VIDBE-Q Volume 67 Issue 4
Minnesota
Sally Prouty, parent & Minnesota DeafBlind Project, retired
Minnesota is one of several states that have enacted legislation to recognize
interveners. Since 1993, the state has allocated funding for home and community
based interveners for children and youth (0-21yrs) with deafblindness in
Minnesota. The state agency responsible for managing these funds is the
Minnesota Department of Human Services - Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services
Division (DHS-DHHSD).
In the early 1990's, parents requested that the DHS-DHHSD fund a home
and community-based intervener program for children. After being approached
with this request, the state invited intervention experts from the W. Ross
Macdonald School in Ontario Canada. John and Jacquie McInnes shared the
philosophy of intervention used at the W .Ross Macdonald school for children who
are deafblind. This meeting proved to be a watershed event for the history of
interveners in Minnesota. As a result of this meeting the DHS-DHHSD funded a
pilot program for home and community intervener services with five families in
1993. Thanks to the Department and the state legislature, the program has broadly
expanded since then. It currently supports 36 children/youth per year (prior to
COVID 45 - 50). In 2017, the community program broadened to provide services
for individuals over the age of 21 in need of continued intervener services. From
