The Minnesota Department of Human Services, through its Child Safety and Permanency Division (STATE), is seeking proposals from qualified responders to provide services that support kinship families.
Donor Name: Minnesota Department of Human Services
State: Minnesota
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 09/30/2022
Size of the Grant: $1,000,000
Grant Duration: 5 years
Details:
A primary goal of the STATE is to ensure that all children have safe, stable, loving and permanent families. Foster care requires agencies to place children in licensed family foster homes or licensed residential facility. However, agencies may make emergency placements with relatives prior to licensure. Most children in foster care are successfully reunified with their parents, but in some cases, successful reunification does not occur. When children are in foster care for twelve (12) months, juvenile courts may order:
- Transfer of permanent legal and physical custody (TPLPC). When TPLPC occurs, permanent relative custodians have primary rights and responsibilities for the children’s protection, education, care, supervision, and decision making on behalf of the children. Children continue to have a legal parent-child relationship with birth parents, but their rights are secondary, subject to limits imposed by the rights of relative custodians.
- Termination of parental rights and guardianship transfers to the commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Human Services. These children are referred to as under guardianship of the commissioner or the state. As designated agents of the commissioner, county social service agencies are responsible for these children’s safety, permanency, and well-being. In other cases, a tribal court may order suspension of parental rights and then the tribal social service agency is responsible for children’s well-being. The STATE works with county and tribal social service agencies and private child-placing agencies to find permanent families for children under guardianship. Many of these children are members of sibling groups; it is in their best interest to find permanency together. Minnesota has significant racial disparities in foster care; African American, American Indian, and children of two or more races, are disproportionally likely to experience out-of-home care.
To qualify for this grant, successful Responders must demonstrate that their employees have knowledge of common challenges related to kinship care that include but are not limited to:
- Changing family dynamics;
- Financial, food, and housing barriers;
- Legal authority and the responsibilities of the local child welfare agency;
- Child care and respite care;
- Health care;
- Cultural needs and differences;
- Stress and feelings, including loss, guilt, shame and sadness; and
- The impact of multi-generational trauma.
Funding Information
- The total anticipated allocation is estimated to be seven hundred ninety thousand dollars ($790,000) for state fiscal year (SFY) 2023, and one million dollars ($1,000,000) for SFY 2024 for contracted services outlined in this Request for Proposal (RFP).
- The term of any resulting contract is anticipated to be for eighteen (, from , until STATE may extend the contract up to a total of five (5) years.
Eligibility Criteria
Kinship care refers to the care of children by relatives or close family friends (often referred to as fictive kin). Responders are asked to identify the target populations on Form 4, Description of target population, and on Form 9, Services and workplan, identify the population they will provide services to for each service. The following are eligible for this Request for Proposals:
- Informal kinship caregivers; children not in foster care. Kin caregivers providing care for children outside the foster care system without court involvement or legal recognition of their caregiving relationship with children.
- Formal kinship caregivers; children in foster care. Kin caregivers providing care to children receiving child welfare services from a county or tribal human services agency.
- Transfer of permanent legal and physical custody (TPLPC) kinship caregivers. TPLPC occurs when permanent relative custodians have primary rights and responsibilities for protection, education, care, supervision, and decision-making on behalf of children. Children continue to have a legal parent-child relationship with birth parents, but their rights are secondary, subject to limits imposed by the rights of relative custodians.
- Adoptive families. Termination of parental rights with guardianship transferring to the commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Human Services. In other cases, a tribal court may order suspension of parental rights, and tribal social service agency is responsible for children’s well-being. The STATE works with county and tribal social service agencies and private child-placing agencies to find permanent families for children under guardianship. Adoption is the legal and social process by which children become members of families other than their birth families. Adoptive parents have all the rights and responsibilities of birth parents
For more information, visit MNDHS.
