids, when they get the opportunity to get 'em the resources that they can have to be successful and grow and go from there.

- What's your process for making sure the child and the home are a good fit?

- So we have what we call licensers and case managers.

And so the licensers get to know these families first.

We're in their homes, we wanna make sure that they have the resources, they're going through trainings, things like that.

And we develop a picture of these families, what we call a home study.

And in that we create a story of this family and we try to provide that to the case managers who will then understand what does this family need, what are their abilities, what are their capabilities, and then then start with the matching process of kids that come into our care.

- Yeah, and we talk to the families and see what are they able to make sure that the match does fit.

And it's a lot of communication back and forth 'cause we want to be successful across the board and make sure that everybody understands and gets the whole picture.

Because these kids have things that they need to help grow and some families are a little bit more, maybe they've handled situations or different situations a little differently.

And it all comes down to communication, I think is a huge factor.

- Conversations, a lot of conversations and those open-ended questions, what would you do in this situation?

It's not yes or no.

So you really delve into what they really believe or what would work in their home.

- As a a nonprofit agency, is your ultimate goal reunification with family?

Ultimately, is that what you're looking for?

- Yes, I don't know if you wanna go back on that at all.

- Yeah, there's a case plan and we're all trying to make sure that the needs are being met and obviously the family's following the case plan and so we can work towards the collaboration with them, to working towards getting the kiddos back to their family, 'cause that's important.

We all know and we help and the communication level is there with the family as well.

And so they're involved as much as anybody, so they have a voice and they're heard.

- What are some of the major challenges for kids in the foster care system or foster families?

- Lack of foster homes.

There is really a critical need, we're at a really critical point where there's so many kids in the system, we just don't have the homes to place them.

And so sometimes you hear these stories where they're then sent into like a residential treatment facility or they're sitting in emergency rooms because we can't find a loving home for them.

- Yeah, and the big age I know is the 10 to 18 years of age is a big need.

And like Jill said, it's a huge need across the board, not just here in St. Louis County, but across the state of Minnesota.

- So if someone at home is watching and is interested to learn more, is there a way that you're doing recruitment or they can learn info?

- Yeah, you can go to our website, northhomes.org, you can call, everything's on there to get the process started.

I know it can be a little overwhelming at first because there is paperwork, like nobody wants to fill out the paperwork, but there's a process and we try to obviously, the supports and stepping through all the process to help you out and to get a better understanding of it.

But the best way is to go to our website, northhomes.org - Or to call any one of our offices and they'll get you to a licenser.

We'd love to help 'em out.

- Perfect, Jill, Wade, thank you so much for joining us.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

(gentle music) - Next up, I'm joined by Jennifer Fick, Karen Jones, and Melissa Lehr from the St. Louis County Health and Human Services Department.

Jenny, Karen, Melissa, thank you for joining us on "Almanac North" tonight.

- Thank you for having us.

- So maybe we could start with looking at the Foster Childcare Services Department, like what's the goal when we look at the primary objective?

- So the goal for us is when a child is removed from the home due to maybe chemical dependency issues in the home or mental health issues, there could be a number of different things.

It's our job to find safe and stable housing for that child, in a way that the parents can feel comfortable so that they're not worried about what's happening with their child while they're going through the services that they need to go through, according to the plan that the social workers make, our ultimate goal in that is reunification with the parents.

- So it's temporary, the hope is it's temporary.

- It's a temporary placement, and the priority would be to place with relatives or somebody that the child's connected with.

But if we cannot find that, then that's when we move to someone that they're not related to.

- So then you're looking for someone who has gone through applying and becoming licensed.

What makes a good foster parent?

What are the qualifications they should have?

- I think loving a child, being able to really provide for that child's needs in that time.

Kids come in all different shapes and sizes, with all different strengths and weaknesses.

Some kids may need physical therapy or occupational therapy, some kids have some behavioral needs.

And so it's really important that we have trauma informed parents and we can get them there, we can do the training that provides them with the knowledge to be able to handle those kinds of situations.

- What's the process like for the application and becoming licensed and how long does it take typically?

- One of the qualifications for an open home, a non-relative, would be that they're 21 years of age or older.

We look for them then to fill out an application, do the paperwork, we have training that comes with that, and we do a criminal and social service background check.

And the process, I could say somebody could take or start it out and take maybe a couple months to maybe up to a year, depending on if they've lived in different states.

Sometimes the background checks take a while to get back.

- Oh, sure.

So when you look at the St. Louis County Foster Care System right now and the needs, are there enough like open home, I think you mentioned there's those non-family, those non-relatives, are there enough foster care homes to meet the needs of kids right now?

