About Us

Minnesota CarePartner’s inception began in 2013 when it began providing culturally responsive, in-home therapy, with a systemic advocacy focus. Its founder’s passion, as a transracial adoptee who experienced racialized trauma, was focused on providing quality mental health services through a systemic framework, to underserved communities. The lack of social justice-oriented mental health services, along with disparities in the cultural representation among providers. 

Starting with just two part-time therapists, MNCP began bringing psychotherapy into client’s homes for those who didn’t have access to a clinic due to mental, physical, financial and/or transportation barriers. MNCP is focused on breaking down those barriers. Also, due to frequent inherent distrust of outpatient clinics and systems, MNCP wanted to provide an alternative way to engage in therapeutic care from providers who focus on holistic health and decolonized ideas of wellness.  

By August of 2015, there were six therapists and certification from the Department of Human Services (DHS) to provide Children’s Therapeutic Services and Supports (CTSS). This in-home rehabilitative service teaches and empowers children and families the necessary skills to be healthy and whole. In March 2016, Minnesota CarePartner became ARMHS certified, meaning we can now serve adults needing life skills training and therapy. 

That year, the Governor’s Task Force on the Protection of Children published their conclusions. The task force provided 93 recommendations and posed a key question: “Are families better off because our child protection system stepped into the family’s life”? They concluded the following: 

• The system cannot evolve without additional resources, training, and workforce adjustments. 
• Workers must make referrals to community providers to address the mental health needs of children immediately. 
• Workers must support the needs of children and their families by making a full array of intervention services available (#86). 
• Workers must implement services that will prevent recidivism into the child protection system and provide funding for home visiting services (#88, #89). 

 

Katy realized that Minnesota Care Partner’s services already was meeting several of the task force recommendations. In August of 2016, Katy gave presentations to staff meetings at 16 social service agencies across eight counties about their culturally responsive ARMHS, CTSS and therapeutic services. The services focused on families involved with child welfare.  

In 2017, because parental substance use is the primary cause of out-of-home placements, Roots Recovery outpatient treatment was created as a harm-reduction, mental health-focused program for those struggling with substances. Due to personal experiences of harm with the addiction industrial complex, it was important that Roots was philosophically different from the majority’s. 

 

By 2020, MNCP offered a holistic parenting program with parent mentors, family nutrition, trauma-informed yoga and Black and Indigenous doulas and lactation consultants. During the pandemic, free learning pods were offered to those struggling with distance learning and that needed additional assistance. Also during COVID, the digital navigation program came to life, addressing the digital divide through in-home, community based digital skills training.  

Finally, in 2022, MNCP partnered with Hennepin County Child Welfare and Yale to start the first in-home treatment program for parents with infants who are struggling with substance use, focused on addressing disparities in the system for Black and Brown families. Less than 6 months in, several parents are in recovery, parenting their babies, many of whom now have closed CPS cases. 

MNCP has grown into its full identity as a holistic, polyvagal trauma, mental health-focused agency that seeks to heal intergenerational trauma by exposing the trauma-inducing systems of oppression, embracing our knowledge of epigenetics and ancestral somatic healing approaches to wellness.  

Minnesota CarePartner is constantly evolving and adapting to meet the needs of the community, innovating new programs as community needs change. We live in the community and partner with like-minded organizations to better serve everyone. Thank you for your support of Minnesota CarePartner/Roots Recovery and our mission to: expose the systemic nature of trauma and oppression and empower the liberation of the bodies, minds and spirits of those in our community through holistic, cultural, somatic and systematic support.