Megan Waltz is Supervisor for Promotion and Prevention Unit within the Child Safety and Permanency Division at Minnesota Department of Human Services. Host Dr. Sherri Killins Stewart talks with Megan about how she develops systems that are more responsive to family needs by truly listening to the communities she serves.
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Special thanks to Dr. Aisha Ray, Michelle Stover Wright, The Equity Leaders Action Network (ELAN), and state leaders working in early childhood systems for their thought partnership.
Dr. Sherri Killins Stewart:
Welcome to Critical connections Leading for Equity, a podcast of the Build Initiative. I'm Dr. Sherri Killins Stewart. I am the Director of State Systems Alignment and Integration and Co-Director of State Services. This series focuses on how state leaders have used their role, responsibilities and influence, to intentionally increase opportunity and remove barriers for children and families. You will hear about tangible ways leaders are centering the perspectives of Black, Native American, Latino and Latina and other populations, marginalized by the programs and services within the early childhood system. Leaders are collaborating across state, regional and local departments and agencies, to support the wellbeing of families and children. We don't present as experts, rather participants on a journey with you. I hope you will come as a learner seeking to take action.
Killins Stewart: Today, we are talking to Megan Waltz, who is currently serving as a Supervisor for Promotion and Prevention Unit within the Child Safety and Permanency Division at Minnesota Department of Human Services. The Promotion and Prevention Team works in collaboration with communities, counties, tribes, and other state agencies, to promote child and family wellbeing and prevent maltreatment. She previously served as the Prenatal to Three Policy and Systems Advisor at the Minnesota Department of Health and has held multiple roles in state advocacy and philanthropic organizations. Megan received her MSW in Social Policy and Evaluation from the University of Michigan Ann Arbor. She lives in Prior lake, Minnesota with her husband and two children. Megan joins us today to talk about her work with communities to remediate inequities and increase access to state services and programs for children and families in Minnesota. Welcome Megan, thank you so much for being here.
Megan Waltz: Hi Sherri, it's nice to be here, thank you.
Killins Stewart: Good to have you. Well, Megan, you know me and I always want to start with why, why is this work important to you? Why is this something that you do? Before we get into the conversation about your work in Minnesota, can you share why it's important to think about and increase wellbeing for Black, Native American, Latina and Latino or other marginalized children and what helps you stay the course, because this is really challenging work?
Waltz: Yeah, I might answer that a little backwards. Some of you may recognize this quote from the late Paul Wellstone, "But we all do better when we all do better," and so that's always a motivating factor. But I think the reason I stick with the work, Sherri, is I am an adopted child. I have recently learned about my birth family, all of those things, but very early in my life, I remember being told that I wasn't going to get remembered in a great aunt's will because I wasn't blood.
Waltz: And so that feeling of otherness kind of stayed with me and I understand very deeply that it is not the same, but that feeling of not being included, I think, stays with me, and I remember it. And so I think that's the thing that keeps motivating me. That and now working with the child welfare system is having spent time as an infant in the child welfare system. I feel like that's another one of my why's. There's all kinds of intersections there, but I think those are the motivations that I have.
Killins Stewart: And what brought you to the work? Where did you start in your educational journey or your pathway to end up where you are now?
Waltz: Well, Sherri, I...
Killins Stewart: They're usually twisty turn.
Waltz: It's twisty turny. My undergrad degree is actually in music theater from Illinois Wesleyan-
Killins Stewart: Wow.
Waltz: I know. I started as a fine arts teacher, creative movement teacher at a pre-K in Flint, Michigan within the Flint School of Performing Arts. And so that experience, and then moving here to Minnesota, working at a childcare, kind of with the same title, I was the fine arts teacher along with the afternoon toddler teacher. Every morning I did music and art and dance for the littles and then in the afternoons after rest time, I was with the transition toddlers, so those two to three year olds and really potty training seven toddlers is a great deal of fun.
Waltz: But that was my beginning experience and I remember being in the hallway at pick up time and watching frenzied parents running in from work and picking up kiddos and wanting to spend the time with them and being really conflicted about, "Oh, but I have this, and I have this, and I have this little person, and what's going to happen for dinner," and all of those different choices. And I was in my twenties, I didn't understand some of that. I'm going to go figure this out. I want to know why parents are so stressed. I want to know why parents are dependent upon childcare, on people like me, to take care of their kiddos all day. I kind of came to a roundabout in early childhood systems, early childhood work, but it's been a great path.
