More resources would go to Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) prevention thanks to legislation heard in the HHS Budget Division this week. The legislation would provide funding for the Minnesota Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (MOFAS) to establish regional collaboratives throughout the state. Eligible collaboratives would be a partnership between a local government entity and a community-based organization that would then use grant funds to provide intensive services to at-risk pregnant women and new mothers.
The legislation requires one collaborative in each of Olmstead and St. Louis counties, and that grants be distributed to both rural and urban areas. Recipients of the grant must then report to the Department of Human Services on the services and programs funded by the grant, and must include measurable outcomes including the women served and healthy babies born. The legislation was laid over for possible inclusion in the omnibus bill. (S.F. 948)
