Lawmakers hear stories and ask for bridge funding for Family Resiliency Partnership

Representative Jennifer Mueller presented House File 19‑60, a bill to appropriate $350,000 annually to the Minnesota Family Resiliency Partnership. The money would be administered by DEED through the adult career pathways program and divided equally among six regional providers.

Jean Keenan, speaking by Zoom, described the Partnership (formerly the Displaced Homemaker Program) as a statewide network that offers trauma‑informed, wraparound stabilization services and pre‑employment training to individuals—primarily women—who must enter or reenter the workforce after a major family change such as death, abandonment, divorce or disability of a spouse or partner. Keenan said the program serves people at or below 200% of the federal poverty guideline and that 73% of participants are survivors of intimate partner violence and 28% entered the program unhoused. She said participants who exit employed had an average wage of $20.38 per hour in the most recent year and that an earlier return‑on‑investment calculation showed $26.89 returned to the state for every $1 invested.

Kimberly Pilgrim read testimony submitted on behalf of a program client who described being a homemaker for 30 years, losing a spouse and, with Partnership help, getting job training, college completion with honors and paid employment.

Keenan explained that base funding for the program is authorized in statute and is administered through DEED using a portion of marriage‑license and divorce‑filing fees. Because changes to that statutory funding stream are pending, the Partnership requested modest direct appropriations as bridge funding while statutory updates and collections transition.

The committee heard no opposition testimony and laid the bill over for further consideration.