Killins Stewart: Yeah, that's exciting. I didn't know that about you. I share a love for theater and especially musical theater. You know that the other thing that's really important in this work is data, not just the numbers that we often become so numb to, but you need data to really plan and decide and monitor and really decide who you're centering. Can you talk about how you get data, what data you use and how you use that data to really tailor services for Black or Native American or immigrant. You tell me who you're centering in your work and what data is really driving you to do that.
Waltz: Well, Sherri for so long, demographic data wasn't centered in our work. It wasn't a requirement to have demographic data. And so it was more about participation. How many families are you serving? How many kids are in your program? And really in the last maybe decade, I think there's really been a focus on having a better understanding through our data collection about whom are we serving. And I think it's because of that curiosity over whom are we serving that now we're asking for different kinds of data, especially around demographics.
Waltz: And so when you pair the demographic data with the outcome data, it's really, really clear that we have deep disparity, especially for Black and indigenous families here in Minnesota, and family outcomes. And so when you dig into those disparities then, you have to understand what are the inequities? Where are families getting caught? And it's not just about service, it's peeling and onion. You have to continue to dig and dig and dig. And it's not just about quantitative data. It cannot be just about quantitative data. It has to be also about qualitative data and how you are engaging with families, learning with communities, being in partnership with them, all of the things, so it's got to be this continuous intersection of different types of data and analysis.
Killins Stewart: And I know in your work you've taken that data, that information, and it's great that you noticed that we weren't even collecting it, in recent times and made some different decisions about programs. Can you give us an example of one of those that is intended to benefit those populations, that you also say you want to have included in the co-design?
Waltz: As part of our preschool development planning grant, the first planning grant year, we in Minnesota did some really intensive community engagement. And we worked with community-based organizations to partner with us because we don't have those relationships coming from the state. We don't serve families directly, in a lot of ways. And so those partnerships and relationships with the community based organizations are so important and critical. And so did that community engagement and partnership with them and really, really learned a couple different things that families oftentimes don't want to receive the service or the program from the organization that might be offering them. In Minnesota, we are state-supervised, county administered for our social service programs. What we heard during that community engagement is that families, especially Black and indigenous families, families living with inequity due to geography and income, feel very uncomfortable walking into a county office.
Waltz: They feel that there's going to be more surveillance on their family, the minute that they ask for help. And it doesn't matter for which program, it could be SNAP, it could be WIC, it could be childcare, but because of our history in this country, our history with boarding schools, our history with enslavement, the history of how children have been systematically taken from their families. This is a real fear and it's based in fact, it's based in experience. And so what we wanted to do was see if there was a way to be able to offer access to these programs and services in a way that didn't require walking into a county building to do that.
Waltz: Walking into maybe a more comfortable neighborhood space, that you've already been, a clinic that you might take your kiddo, a church, a Headstart, a CAP agency, to see where folks might want to go and how we can best offer, what we call relationship-based, culturally-responsive, service navigation, so then helping them get to the right service at the right time for them. That's what we have going on with our community resource hubs right now. And I think we have a couple other things happening in Minnesota, too, that really focus in on how to serve that whole family, the 2-Gen approach or the whole family approach, so that if you are lucky enough to be able to sit with a parent or an adult family member, that you can talk about what they need, as well as what the kiddo needs, and oftentimes, they're one and the same. But approaching it with that dual goal in mind, is super important too.
Killins Stewart: It's exactly right. You're raising your core values around whole family. You gave examples of what you learned by listening, so that you weren't just acting on your own experience while that's valid and important, but you're connecting with the beneficiaries you intend to benefit and how that drove you to think and operate program in a different way. And so that's the next bucket is really around taking action. How did you develop your team and your strategy that you felt was really responsive to children and families? And did it require you shift any specific policies or practices from the way government would standardly operate?
Waltz: Yeah. I think this is kind of the meat and potatoes of state government, and there's so much to kind of dig through, but the top ones are staff, how you're able to staff a program, who you're able to hire, what kind of experience do they have working with marginalized communities, communities furthest from opportunity. There's that piece and how are you able to put that into the institution? How are you able to write it into position descriptions and knowledge, skills, and abilities, and job postings, and those sorts of things. And it takes some experimentation, it takes some really doing it wrong, so that you can get to doing it better. And then grant making, how you're able to put money out the door, to ensure that it's getting to those organizations that are closest to the families that all of the combined data is telling you that you need to be seeking out, working with, partnering with and that's tough as well.
