Minnesota kids need more support these days, and a $1 million grant is aimed at helping

The kids, in Minnesota are not alright.

According to America’s Health Rankings, the percentage of Minnesota kids who are thriving has dropped from 91.7% in 2016-207 to 65% in 2023-2024.

“This community is still carrying the weight of the horrible and heartbreaking events that took place at Annunciation School, which is the community my wife and I have called home for 28 years and raised our kids in,” said UnitedHealthcare CEO Tim Noel.

His remarks were part of an announcement of $1 million in grant funding from the United Health Foundation going towards four organizations: the Washburn Center for Children, the Minneapolis Foundation, the Greater Minneapolis Crisis Nursery and the Catholic Community Foundation of Minnesota, which established the Annunciation Hope and Healing Fund.

At the event, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said it is among his worst memories, a moment tattooed on his heart. Frey recalled the father he saw while racing toward the scene on Aug. 27, 2025, the morning of the mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church and School.

 “He was carrying a toddler like it was a football and kicking off his flip-flops so he could run faster toward the church and school,” Frey recalled. “He looked at me to ask, ‘Do you know anything? Is my kid ok?’ It was the most helpless, awful feeling to not know anything at all.”

During the grant announcement in Minneapolis on Aug. 4, leaders of each organization joined staff and community members for lunch, remarks and a volunteer project assembling 200 backpacks filled with school supplies for children and families served by the Washburn Center for Children ahead of the upcoming school year.

“In this moment across the country we’re facing lots of challenges, and unfortunately the kids of families in the Twin Cities and Minnesota are not immune to those challenges,” said Noel.

Noel recounted the organization’s own horrific event on Dec. 4, 2024. “My very good friend and colleague Brian Thompson was murdered.” During what he recalled as a difficult time for the organization, the outpouring of support from neighbors, friends and the community was profound. “In a moment that was very difficult for me, that was a ray of hope.”

Noel said community means showing up for each other and the $1 million grant from United Health Foundation is going towards organizations doing just that, like the Greater Minneapolis Crisis Nursery, which last year answered 3,800 calls from caregivers experiencing crisis.

“We meet families during one of the most overwhelming moments of their lives,” said Katie Fitzpatrick, president of the Greater Minneapolis Crisis Nursery, which provides short-term, overnight respite and care for children from newborn to age 6, giving parents and caregivers time to address personal crisis while knowing their children are safe.

Despite the level of loss and need in Minneapolis, efforts to make the memories of support stronger than those of tragedy are growing.

“I would like this community to be known, not for the tragedies we’ve endured, but for the way in which we’ve pulled together as a community to support one another, and we’re happy to do our little part,” Noel said.