- Absolutely not.

We're in crisis right now for foster homes and it's all across the state.

So we are working on recruitment right now, we're trying to hit very hard on areas that the children are most affected so we can keep them in their community, om their school.

That's what's the most important to us if we cannot place with a relative or a friend of theirs, a friend of the family, somebody who they're comfortable with.

- So what do those recruitment efforts look like?

Do you go to, I don't know, workplaces, libraries, have tables, places?

- Yeah, we do table different events.

So we are split up between North and South St. Louis County, so we do have North St. Louis County Licensers.

So they touch the north part of the county and they go to events there.

We also have, right now what we're hoping to do is partner with some local businesses.

We have a campaign where we're going to see if they'll put stickers on their to go cartons and those types of things so we can get the message out there that we do need homes.

- What are the benefits of being a foster parent?

- Karen?

- Well I've been a foster parent for about 30 years now, and I take in teenage girls.

And for me, it's always different, it's always changing, it keeps me young, I keep up on the hip words or the TikTok dances.

I can honestly say that every child I've ever had has brought some kind of joy into my life.

Not that there hasn't been difficulties because there has, these are kids that are coming with trauma and we work through it, we get through it.

I would honestly say that if anybody out there is thinking, even have just a thought about doing foster care, I would have them contact St. Louis County.

I would have them talk to Jenny.

We don't mind going into coming into your home and just sitting down and having a conversation, with no commitment whatsoever.

At any time during the process, if you find that it's not for you, that's okay, we're okay with that, but we are in desperate need and these are our kids and this is our community and we need people to really step up right now and help.

- Yeah, so if someone's interested, how would they go about learning more?

I know you mentioned training too, so if they wanted to learn more about how they need to be equipped, how would they do that?

- Well, they can start, we do have a website.

It's www.enoughtofoster.com.

That is one place where they're gonna be able to get all the information.

It'll also bring them to the St. Louis County website where all the contact information they need is there, and they'll learn about the different steps they need to take to become a foster parent.

- Yeah, some of that training, I have to imagine has to do with mental health, behavioral health, is that ongoing that you provide?

Because I'm sure even after three decades you can learn more.

- Oh, absolutely, every year I learn something.

Our training is 12 hours a year, you're required to take one hour of mental health and one hour of fetal alcohol.

- And now child maltreatment.

- And now child maltreatment, just so that everybody is up to date on what maltreatment looks like and who to contact.

A lot of people don't know who to contact when you suspect something is going on.

And then the other trainings are trainings that your licenser and you discuss and you take because they are of interest to you and you want to learn more about that topic.

- Oh, so it can be tailored a little bit.

- Yep, so everybody's is tailored to what their needs are.

Different aged kids, different tailoring.

- Yep, yep.

- One of the best ways that we recruit is through word of mouth.

And word of mouth, just sitting with somebody and talking to them about their strengths and their weaknesses or what kind of, and by kind I mean like gender or age specific children that they want to foster.

And that could dictate to what training that we can recommend that they attend.

- Well, this was such a good conversation, a lot of good information.

Melissa, Karen and Jenny, thank you so much for joining us.

- Thank you for having us.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - Our next guest is from New Hope for Families, a faith-based foster organization based in Duluth, board member Angela Torgerson is with us today.

Thank you so much for joining us, Angela.

- Thank you for having me, it's an honor.

- So maybe you could tell us just a brief overview of what New Hope for Families is and what's your main objective?

- Sure, New Hope for Families exists to support and encourage foster and adoptive families in the area.

Our main goal is to make sure kids are safe and healthy and are living in an environment that's good for them.

And one of the main ways we do that is to support and encourage other foster families.

And there are a variety of ways that we do that.

We offer support groups, we have play dates where the parents can get together and drink coffee and hang out and the kids can play together.

We're basically trying to establish a community and we have a pretty solid community of a lot of foster families.

Other ways that New Hope sows into the families are, we have a lot of freezer meals that we're able to give out.

New Hope has been able to help purchase larger vehicles for several families who are needing to take in more children into their home.

We have date nights so parents can drop off their kiddos with background checked and trained volunteers, and they can have an evening to themselves.

- So you offer a lot of support services?

- [Angela] Yes, yes.

- And you are a foster parent yourself?

- Correct.

- So why are those support services, those coffee dates, why are things like that important for the foster community?

- It can be a heavy load to carry when you're caring for kids who have gone through some tough stuff, and we wanna be able to alleviate a lot of that.

And sometimes just getting together with other people who have walked in your shoes can have such value, encouraging them to keep going and giving different tactics or ways to love on those kiddos and just ways to be able to alleviate some of those stress and pressures.

