Care in Action Minnesota Receives Grant from Sauer Family Foundation

Minnesota (December 28th, 2020) –Care in Action Minnesota (CIAM) is pleased to announce it has received a $10,000 grant from the Sauer Family Foundation. These funds will support us in our efforts as we work to enhance the quality of life of children who have experienced abuse or neglect, strengthen families, connect communities, and prevent childhood maltreatment, by providing timely crucial support that meets the basic needs of local families

The community foundation awards annual grants through a competitive application and review process. In 2019, CIAM received its first crucial investment from the Sauer Family Foundation, which allowed us to hire our first staff person ever, after 15 years of fully volunteer run! Like Care in Action Minnesota, the Sauer Family Foundation believes “when children are abused or neglected, we need to attend to the child’s well-being and support their family.” In addition to this trauma informed response that focuses on family healing, we know preventing child maltreatment requires a focus on these protective factors within children and families that can reduce risks, build family capacity, and foster resilience. This focus is crucial to our work because abuse and neglect are often associated with factors and conditions causing families to experience toxic levels of stress; including: lack of access to basic resources, housing instability, poverty, mental health issues and social isolation. Conversely, access to these concrete resources and services can help meet families’ basic needs and support parents in their role.

While the pandemic created an array of unforeseen circumstances this past year, due to the critical investment we received from the Sauer Family Foundation, as well as, CIAM’s unique positioning, collaborative structure, and our established focus on assuring access to basic needs, while targeting a population at-risk to be disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, CIAM was poised to quickly and directly deploy resources in response to immediate emergency needs in our community.

Looking ahead, with the continued generous support of the Sauer Family Foundation, CIAM’s positioning to address the growing issues surrounding childhood maltreatment is reinforced and strengthened. Care in Action Minnesota will continue to work to ensure access to immediate basic needs like groceries, housing and health-related services. Additionally, in an effort to combat COVID-19 learning loss and the digital divide, CIAM continues to work to provide technology and equipment to facilitate and enhance virtual learning opportunities, delivered directly to the child’s door. Ultimately, we hope to meet the urgent needs in our communities, support equitable long-term recovery, and fortify our ongoing efforts to strengthen families and prevent childhood maltreatment.

About the Sauer Family Foundation

The mission of the Sauer Family Foundation is to invest in strengthening the well-being of children so they thrive in their families and communities. They work in settings that serve children who are at-risk or experiencing abuse or neglect, exposed to toxic stress/trauma, or have challenges developing reading, writing and math skills.

About Care in Action Minnesota

Care in Action Minnesota (CIAM) was established in 2005 to further a vision of the world with no family violence, where all children, youth, and families in our community can operate at their full potential and have the resources and skills they need to live with hope and dignity.

Through a grassroots engagement model and community connections, CIAM has built a committed network of donors, crowdfunding critical goods and services that are identified by partnered County Social Worker’s, in cooperation with the families receiving relief.

For more information or to learn how you can get involved, visit our website or contact Katherine Sims at katherine@careinactionmn.org

The link between COVID-19 and Child Abuse, and what we can do about it

COVID-19 may not be killing children in the same numbers as adults, but the virus that has locked down the world for nearly 6 months, is having a grave and long-lasting impact on children. When life is disrupted by a natural disaster, research has shown that incidents of abuse have increased, and children in dangerous situations can fall through the cracks in the system. Abuse and neglect are often associated with factors and conditions causing families to experience toxic levels of stress; including: lack of access to basic resources, housing instability, poverty, mental health issues and social isolation. Conversely, access to these concrete resources and services can help meet families’ basic needs and support parents in their role. Child maltreatment prevention requires a focus on these protective factors within children and families that can reduce risks, build family capacity, and foster resilience.

Unfortunately, the growing threat of the COVID-19 pandemic has caused increases in known risk factors, primarily: social isolation, parental stress, and economic strain. Many child protection professionals believe child abuse is likely to increase during the pandemic because most abusers are parents or siblings who now have more complete access to the child victim. In turn, the victim may no longer have school teachers, faith leaders or other mandated reporters they can access for help or who may detect a sign of abuse.

Here’s what we’re doing about it

Care in Action Minnesota is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, that provides essential support and assures access to basic needs for foster youth, children and families impacted by abuse or neglect across Minnesota, since 2005. Through a variety of programs and initiatives, we work to promote the social, physical, spiritual, and emotional well-being of children, strengthen families, connect communities and prevent childhood maltreatment. We thrive to foster equity, trauma-informed healing, family stability, and self-sufficiency.

