'Thrive' is definitely thriving!

The other day we received a update from Jane Ellison, project manager for the Greater St. Cloud Area Thrive group.  (If you haven't heard about Thrive, you can either read about it on our website or browse through the Winter 2008 issue of IQ to learn more.

Since she describes everything so well, I thought I'd just share a clip directly from her email...

"As you know the Access project, developed by our Leadership Team, received a grant from the Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation.  While working on our planning year, that grant - along with our StayStrong grant [from the Initiative Foundation] - have given us an absolutely amazing opportunity to develop relationships between members of our Thrive Leadership Team and immigrant and refugee populations in the community.  I have attached a great picture of our Access planning team.  We are conducting forums and interviews with immigrant/refugee families and bringing the results back to share with our Leadership Team.  A final report of the forums and interviews will be presented in July to our Thrive Coalition team."

Jane goes on to describe a few other projects they're working on - home visitations, childcare provider trainings, 'playdates' between local legislators and kids, integrating services in area school districts and a variety of presentations and resource sharing.  

Thank you, Jane, for sending us the update and thank you, Greater St. Cloud Area Thrive, for doing such amazing work to support our area's youngest citizens!!

Thrive: helping our youngest little citizens.

THRIVE-verb {thriv};
1. To prosper; be fortunate or successful.
2. To grow or develop vigorously; to flourish.

To thrive in life is probably a goal for many of us; to be the best we can be.

But what about the young children in our communities who have little or no support? What help is out there for them?

Statewide surveys revealed that an alarming number of greater Minnesota children are struggling with mental health issues and a striking lack of access to professional help.

Working together, the six Minnesota Initiative Foundations launched the Minnesota Thrive Initiative in 2007 in order to address the healthy social and emotional development of infants, toddlers and preschoolers.

The Thrive Initiative didn’t come easy; it took years of hard work and research to gather the necessary information, contacts, grants, etc. But it’s worth it because it’s SO important for our very youngest children to have the opportunities to learn and grow.

And that hard work has paid off. According to a recent project report: “Together, we have helped connect practitioners across multiple disciplines, educate community members about healthy social and emotional development, coordinate and expand mental health services, and make Greater Minnesota a better place for children and families."

The Thrive Report, published back in March, contains background information, case studies and outcomes. I'd also invite you to become inspired and better informed by reading our Winter 2008 IQ Magazine,, where all 56 pages are dedicated to the issue!

Cheering for Children

Hello, I’m Linda Kaufmann and I head up the foundation’s Children, Youth and Families programs. Last week I was asked to do the impossible – convince the St. Cloud School Board that dedicating already finite school and community resources to early childhood was the most important decision they could make this year. A tough task indeed. Oh, and I had a grand total of ten minutes to do it. Well, I mentioned this to my friend Candi Kraigthorpe at the MN Association for Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health and she said she knew of a video that would be perfect. Take a look… it is definitely worth four minutes of your time!



So, what did the St. Cloud School Board think about it? They cheered. Yes, literally cheered when it was shown.

I sincerely hope that you too will cheer for the lives of little kids. There’s simply no better economic investment we can make!

(And special thanks to The Ounce of Prevention Fund in Chicago for creating this wonderful video.)