Subsequent to the Department’s application for funds, UCare awarded the County $100,000. Hennepin County requested funds to pilot culturally specific stabilization services to families of color. Funds will allow the Human Services and Public Health Department to expand the capacity to respond to families experiencing crises due to a family conflict or a youth’s behavior. The target population will be families of youth who have been brought to a hospital emergency room but do not meet inpatient admission criteria. In the absence of access to support, situations can escalate over time. Parents and caregivers become exhausted to the point that they often see a youth's removal from the home as the only viable solution. The department will contract for services with culturally specific community providers with cultural competency in working with African American and Native American families.

The specific services provided will be a rapid response intervention and short-term stabilization. The Department expects to see benefits in serving clients through this new method. Services are dedicated to the department’s overarching goals around racial equity as well as protecting children and supporting communities and families in raising children who develop to their fullest potential. The department expects these outcomes for the proposed Rapid Response Short Term Stabilization Project:

• Stabilization of the family's functioning and improvement of the child/youth's functioning
• Reduction in youth being brought to emergency rooms and inpatient hospitalizations
• Reduction in youth being placed in juvenile detention, residential treatment or shelters
• Improved access to mental health services and community supports