With a continuing need to social distance as more become sick, we’ve seen needs quickly mount like never before. Everything from basics, like food to emergency financial assistance to pay for things like rent is urgently needed as families continue to experience lost wages due to illness or business closures and layoffs. As the crisis continues to grow, so do the negative effects on peoples’ health and their financial well being. Making it even more important than ever to provide immediate financial assistance to these families.

Through Care in Action Minnesota COVID-19 Family Emergency Relief Fund, we’re raising $5,000 to provide direct support to over 100 struggling families in our community

Ultimately, we hope our efforts respond to immediate needs, support equitable recovery, and strengthen our ongoing efforts to support child well-being, strengthen families, connect communities and prevent childhood maltreatment.

During times of uncertainty and crisis, it’s imperative we come together as a community to support one another. Join us today by supporting and sharing this campaign with a friend!

Combating COVID-19 Summer Learning Loss

COVID-19 may not be killing children in the same numbers as adults, but the virus that has locked down the world for nearly 5 months now, is having a grave and long-lasting impact on kids. In addition to the existing challenges faced by children and families in the midst of the pandemic, the Summer months ahead pose additional unique challenges. The thought of the effect this 6-month school break will have on masses of children is frightening, especially its impact on kids from low-income families who already tend to lag behind.

Summer has always been a time when gaps get wider. The seminal Coleman Report published in 1966 showed that student outcomes inside the classroom are predicated on their circumstances outside the classroom. More recent studies show that summer is a pivotal period for student learning. Nationally, children enjoy summer breaks of 8–10 weeks, summer learning loss has been estimated at between 10–25 percent of yearly learning, with children from poorer households disproportionately affected. Studies in low-income settings show that gaps in schooling lead to drop outs at critical transitions between educational levels, and can lower the progression of the most disadvantaged children through the school system.

Summer slides are especially pernicious because their effects are cumulative. By the time a student gets to middle school, they’ve lost an average of two years to summer slide. At higher grade levels, the effect grows even stronger. The consequences of a six-month summer vacation are almost impossible to imagine.

Moreover, the effects of summer slide extend far beyond testing outcomes. For example, low-income students who experience the greatest summer learning loss are more likely to drop out of high school. That’s because lapses in school not only produce losses in learning, but, as Alexander and his colleagues wrote, also “losses in health and well-being, college and career opportunity, and support needed to break cycles of inter-generational poverty and move young people and their families forward.”

Learning opportunities and life outcomes are multifaceted and interrelated. Students from households with greater levels of connectivity, higher levels of parental education, greater availability of parental time for engagement, and in-home availability of books and materials have much better ability to access and benefit from distance learning. These advantages are further reinforced by the reliance of these responses on the use of technology, as the absence of connectivity and technology gap has slowed down the shift to distance learning during COVID-19 and continues to be a major challenge. Experts warn that technologically mediated distance learning is likely to increase inequality in learning continuity.

What we’re doing about it

Care in Action Minnesota is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, providing essential support to foster youth, children and families impacted by abuse or neglect in Washington, Ramsey, Dakota, Winona, Fillmore, and Hennepin Counties, since 2005. Through a variety of programs and initiatives, we work to promote the social, physical, spiritual, and emotional well-being of children, strengthen families, connect communities and prevent childhood maltreatment. We thrive to foster equity, trauma-informed healing, family stability, and self-sufficiency.

CIAM’s resource activation networks have been able to support thousands of children and families, across Minnesota. At CIAM, in addition to assuring access to basic needs, we focus on strengthening learning opportunities and the personal development and enrichment of the children and youth we serve. We look to the summer months ahead as an opportunity to combat coronavirus learning loss, by providing children and youth, among other things: laptops for online learning, covering online courses and summer camp costs, Summer monthly STEM kits that allow for personalized enrichment through increasingly complex activities, and book club subscriptions where books, tailoring to child’s age, reading level and interests, are also delivered monthly to their homes.

The impact that learning materials can have on learning continuity during periods of school closure are well researched. For example, a US-based intervention that mailed 10 books to students over the summer matched to students reading interests, accompanied by email or text messages to parents, promoted more than one month of gains in reading skills. Additionally, when children gain a sense of mastery of their environments, they are more likely to develop feelings of self-worth, confidence and independence.

You can join us

While COVID-19 has been tough on everyone, it has been particularly disastrous for families that were already struggling to make ends meet. We need $5,000 to support the development and combat learning loss among our most vulnerable. We operate by a committed group of volunteers and core supporters and all donations are tax deductible and 100% OF YOUR DONATION WILL GO DIRECTLY TOWARDS PROVIDING ENGAGING LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES TO AT-RISK CHILDREN AND YOUTH.