This workshop, held on June 2, 2026, at 1:30 p.m. in Courthouse Room 220, provided an overview and update on the Ramsey County Girls Report, a five-year mixed-methods study examining the pathways of girls and gender-expansive youth through child welfare and youth legal systems. The study was conducted in partnership with Justice and Joy National Collaborative and Partnerships for Permanence. No votes were taken during this recorded workshop.
All righty. Well, welcome to the Ramsey County Board workshop. Today's workshop will be a presentation in Ramsey County Girls Reports update. A courtesy reminder that this board workshop is recorded and it is live streamed on Zoom webinar. There will be no votes taken during this workshop. We will start with introduction of commissioners and presenters around the table and then the rest of the room. I am Tara Jevinsing, Commissioner from District One. Raphael Ortega, Commissioner District. Well, my Chongshang Commissioner District Six. Dearest McMurger Commissioner District Three. Kelly Miller, Commissioner District Seven. Eladen Norris Holliday, Planning Manager for the Office of Safety and Justice. Fallon Finn, Planning Manager for Social Services. Chekara Washington, Vice President of Research at Justice and Joy National Collaborative. Christy Cobb's Planning Manager, County Manager's Office, Lynn Becker County Manager. Mary Joe McGuire, Commissioner District Two. Clemence Farin, I'm your chief. Hi, Lori Ray's Deputy County Manager by the Safety and Justice Absolutely. Can we hear moment help direct? I'm supervisor in GMO Probably. Christine Bay, which is a health and justice administrator of the office of Larry Torman, the Nose Riddle Services Director Help and Mom. Andrewney W keep the staff. So Justin Joy Nath and Robert Hooks and Director. Excellent. Today's workshop will provide an overview and background on the development of the girls' report through a partnership with Justice and Joy National Collaborative and Partnerships for Permanence. The presentation will explore why gender matters and understanding how girls and gender expansive youth experience systems differently. You will hear about key findings and implications from the report, which highlight the importance of prevention, gender and culturally responsive care, healing centered approaches, and family focused responses, intentionally designed for girls and gender expansive youth. You will learn about opportunities for transformation and alignment with youth justice transformation efforts and the Minnesota Department of Children, Youth and Families Metro Wide Girls Planning Grant, which is extended intended to support ongoing collaboration and system improvement. I will now hand it off to the presenters to kick off the workshop. Well, hi, Madam Chair. I'm going to kick us off because I want to tell just a little bit of the transition story of when this work started back in 2020. I want to first of all thank the health and wellness service team. I want to thank uh BCM Abdi Directors, Monica Long, Amy Karen, and Sophia Thompson for being here because they were not here in their roles when this report started with the partners. And it was led out as health and wellness service team. And I think what we want to demonstrate today with both their presence and their involvement as we go forward is that you know this work continues despite significant leadership transitions within the county. And then in the spirit of the one Ramsey County, I appreciate the integration of DCM Reyes with the Safety and Justice Service team and the work of Elijah as well through his work with youth justice transformation. So you know, this is kind of an important day in that it's it's building on momentum that was started with this report, and very few people are still here who started this report, and yet it's still just as important as ever. So I want to thank especially Christy Cobbs and Fallon for their continuation with this work. There's a few staff, I believe, in the room who also were a part of the report, but many of the people who started this, and definitely the people who had some vision with uh co-creation with Dr. Washington and others, um, are no longer here, but this work is still important. So I want to thank Dr. Washington and her team for being here. Um, I want to thank um partnership for permanence and Lola, the leader over there for her work. She's not able to be here with us today, but um, we Fallon's going to be presenting some of those slides from partnership for permanence. And I I think the one tie I want to just have with our work countywide is really around data deaggregation and kind of how why this is important. Um, we've talked a lot about in different spaces when it comes to race equity, the importance of just you know, seeing who's really behind the numbers, and sometimes it's the uh unseen that needs to be seen. And so um that's the case with with girls and and females in our in our in our systems. And so I really appreciate that. We we now have what is going you're gonna hear is a is a nationwide leading report that was done in partnership and led by Justice and Joy. And so this is a big moment.