- And it sounds like you also offer emergency care, so how does that work?

- Yep, connected to the New Hope for Families building is a 24 hour emergency shelter home.

And we have a family that lives there and kids can be placed there for typically up to 30 days.

And so that has been a huge blessing to the community.

Typically after that, they might go back home or they might go onto a long-term foster home.

And so we've had over 200 children come in and out of that home.

- Oh, wow, so that's an immediate need?

- Correct.

- That's filled while maybe another temporary situation might come up.

In addition to like looking for foster families, it looks like there's a lot of other ways people can volunteer or help the program.

So what do those programs look like?

- Yeah, we have a lot of volunteers and we would love to have even more, one of my favorite quotes by a foster care and adoption author is, "We're not all called to do the same thing, but we're all called to do something."

So basically whatever your skills and giftings are, we would love to be able to utilize them to sow into foster families.

But those who are interested in doing actual foster care, we have a meeting coming up on Monday evening at New Hope for Families and you can go on our website to learn more about that.

- Oh, so that's a nice way to learn quickly.

We've chatted with some other organizations tonight and something we're all talking about is the need for more foster parents and that we're in this crisis across the state.

Are you guys actively recruiting families and how do you guys go about doing that, sharing your message, and what does it take to be a foster parent with New Hope?

- Just recently we started hosting these foster care interest meetings.

We had one already, and we will do them three times a year.

And it's basically a way to create a constant funnel of new foster families.

I meet a lot of people that are like, oh, I wanna do that, and it's a way to connect people that are like, I wanna do that someday to like, here's the next step.

And so we had representatives from New Hope there, we had active foster families there and also representatives from the local counties and agencies that do the licensing.

And people were able to ask specific questions about getting licensed and it was able to connect that bridge from, I wanna do that to actively getting licensed.

So we will continue to do those to recruit more people to get on board.

- You mentioned getting licensed with the counties.

What does your relationship with the county look like and how do you guys work together?

- We have a really good relationship with the local counties in the area and some other agencies.

We have formed a great partnership with them.

We love to come alongside them and many of them are telling foster families about us and we are able to connect with them if they need services or car seats or others supplies for their kiddos.

They know where to send foster families.

- Yeah, so do you take donations?

That's something people can offer as a way to volunteer too.

- Yep, we have a kids' closet, so we have clothes for all ages and seasons, we have shoes, and so you could just connect with us on our website or call ahead and see what our needs specifically are for that.

- Wonderful, well, Angela, thank you so much for joining us tonight.

A lot of good information and a lot of great resources.

- Thank you for having me.

(gentle music) - Before we go, here's a look at what you might be up to this weekend.

Saturday at 10:00 AM the Cloquet Public Library is hosting Jay Cooke and the Northern Pacific Railroad.

Join executive director of the Lake Superior Railroad Museum, Ken Buehler, as he tells the incredible story of Jay Cooke.

The Duluth Air Show is this Saturday and Sunday, from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM.

The United States Air Force Thunderbirds, the Patriot Parachute team, and our own 148th Fighter Wing F16s are among the dozens of performances and demonstrations.

General admission tickets as well as reserve passes are available online at duluthairshow.com.

And Saturday at 10:00 AM, Chequamegon Humane Association and Superior Choice Credit Union are hosting a block party where you can meet and potentially adopt adorable animals.

Complimentary food, local vendors, and a fun-filled environment for all.

And for those looking further ahead than this weekend, Glensheen has unveiled its 2024 Concerts on the Pier lineup, featuring the largest roster yet, with 18 musical groups.

The concert series is free and open to the public every Wednesday night, from five to 8:00 PM.

Gates open at 5:00 PM with early access available through grounds admission, or a tour purchase.

The concert series kicks off on July 3rd with Father Hennepin and Nat Harvie, and continues through August 28th, concluding with Bad Bad Hats and Yonder.

Other highlights include performances by Chastity Brown, Nur-D, and Boss Mama and the Jebberhooch.

Concert goers can play lawn games, indulge in food from local vendors and savor locally made ice cream.

Guests are encouraged to paddle or boat in for a unique view from the water or bring lawn chairs and blankets to enjoy the music from the shore.

This year, Glensheen is also offering a free shuttle bus service with a suggested donation between the UMD Campus and the estate.

Free parking is available at UMD after 5:00 PM in designated lots.

For more information, visit the Glensheen website on your screen.

Well, as always, make sure you get out and enjoy your weekend.

I'm Maarja Hewitt, thank you for joining us on "Almanac North."

I'll see you all next time, goodnight.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (gentle music)