Waltz: I think one of the things that we started to do was ask for the demographic data. What we did was we asked to describe the board makeup and the staff makeup of the organization, because oftentimes with larger grants, you get bigger organizations applying on behalf of, and I say that in quotes, on behalf of smaller organizations who maybe don't have the capacity to write the grant, but who are doing the actual work with the communities that you're wanting to reach. And so, I think that's an important piece of it. You have to be able to help both move the program goals as well as partner with the organization to help build their capacity.
Killins Stewart: Yeah, no, and I bet that is a stretch for government.
Waltz: It's a stretch. It's a stretch because how many staff do you have? How many people can you bring on board with the money that you have? It is a stretch, Sherri, you're right.
Killins Stewart: Government is so used to being able to go and get somebody they know to do the work. And now you're saying, "Okay, we have to do the work over here, so that we benefit these people with organizations they're connected to. And by the way, we may have to invest a little more, which is the real equity, in order to make sure they have the capacity, because we've made a lot of decision not to invest in them over the years, or they might look like some of the other larger organizations." I think that's just such a powerful example of the stretching of government and then you bought up, "Yeah, but we aren't staffed in government to do that." How did you do it?
Waltz: How do we do it? We're lucky to be able to have preschool development grant funds. This work could not have started without extra funds from somewhere. And so the flexibility of the preschool development grant money has been super helpful. And so we've been able to contract with external folks who are able to help us do that. We've been working with Build to help us on community of practice. As a former Elon fellow, I have been blessed to be able to understand how that work happens with Build and how it's not a training, it's not here's the curriculum and here's what we're going to do. And here's what we're going to learn. The way that Build works is to say, what's the action? How are we going to do this together? And it is about doing, it's not about sitting and looking around and list, it's not about that, it's about doing.
Waltz: And so, it's helping our inner agency staff stretch and it's helping the grantees stretch and the navigator stretch. We've really been able to say, "Okay, we see you grantee number whoever, aren't able to bring in the population that you had said you wanted to bring in, so let's talk about that. Let's investigate different ways that you might be able to do that. Let's listen to our other grantees, to see what practices they're employing. How do we do this better?" And so, it's a learning partnership. It's not a, you must do, it's a learning partnership.
Killins Stewart: A monitoring?
Waltz: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Killins Stewart: Right. No, that's so powerful. And that's really the next bucket. You can't do this work in increasing opportunities... Well, first listening to families or the workforce or communities and not have partners, because 80%, I always say of what you hear, you won't have any domain over. And so you have to work with people, programs and structures, it really isn't solo work. Thinking about the listening you're doing, and you've already raised the inner agency team, how have you been able to use those partnerships or build those partnerships, especially those that would be not normally ones you'd think about, to increase your opportunity to meet the needs of families, and are there challenges with that?
Waltz: There's huge challenges with that because as state agencies, we don't like to share dollars. We don't like to share data. We don't play well in the sandbox together, just by virtue of the hierarchy and really, the system that was based in white culture. And so being able to have this really dedicated group of people in our agency at this state level, who are wanting to be in coordination and collaboration, is important. There has to be a want to be there. There has to be people who see the benefit, not only for state systems, but for families and communities, to be doing this work together.
Waltz: I think the most unlikely partners from my perspective have really been in state government itself, because the work with community has seemingly been a little bit easier than it has been to get, for example, financial operations on board with what you're trying to do. I think those are some of the most unlikely partners. The grants management folks and the financial operations and communications, because sometimes it's, you have to say five words to say two. And so it's not always as cut and dry as you would like it to be.
Killins Stewart: So important that you have to pick up the operations team and the policy team, and often we spend a lot of investment on the policy team with the right ideas, but if you're not invested in partnering with and bringing along your operations team, you still will hit a wall, even with the right idea.
Waltz: It's true. And I think one of the best things that we did early on with preschool development grant and now with the Thriving Family Safer Children, and a lot of these different efforts that we're doing, was working with the community first, with PDG really going out and asking those community organizations to partner with us, to do the community engagement. Those have been part of the most successful parts of these giant collaborations, I think.
Killins Stewart: Well, because that allowed you to center that voice that you started talking about, center that listening. You're not doing it, because Megan wants to do it, you're doing it because and I always say quotes, not notes. Here's what people are saying, and we're mirroring that back to you. Having a network is so important and I know you value our relationship and others, but how do you keep building your network so that you can stay the course and do this work and really adapt your leadership style to the challenges that you're faced with?
