Lakes & Prairies Community Action Partnership

The economic empowerment division supports individuals and families in their goals of achieving employment, nutritional, medical and economic security. All programs work together to provide holistic support to families. In 2021 economic empowerment division provided over 81,000 pounds of food to low-income seniors across clay county, assisted 376 households to access affordable health insurance, provided free tax assistance to 539 households, provided transportation services to 329 people, and assisted 5 households as they became financially independent through our career connect program. The child care connections division is the newest division created in early 2022, branching off services formerly housed within the economic empowerment division. Child care connections provides services to 21 counties in northwest Minnesota and the entire state of north dakota. Services include coaching child care providers toward continuous quality improvement through the quality rating systems, providing professional development training and advising in northwest Minnesota, providing grants for child care providers to start up or improve their child care programs, recruiting new providers to participate in quality rating programs, and services to support new child care programs including services to provide support to latin x, new american child care and providers providing care to family, friends and neighbors. We also provide services to families in need of child care through the child care assistance program in wilkin county and the early learning scholarships program in 9 counties of region 4. In 2021, child care connections also provided personal protective equipment to 469 child care providers to ensure their safety and continuity of services in during the covid-19 pandemic.

The housing division provides assistance to people who are experiencing homelessness or are facing eviction. In 2021, caplp assisted 626 households obtain safe, affordable housing and 384 household avoid eviction. In addition, we provided ongoing services through our supportive housing programs to 474 people which is a 57% more people than we served in 2019.

The head start division offers comprehensive early childhood services to children ages birth-5 and families with limited income and for children with special needs that reside within clay and wilkin counties. In the 2020-2021 school year, caplp provided services to 188 children through the head start program (3-5 years old) and 98 children through the early head start program (birth-3 years old). These children received high-quality early childhood education experiences at no cost including family support, health and nutrition support incorporated into the program.