Renville County Human Services navigates staff, funding challenges
Apr. 19---- A high staff turnover rate while demand for services grew in some areas made for a challenging year for Renville County's Human Services department.
The coming year is likely to bring its own challenges.
In a report to the
Board of Commissioners on April 15, Human Services Director Kaitlyn Frederickson said she expects that demand in most service areas will remain at current levels or increase, while the complexity of cases will rise in many cases.
All of this comes with the possibility of increased costs for the county as state and federal governments look at cost-cutting measures.
"We are facing some really great changes. I try to stay positive," Frederickson said by way of introducing the report along with members of her staff.
The department experienced a 35 percent employee turnover rate in 2024, which meant supervisors had to contend with the additional demands of interviewing and conducting the hiring process for 22 new employees, not all of whom remained.
Frederickson said the department is now one position short of full staffing, although in some areas, the case load per staff member is higher than what is in state guidelines.
Highlights from her report point to the importance that local, state and federal programs administered by the department play in the lives of many county residents.
Based on the department's numbers, 9% of the county's population receives public assistance for their basic needs. The report state that Renville County has a population of 14,348, according to the 2023 census.
Larger shares of the population rely on specific programs for help.
According to the report, 27%, or 3,879 of the county's 14,348 residents, participated in Medical Assistance for the costs of their health care in 2024. Minnesota's Medicaid program is known as Medical Assistance, which provides health care coverage for people with low income.
In Renville County in 2023, Medical Assistance provided $50,686,467 in revenues for health care providers serving the population. The federal government provided $50,662,365 of that total, according to the report. A little more than $24,000 came from the state. Final financial numbers for 2024 are not yet available.
Another program serving a significant number of residents is the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps. The program helped 1,074 residents in 2024. SNAP represented $1,849,426 in revenues for food retailers serving the population. The federal government funded $1,846,916 of the total, according to the report, and about $2,500 from the state.
The department had seen the number of adult protection cases — those providing help to vulnerable adults — trend upward for a few years before leveling off in the last couple. The director expects the numbers will remain steady.
The department conducted 182 assessments for child protection cases last year, and had 62 active child protection management cases at year's end.
Child care remains a significant issue in the county. The number of licensed providers has remained stable in recent years, with 23 licensed providers and three licensed day care centers currently operating. The county is meeting 76 percent of its child care needs. It is 154 openings short of full capacity, according to the director.
"This will be an ongoing topic," said Frederickson. "We need to figure out how to get more day care providers here."
The director and County Administrator Lisa Herges noted that the county is working on a project to increase child care services with plans to open space in the Meadows on Main facility in Renville for providers to operate.
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