Waltz: Gosh, my answer now is so much different, I think, than it would've been even five years ago. What's really helped me build a network, especially in a place where child welfare, where I had not worked and I didn't have the network, so to speak, has really just been to listen and promote action from what we've been hearing, because the way that you build more relationship, is to be a trusted partner. And the way that you build trust is to listen, turns out, and then to act upon what has been said, not what you think has been said, but going back to that quotes, not notes idea, but really what has been said and what people are feeling. And once an individual or an organization sees that you are going to do what you say you're going to do, then they'll say, "Hey, I know this person over here," so I think that's been really helpful.
Killins Stewart: No, you point out that you're not just listening to the families and carrying that voice forward, but you're also listening to your partners and carrying that voice forward and often having to be responsive to them first, to build that trust and deliver that action that gives you street credit, let's call it, to be able to do the next thing, so powerful.
Killins Stewart: In closing, the question is kind of like, there are state leaders, I just got back from a meeting, all over, that really think about this work, but don't put their foot in it. What is your advice to any state leader, county leader, maybe tribal leader, who's saying, "I see these children and families, they're visible to me, but other people don't see them and I want to make a change." What advice do you give them as they try to enter or stay the course in this work?
Waltz: I think that stay in the course is one of the most difficult things because it's constant, no. No, you can't do this. No, you can't do it that way, from a state agency perspective. And one of the things that I think has been so gratifying with this particular administration and this particular group of people, is that the answers have been yes, and how? Yes, after you figure it out and you actually do it, let's talk about how to institutionalize that practice. And that's been something that has been really important to the preschool development grant process, to the whole family systems process, now I think to thriving families. And so there's just a lot of our inner agency leadership team, children's cabinet. I think there's been more permission than no's. I think for somebody trying to make their first step or put their toe in the water, the first thing I would say is make sure you've done your own work.
Killins Stewart: What's that mean?
Waltz: It means if you think that you want to work in partnership with a community, you need to have a firm understanding of the history and the context of that community. Because if you don't, this is also part of building trust. You're not going to step into it, you're going to step in it, and you're going to cause harm. And I think Build does such a great job of talking about the different levels of this system, so structural institutional, interpersonal, personal it's that personal stuff that is critical for you to figure out, not on anybody else's time.
Killins Stewart: That part of the personal part is also people being able to sit in the discomfort and the messiness, which you may not ever understand the full history of a community. But when you go in and I say, "Just listen," or you say, "Just listen," it requires a leader to kind of do an unnatural task, which is not to ask for a minute to listen, to stay in it long enough, so they can really figure it out. And so some of the work is also being patient through the process, that there isn't the urgency, you can't fix it overnight. I hear that in what you're saying as well. What's a hope you have, as we close out? What's the hope you see on the horizon? This is hard work. You talked about it being hard, stay in the course, but what are you hopeful about?
Waltz: I'm hopeful about inclusion. The inclusion I see, both with national partners like Build, community partners, inter agency partners, of the inclusion piece. Used to be, long time ago, early childhood systems was about childcare and childcare is hugely important, but there are other aspects of families that also need time and attention. And I think that the inclusion of the different parts of the system, number one, for early childhood systems building, but even more critical is the inclusion of the voice of communities, of families, and how you do that is just as important as actually having that voice.
Waltz: I feel a lot of hope in the way practices are changing around inclusion and belonging and partnerships, grant making, hiring for the love. I'm hopeful about those things. I'm hopeful about the inclusion piece because more and more is coming to the forefront around early childhood all the time, early childhood mental health. "Oh wait, it really matters if parents are able to be economically stable." All of these different systems coming together into one kind of giant thing, I think, is critical, but the inclusion of the voice with that.
Killins Stewart: Yeah, it's powerful you're starting with inclusion because you think about it on a continuum between diversity. First, we wanted to get the room to look different. You're talking about inclusion and listening to voice and we're on a pathway to really making change in policy and practice, which really gets us to equity, so I really appreciate you and your leadership and your words of wisdom.
Killins Stewart: And I thank all of you for joining Megan and I today, as we had a brief conversation. If you gained any insight from our conversation today, let us know by leaving a comment, give us a rating, share it with your colleagues. Critical Connection, Leading for Equity is a podcast from the Build Initiative. It's produced by LWC Studios, producers are Candace Cole and Paulina Velasco. Build Initiative partners with state leaders to promote equitable, high-quality, child and family serving systems, that result in young children thriving and learning. To learn more about Build's work, visit our website at www.buildinitiative.org. I'm Dr. Sherri Killins Stewart, and thank you for listening and thank you Megan for being here.
Waltz: Thanks so much, Sherri.
CITATION:
Killins Stewart, Sherri, host. “Centering Families in Community Partnerships in Minnesota.” Critical Connections, BUILD Initiative, October 4, 2022, www.buildinitiative.org.