Making an Impact.Since 2016, PrairieCare Fund has awarded over $1.6 Million in grant funding to over 100 Minnesota school districts & non-profits impacting over 100,000 students and staff. These funds are being put to use by providing students & staff general mental health education, increase awareness of & responsiveness to mental illness, prevent suicides, create calm spaces and much more. This video gives a small glimpse into how our donors, partners, and advocates have helped us make a difference in so many communities and how the grants have been put to use.
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Apply For a Grant.
2025-2026 Grant application coming soon! We are working hard to get the application ready and open for applying by the end of January 2025.
Our 2024 Recipients.
PrairieCare Fund awarded $234,000 in funding to 23 Minnesota school districts impacting over 20,000 students and staff for the 2024-2025 school year. Congratulations to the following schools:
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Examples of Previous Grant Projects.
ISD 622 - Early childhood Social-Emotional Supported Classroom
Utilized Conscious Discipline® which is built on the premise of developing discipline within children rather than applying discipline to them. This grant focused on preschoolers with the goal to improve emotional regulation and social skills. This district had profound results. Their students gained skills to self-soothe, learned how to be friends, and improved peer and adult trust and relationships.
ISD 741 - Paynesville Cares - A Community-Based Support Network for Youth
Community wide Youth Mental Health First Aid training. Mental Health First Aid is an in-person training for anyone who wants to learn about mental illnesses and addictions, including risk factors and warning signs. This 8-hour training teaches participants a 5-step action plan to help a person in crisis connect with professional, peer, social, and self-help care. The goals are to decrease stigma and barriers, educate and increase skills. This program had a component of students being peer mentors and had community engagement events. Students developed a Social Justice Theatre presentation which enhanced the ability of community members to recognize youth dealing with a mental health crisis and how to reach out, listen, and connect with appropriate resources. This program created a high level of engagement with plans for 6 courses to be offered per year.
Prior Lake - Savage Area Schools - Growing Through Grief
This district partnered with Park Nicollet to offer Growing Through Grief. Growing Through Grief is an intensive in-school grief support program that was provided to elementary, middle, and high school students who have experienced the death of a family member or friend. Grief services were provided free of charge to students which also included peer support groups and one-to-one counseling on a regular basis throughout the school year. 100 school staff were trained, and they had 611 student contacts. 46 students were affected by loss and became involved in group and individual support with teachers and school personnel feeling more equipped to identify and assist appropriately. They created a video for ongoing training.
Le Sueur Henderson School District - 7 Mindsets Social Emotional Learning Curriculum
7 Mindsets not only impacts academic performance and interpersonal relationships within the school setting, but also equips students with problem solving and self-regulation skills for life beyond. All licensed elementary staff were trained. They also hosted family and community events and education. Hilltop Elementary saw a reduction in behavioral referrals by 22% from 688 to 540 and increased mental health referrals from 0 to 15. Park Elementary experienced a reduction in behavioral referrals by 99% from 688 to 72 and decreased mental health referrals from 21 to 10. Both schools discovered student absenteeism correlated highly with crises at home such as parents with mental health difficulties or drug addiction. They identified that students are often better at learning these new skills than adults, and more community outreach is needed to assist the teachers and parents with their own mindsets. Clear plans were developed to continue to grow and expand programming to older students, parents, and additional staff.
South Washington County Schools - Healthy Connections in an Overconnected World
South Washington wanted to harness the power of communication to inspire social and behavioral change. Their program impacted 12,000 students, families, and staff serving middle schools in Cottage Grove, Lake, Oltman, Woodbury, and High Schools in East Ridge, Park, Woodbury, South Washington Alternative. They educated their community on the impact of media on brain development and engaged teens to tell their stories of growing up connected and stressed. This initiative included youth-led messaging and stories. Community education was focused on educating parents and staff on risks of on-line use including cyberbullying, helping teens to build a health relationship with the digital world and be more aware of the teen experience and its relationship to mental health. This district developed podcasts to promote resiliency and further share their message. This grant request was prompted by two student suicides and the search for ways to better help youth.
True North with Dugsi Academy - Healing for a Refugee Community
This initiative focuses on healing the refugee community. Their community experiences high rates of trauma in their students, families, and staff due to war, poverty, violence, and relocation. Their school has 100% free or reduced lunch and 85% of their student body uses English as a second language. This school partnered with the Center for Mind-Body Medicine to offer the training and a CALM team was established to support and monitor progress. They created a Sanctuary Room and engaged schools and religious communities. This pilot project was utilized as a template for schools serving refugee populations nationwide. The outcome of their proposal implemented a highly effective foundation of self-awareness and self-regulation that was integrated seamlessly into the instructional model to address the trauma experienced in refugee populations. Their goal was to have all learners become aware of their own internal state and afford everyone real tools to support those with mental illness and/or experiencing trauma.
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PrairieCare Fund | 5500 94th Ave N, Brooklyn Park, MN 55443 | [email protected] | 763-762-8881
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