Voices & Choices for Children MN (V&C) is a coalition dedicated to fundamentally transforming Minnesota’s early childhood landscape. We focus on shaping more equitable practices and policies that support better outcomes for children of color and American Indian children prenatal to 8 years old across Minnesota.
Our foundational premise is that the persistent racial disparities in the state are not accidents of history but the result of the systematic exclusion of communities of color and American Indian nations from the policy-making tables. Our mission is direct: We believe that people of color and American Indians must be at the table as polices are created and decisions are made about and for our children.
Our Structural Transformation
V&C operates not merely as a lobbying entity but as a structural intervention. We emerged in 2014, launched by the Children’s Defense Fund-Minnesota (CDF-MN), as a direct response to systems that were failing to close the opportunity gap for BIPOC populations.
The Ideological Pivot: From Deficit to Asset A critical differentiator of V&C is our theoretical grounding. Unlike many advocacy groups that frame disparities through a “deficit” lens—focusing on what communities lack—V&C anchors its work in an asset-based framework. We adopt a counter-narrative: the failure lies not in the families, but in the systems that perpetuate exclusion through the “systemic devaluing, undermining, disadvantaging or marginalizing of their individual identities”.
This ideological stance drives us to create new programs that fully affirm cultural background, race, ability and experience. This shift—from focusing on “closing the gap” to “affirming identity”—is the intellectual engine of our legislative agenda.
Defining Racial Equity as a Technical Standard
In a political environment where “equity” is often used vaguely, V&C codified it as a measurable technical standard. This definition guides all our policy work and attempts to shape the cognitive landscape:
Racial equity is the condition that would be achieved if one’s racial identity no longer predicted, in a statistical sense, how one fares in society. This includes the elimination of policies, practices, attitudes and cultural messages that reinforce differential outcomes by race or fail to eliminate them.
By including “cultural messages” and “attitudes,” we broaden the scope of intervention beyond hard policy alone.
Coalition Governance and Power
V&C is a cross-sector collaborative initiative. It is composed of organizations, professionals, and parents of color and American Indians engaged and working across early childhood sectors, including government, philanthropy, and non-profits.
• Leadership: While the coalition invites and welcomes the participation of allies, our leadership and decision making is intentionally focused on prioritizing voices of color and American Indian voices.
• Steering Committee: The governance resides in our Steering Committee, which reflects an intersectional power structure, bridging direct service, academia, policy consulting, and grassroots organizing.
Steering Committee Co-Chairs include:
- Cati Gomez (LaCroix-Dalluhn Consulting)
- Candace Yates (Think Small)
Other Committee Members include:
- Dr. Abiola Abu-Bakr – Conduit for Collaboration Consulting
- Nicole Donoso – Voices for Racial Justice
- Betty Emarita – Development and Training, Inc.
- Tiffany Grant – First Children’s Finance
- Dr. Nikole Jones – People of Victory, LLC
- Leo Howard III – Greater Twin Cities United Way
- Brook LaFloe – Niniijaanis One of Ones, Montessori and American Indian Child Care Center
- Jackie Perez – CLUES (Comunidades Latinas Unidas En Servicio)
- Khulia Pringle – S.T.A.N.D. Up Minnesota Parents United
- Zang Vang – Lee Hmong Early Childhood Coalition
- Sheila Williams Ridge – University of Minnesota – Institute of Child Development, The Lab School
Operational Structure
V&C operates under the fiscal sponsorship of the Children’s Defense Fund-Minnesota (CDF-MN). This structural arrangement allows us to avoid the significant administrative burden of managing our own infrastructure, enabling us to focus on policy and advocacy. This relationship also grants us access to high-level resources, such as KIDS COUNT data, which provides the statistical ammunition needed to substantiate our claims in legislative testimony.
Legislative Impact: The Community Solutions Fund
Our greatest legislative impact is the creation of the Community Solutions for Healthy Child Development Grant Program (CSF).
• Rationale: V&C worked with stakeholders to advocate for its creation because we know that communities closest to the problems are also closest to the solutions but are furthest from the resources.
• Structural Change: The CSF is a legislative landmark that codified the transfer of decision-making power from state bureaucrats to community-led advisory councils. This innovation ensures that the definition of “merit” in grant applications is determined by those closest to the problem.
• Current Goal: We advocate to fully fund and make permanent the Community Solutions for Healthy Child Development Grant Program.
By supporting these community-led efforts—like the Ninde Doula Program and Roots Birth Center—we help families build a strong foundation for long-term stability and improve health trajectories, demonstrating that solutions for significant challenges should come from communities closest to those challenges.