The Family Partnership’s new Building for Better Futures resource center is open with a preschool, childcare, therapy services and more.
This new facility moved into the heart of a neighborhood where its programs were already helping families, providing easier access. The facility has three times more space so The Family Partnership can better serve families.
A $22.7 million capital campaign that started in 2014 included funding from the State of Minnesota, The Peter J. King Family Foundation and many more generous donors. The new center was able to open in 2021 despite the many societal factors working against it—including COVID-19 and the murder of George Floyd protests.
“We broke ground in February 2020, and a couple minutes later, COVID started,” said Molly Greenman, President & CEO of The Family Partnership. Mortenson Construction finished the building in one year, faster than expected, Greenman shared. Plans of opening up the center were then able to come together in a relaxed timeline. The Four Directions preschool opened on June 4 and the full building on July 6.
Throughout planning for and after opening the center, The Family Partnership worked closely with the community to hear out concerns and ideas on how to best implement positive change into the community.
“We are right in the middle of a challenged community which is exactly where we wanted to be,” said Greenman. “One of the things we've been able to do is have meetings with the police and city officials and bring in our neighbors, both business owners and residents, to talk about ‘how do we protect the people who live and work and want to do business in the neighborhood.’”
The Family Partnership’s focus is working with families that have experienced generational trauma, racism and poverty. Mental health plays a vital role in beginning to help and to enact positive change for these families’ lives. The Family Partnership’s services from mental health, to bettering early education and supporting parents/caregivers with children, all combine to support whole families to build health and well-being.
“We take a two-generation approach, actually a multi-generation approach. If we work with a child—if we're not working with the parents, then whatever impact we have is going to be short-lived, so we want to work with both kids and parents,” Greenman said.
Access to The Family Partnership services is by self-referrals, referrals from county workers or other organizations. According to Greenman, families tend to stick with The Family Partnership. “In our preschools, we have some of kids whose parents have been in our preschools,” she said.
The Family Partnership works with several public schools and PICA Head Start locations in the Twin Cities. They provide School Linked Mental Health from elementary to senior high schools while developmental therapy services are provided for preschoolers in Head Start locations.
The Family Partnership has two preschools – in North Minneapolis and at the Bloomington & Lake street resource center. The preschools offer children developmental screenings within the first 30 days and access to on-site developmental therapy (occupational, physical or speech services) if needed to help overcome any barriers to learning.
“In Minneapolis in general, for children living in poverty, approximately fifty percent test ready for kindergarten. Ninety percent of the children in our preschools test ready for kindergarten,” Greenman said. The Four Directions preschool at Bloomington & Lake also includes language emersion classrooms in Dakota and Ojibwe by partner Wicoie Nandigenkan.
The center’s expanded space includes the Mental Health Therapy program available for individuals and families of all ages and cultures. The center also provides better access to people impacted by human trafficking. The Family Partnership’s PRIDE (Promoting Recovery, Independence, Dignity and Equality) program supports survivors with a private and safe space.
In 2021, The Minnesota Council on Nonprofits recognized The Family Partnership as the winner of its Nonprofit Mission Award for Innovation for the Executive Functioning Across Generations™ model. The curriculum is the first designed to boost children’s and their parent/caregiver’s executive functioning and self-regulation – the skills needed to stay on track with goals, imagine consequences of actions, inhibit impulsive behaviour and succeed in school and life.
The curriculum approach counteracts the negative impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and trauma faced by many young children and families, especially those living in poverty. The Family Partnership’s original curriculum for preschool classrooms, piloted in 2017-2019, led to national pilots in four states. In addition, the curriculum was adapted for home visiting and parenting group pilots supported by The Harvard Center on the Developing Child Frontiers of Innovation.
For a non-profit founded in 1878, the new resource center offers flexibility to adapt to future service needs. Greenman said the move to Bloomington & Lake Street provides a central location. “We want to be where people who need our services the most have them available, when they need them are available.”
For more information on The Family Partnership, visit www.thefamilypartnership.org