DHS homeless youth services coordinator honored

Contact:
Beth Voigt
Communications
651-431-3833 
  
PDF version of news release

Ain Dah Yung Center will honor Beth Holger-Ambrose, Minnesota Department of Human Services homeless youth services coordinator, with its annual Ally of the Year Award for her years of work, particularly among American Indian communities throughout Minnesota. 

Deb Foster, the center’s executive director, will present the award to Holger-Ambrose at a luncheon ceremony on May 31 at the Ain Dah Yung Center in St. Paul.

“We are pleased to recognize Beth for her commitment to addressing racial disparities and helping to ensure there are culturally relevant services for American Indian children and their families,” said Foster. “She has taken the time to truly listen and learn from the Native communities. She coordinates projects with us through the respect and familiarity that’s needed to help ensure that partnerships facilitated between our people and the state work.”

As part of its Annual Open House, the Ain Dah Yung Center recognizes individuals who deliberately demonstrate a process of collaboration and development with the American Indian community that is grounded in an understanding that American Indian communities know what works, she added. “From this premise, they create—with us—successful opportunities, projects and services,” she said. “It’s not very often that we experience individuals who take this kind of time and initiative. For those who do, we like to acknowledge them.”

Holger-Ambrose has worked for the Minnesota Department of Human Services since 2005. Her work focuses primarily on securing services for runaway, homeless and sexually exploited youth. Most recently, she has worked in collaboration with the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa and Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe to open the first housing and supportive services program for homeless youth on reservations in Minnesota.

“Beth has done a tremendous job working tirelessly with homeless youth,” said the department’s Assistant Commissioner of Children and Family Services Erin Sullivan Sutton. “We are very pleased that the Ain Dah Yung Center is recognizing her for this fine work, and, obviously, very proud of Beth.”

The center, which provides a broad spectrum of culturally relevant social services to American Indian youth and their families, is a grantee of the department.