360 Communities

Three School Success programs ensure children arrive at school ready to learn. The Child Care Aware program works with childcare providers, parents, and other community organizations to promote the availability, affordability, and quality of childcare services in Dakota County. Child care Aware equipped 219 childcare providers with skills that improved childhood development for about 6,807 children. The Partners for Success program employs family support workers in 20 schools and five school districts to partner with educators and families. Family support workers implement effective home-based strategies to increase parental involvement, improve academic performance, and connect families to community resources. Partners for Success supported 1,104 K-12 students toward on-time graduation, helping 35 students graduate high school. Housing for Success program staff help families identified by school districts as experiencing housing instability to identify and overcome their barriers to safe housing. Housing for Success stably housed 30 families, including 39 adults and 82 children.

Community Resources - a network of five food shelves and two resource centers in Dakota County provide healthy food support, financial resources, housing support, advocacy, and connections to other stabilizing resources. In FY24, 360 Communities delivered hunger relief to 13,978 individuals by distributing 2.25 million pounds of healthy food. Financial assistance supported 3,087 households, including homelessness prevention.