What do Gubernatorial Candidates say about Children and Youth? By the Minnesota Children’s Platform Coalition

We have discussed YIPA’s involvement with the Minnesota Children’s Platform Coalition several times on this blog. Now, YIPA is excited to present the results on the MNCPC Governor’s Candidate Survey!

The Minnesota Children’s Platform Coalition (MNCPC) is a collaboration of organizations and individuals who care about Minnesota children and youth. The questions in this survey were created by the MNCPC following a “World Café” meeting in January 2010 of coalition partners who discussed issues they thought were important for a Minnesota governor to attend to.

We asked all candidates for governor to respond to a set of 6 questions that followed from that meeting. Here is what we asked them…..

We believe that children and youth in Minnesota deserve a comprehensive approach to youth services with a focus on the whole child. As a candidate for Governor of Minnesota, you have a vital role to play in improving the lives of Minnesota’s young people. Please take a few moments to respond to our questions. Please feel free to include links to news articles, websites or other online resources to support your points. Your answers will be shared with our extensive statewide network of children and youth service providers, educators, advocates and parents via written and Internet communications.

We are listing responses to the questions in the order in which we received them. If a candidate is not listed, it means that he or she did not send us a response.

Curious about what characteristics that YIPA would like to see in a governor? Most importantly the new governor should:

1) Be a champion for all youth

2) Understands the needs for continuum of care from birth to age 21

3) Have a focus on children that expands far beyond schools

4) Be action oriented – willing to take bold steps to ensure that funding for children and youth services grows rather than shrinks as it has during the past decade.

5) Understands the concept of early intervention youth services and how it keeps youth from progressing through the Juvenile justice System.

We hope you will look at these responses before the primary elections on August 10. Please note that at primary elections you will not be able to choose from among all of these candidates. Primary elections are only for the purpose of allowing members of a political party decide who will be on the ballot in November.

MNCPC Board of Directors/Committee

Sue Fust, Minnesota Organization on Adolescent Pregnancy, Prevention & Parenting

J. Scott Beaty, Youth Intervention Programs Association

Connie Skillingstad, Prevent Child Abuse Minnesota

Jim Scheibel, Hamline University

Jim Meffert, Minnesota Optometric Association

Rod Halvorson, Minnesota Social Service Association

Jennifer Rison, Children’s Leadership Council

Clare Ryan, MNYIPA Promise Fellow