Colleen Connolly

A pilot program aims to enhance attendance and reduce reports to CPS that can lead to parents being accused of "educational neglect.”

Resource centers serving families are expanding in Minnesota, due to investments in foster care prevention that state lawmakers committed to in 2023.

Advocates seeking to codify the rights of foster youth in Minnesota are making a last-minute push to have the bill considered by lawmakers.

Legislative efforts to fulfill Minnesota's promise of college access for foster youth is facing challenges amid the program's success.

In Minnesota, youth advocates want to end the practice of child welfare agencies using foster youths' federal benefits to pay for their care.

Amid contract talks, CPS workers describe the challenges of their work and why they're asking for better benefits, pay, and more respect.

Families Rising Minnesota provides in-person training and support for foster and adoptive parents in transracial families.

A rare data set obtained by The Imprint reveals the state has struggled to diversify its pool of foster parents — years after criticism from federal officials.

Many states have fallen short on protecting foster kids' right to school stability under the Every Student Succeeds Act.

Federal education officials are investing millions of dollars into studying programs that help foster youth making the transition from high school to college.

Tribal communities often utilize time-tested practices to heal families, which don't always align with the Western scientific standards that pave the way to federal foster care prevention funding.

Intergenerational housing communities have been a growing trend since the 1990s and recently, these models have been built for an overlooked group: Youth who have transitioned out of foster care and are living on their own.

Pandemic assistance has been made available to California's current and former foster youth, but fraud and lack of access can prevent them from ever benefitting from the financial help.

A new Minnesota law guarantees access to court-appointed lawyers for low-income parents who are facing allegations of child abuse and neglect.

A bill being considered in the Minnesota Legislature would provide the state’s first-ever comprehensive support for students who are former foster youth.

Despite the high-profile death of a Minnesota toddler placed with family friend, research shows kinship care placements are generally safe for children, and can minimize their trauma.

By Colleen Connolly

Nearing 25 years of operation, the Jeremiah Program held its first-ever alumni summit in March to celebrate the thousands of single mothers it has served.

Damien Fair, recently named MacArthur Genius, on the counterintuitive way the brain develops and how that relates to child welfare and juvenile justice practices By Colleen Connolly

By Colleen Connolly October Allen has been a parent mentor with Minnesota One-Stop for Communities since 2016. She works primarily with Native American families in St. Louis and Carlton counties and manages 20 to 25 cases at a time. 

By Colleen Connolly