Cradle of Hope can help you in various ways, with a newly expanded list of services. See below for our services and other resources. If you would like to receive assistance, just fill out the application.

Becoming a CoH Crib Site

Cradle of Hope (CoH) offers portable cribs – Pack ’N Plays (PNP) to families experiencing a crisis due to the pregnancy or birth of their baby.  Portable cribs are distributed to eligible clients to ensure that they have a safe place for their baby to sleep.  (Please note: Some crib-sites may have additional criteria.)

We encourage agencies to conduct a phone screening with each client before an application is filled out.  Cradle of Hope does not have an official phone screening script and urges agencies to develop their own. This could save the agency and client time and any unnecessary work if the client were to be found ineligible.

Verification Process

  • The client must be pregnant and in her 3rd trimester or have a baby less than 4 months of age. Agencies aren’t required to provide Cradle of Hope with proof of this; however, agencies must sign off that verification was obtained as part of the application.  Agencies are encouraged to verify this by reviewing the following:
    • Pregnancy test results from the partnering agency or other medical center
    • Birth certificate of the baby
    • Doctor’s note indicating the estimated due date or baby’s birth date
  • The client must be a MN resident.  Agencies aren’t required to provide Cradle of Hope with proof of this; however, agencies must sign off that verification was obtained as part of the application.  Agencies are encouraged to verify residency by doing the following:
    • Ask to see a Minnesota issued photo ID
    • Ask for a recent bill (piece of mail) with the mother’s name and address on it and compare it to a non-Minnesota issued photo ID.
    • Agencies may have other agency specific methods that are used for verifying residency.
  • The crisis must be related to the pregnancy or birth of the baby.

Application Process

  • Agency Staff fill out the application with the client.
    • If the application is incomplete, the request will be denied. However, all denied applications can always reapply.
  • Review the application to ensure that you responded to each item.
    • The Income/Expenses Section:  Not only does this empower clients to think about the relationship between income and expenses, but it helps agencies to see if the client is actually in need of assistance or could benefit from budgeting/money management support.
    • The Crisis & Plan of Action Sections:  This is the heart of our application.  We want to establish a solid plan so the crisis will not be repeated and so the client feels supported and hopeful about the future.
  • Agencies are required to provide written Safe Sleep Education materials to PNP recipients prior to or at the time the PNP is provided.
    • These materials, written in English or Spanish, are available on the MN Department of Health’s Infant Mortality Reduction website and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development websites. We encourage you to keep extra copies of these materials on hand.
    • Safe Sleep Information
    • If there is a relatively large population in the area served by the site that communicates in another language, reasonable efforts should be made to accommodate them. These efforts may include:
      • Having some of the Safe Sleep Education materials translated.
      • Providing interpreters.
      • Asking clients to bring interpreters with them to appointments.
      • Using visual illustrations, demonstrations, props, or pointing out key Safe Sleep video highlights.
  • Signatures
    • Client (or legal representative) must sign the Hold Harmless/Release signature page (page 2). This acknowledges that the client has read the Safe Sleep information or has been provided an alternative to reading the information, and this information was reviewed with him/her.
    • If a legal representative (husband, parent of under-age client) signs for the PNP, the relationship must be noted next to the signatures. Only the client or the legal representative may sign for the PNP.
  • Submit the application.  Fax, mail, or apply online through the Cradle of Hope website (coming soon).  Orders are typically placed the second and fourth Wednesday of each month.  Agency crib supplies will be replenished when applications are processed by Cradle of Hope. Please keep track of your PNP’s – You should have in stock or on order your total allotted number of PNP’s at any one time. If you need to increase your crib supply please contact Cradle of Hope.

Distribution Process

  • PNPs are shipped to Partnering Agencies the day after the order has been placed and take 4-7 days to arrive. (PNPs are never shipped directly to clients). If agencies have unusual schedules please contact the Program Director to discuss other shipping options.  (It may be possible to ship PNP’s to the advocate’s home who will then bring the PNP’s to the agency. However, this needs to be approved in advance.).
  • The client, who submitted the application, must pick up the PNP. We encourage each partnering agency to verify the identity of the person picking up the PNP to ensure that it is the client who was approved to receive a PNP.  Please be sure to ask if the client has any other Safe Sleep or PNP questions.

Safe Sleep Information