Information for Minnesota Tribal Home Visiting Staff

On this page:

• Tribal Nations within the State of Minnesota
• Tribal and Evidenced-Based Family Home Visiting programs in Minnesota
• Screening tools Used by Family Spirit Programs
• MDH FHV Resources for Tribal Governments' Family Home Visiting Programs
• Related Resources

Tribal Nations within the state of Minnesota

• Bois Forte
• Fond du Lac
• Grand Portage
• Leech Lake
• Mille Lacs
• Red Lake
• White Earth

• Lower Sioux
• Prairie Island
• Shakopee Mdewakanton
• Upper Sioux

Tribal and Evidence-Based Family Home Visiting (FHV) programs in Minnesota

Family Spirit Program is a model developed by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Center for American Indian Health. Family Spirit is the largest, most rigorous, and only evidence-based home-visiting program ever designed specifically for vulnerable Native American families. Evidence from two consecutive randomized controlled trials has documented the following program outcomes: increased parenting knowledge and involvement; decreased maternal depression; increased home safety; and decreased internalizing and externalizing problems of infants at one year of age. For more information contact Family Home Visiting or Family Spirit. To request the Family Spirit Newsletter contact Johns Hopkins at: familyspirit@jhu.edu.

Fond du Lac and White Earth use the evidenced based Nurse Family Partnership (NFP) Model for family home visiting. For more information about the model: Nurse Family Partnership Org

Screening Tools Used by Family Spirit Programs

• Ages & Stages Questionnaires®, Third Edition (ASQ-3 ™) is a reliable, family-friendly way to screen children for developmental delays between one month and 5 1/2 years. Although not required by Family Spirit, the Ages Stages Questionnaire Social Emotional (ASQ-SE ™) has a focus on children's social and emotional development, pinpointing behaviors of concern and identifying a need for further assessment or ongoing monitoring. MDH provides training on scoring and interpreting of both tools: Introduction to Using the Ages Stages Questionnaire. Brookes Publishing has more information about the tool and materials available for purchase.
• Additional developmental information is available at:
  • Minnesota Help Me Grow: Help Me Grow is an interagency initiative partnering with local services agencies to provide a portal for referrals. The site includes parent and caregiver friendly information about developmental milestones.
  • Learn the Signs. Act Early: Developmental milestone checklists, information to share with parents and other free materials.
• Depression - The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale Revised (CESD-R) or the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS)
• More screening tool information:
  • Family Spirit curriculum and evaluation materials
  • Information for Home Visitors and Supervisor page contains additional tools that may not be in alignment with Family Spirit.

MDH FHV Resources for Tribal Governments' Family Home Visiting Programs

• Funding and Grant Management Funding and grant information for tribal governments.
• Information for Home Visitors and Supervisors Information on a range of screening tools, protocols, how to score and decision trees. Information on program management.
• Training and Professional Development Training information including an introduction to the ASQ-3/ASQ-SE2.

Related Resources

• Minnesota Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Study Effects of adverse childhood experiences (trauma, incarceration, abuse, etc.) on long term health.
• Minnesota Center for Health Equity (CHE) Minnesota is one of the healthiest states in the country. However, a statewide assessment has found that not all Minnesotans have the same chances to be healthy.