Introducing the 2024 EGG Toolkit Minnesota Pilot Sites
The Family Partnership Announces Eight Pilot Sites Across Minnesota to Implement EGG Toolkit, a Groundbreaking Executive Function Curriculum for Early Childhood.
Minneapolis, MN
The Family Partnership has selected eight early education programs across Minnesota to implement EGG Toolkit in the 2024-25 school year. The purpose of the pilot is to build on learnings and outcomes from previous pilots in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Texas. By evaluating impact in urban, rural, and suburban communities within Minnesota, the pilots will demonstrate EGG Toolkit’s positive impact on children and parents/caregivers and build capacity to effectively scale more broadly.
The Family Partnership designed EGG, short for “Empowering Generational Greatness,” in 2017 with Christine Wing, CCC-SLP, PhD, in collaboration with early childhood educators and leading experts in brain science, child development, and curriculum design. EGG helps children develop executive function and self-regulation skills during the critical years of early childhood, the stage when brain development is at its fastest and most foundational.
Thanks to chief authors Rep. Carlie Kotyza-Witthuhn and Sen. Kelly L. Morrison, and authors Sen. Dave Pinto, Sen. Mary Kunesh, Rep. Nathan Coulter, and Rep. Emma Greenman, the state of Minnesota passed legislation in 2023 that included $300,000 to help The Family Partnership expand pilots in six sites across Minnesota in urban, suburban, and rural settings. The Donaldson Foundation funded the expansion to an additional two sites.
“We cannot deny the adverse impacts of the isolation and constant stress the COVID-19 pandemic has had on our youngest learners and their parents,” says Dianne Haulcy, President and CEO of The Family Partnership. “We desperately need interventions like this to support children’s cognitive and emotional development, and support positive, responsive parenting. This curriculum equips children with tools to develop language that describes their feelings and experiences rather than acting out on impulse. When children are empowered with this language, they learn to ask for help, talk about their emotions, and better understand their experiences. This is particularly important for children and parents living in high-stress environments.”
Trinette Potts, EGG Project Manager at The Family Partnership, will lead implementation, training, and professional development with the following sites partnering for the 2024-25 pilot expansion of the EGG Toolkit:
- Wilder Child Development Center, 80×3 site, St. Paul
- Wilmar Early Childhood Family Programs, ECFE, Wilmar
- New Horizon Academy, Rochester
- New Horizon Academy, Minneapolis, Lake Street
- Early Childhood Family Services, ECFE, Eagan*
- Osseo Area SchoolsECFE, Osseo
- People Serving People 80X3 site, Minneapolis
- Noah’s Ark Preschool, Circle Pines
*This ECFE is a partnership between the Eagan, Apple Valley, and Rosemount school districts.
John Everett Till, SVP of Strategy and Innovation at The Family Partnership and EGG Enterprise Manager, says teachers and facilitators are eager to get started. Till says, “The good news is that we can buffer kids against toxic stress, and that’s what our intervention is designed to do. We’re ready for this pilot expansion and we look forward to presenting a report to the legislature about the impact of scaling our early childhood intervention in urban, suburban, and rural communities.”
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About The Family Partnership
The Family Partnership is an accredited, multicultural human services organization that has worked since 1878 to meet the evolving needs of Twin Cities families facing barriers as a result of racial and economic injustice. Today, TFP is at the forefront in implementing evidence-based practices, emerging brain science, and centering equity, inclusion, and anti-racism work to effectively build well-being within the communities we serve. Agency-wide, the commitment to evidence-based practices has led TFP to implement two-generation (2Gen) strategies across our programs. Research shows that 2Gen services, which engage children and their parents/caregivers together, are more effective at building intergenerational wealth, well-being, and prosperity.
About EGG Toolkit
EGG Toolkit is The Family Partnership’s groundbreaking executive function curriculum for early childhood. EGG engages children ages 3 to 5 in activities focused on language, storytelling, and mindfulness to build focus and resilience: key capacities for success in school and life. By building these core capabilities, EGG helps to buffer children against the harmful impacts of ACEs, closing opportunity gaps in childhood and supporting a lifetime of better outcomes for physical, mental, and behavioral health. For more information, visit eggtoolkit.org.
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Contact:
Stephanie Goodwin (she/her)
Communications Manager
The Family Partnership
sgoodwin@thefamilypartnership.org