$1.3 million in grants focus on age-friendly inclusive design



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NEWS RELEASE



*Friday, May 30, 2025*







*Contact:
*Scott Peterson
DHS Communications
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Making Minnesota a better place to age

$1.3 million in grants focus on age-friendly inclusive design

Grants will go to 35 organizations across Minnesota to better connect communities, improve emergency preparedness and take steps to make the state more inclusive and equitable for people as they age. 
Age-Friendly Minnesota is awarding $1.3 million to advance the efforts of age-friendly communities. Grants ranging from $9,000 to $75,000 each will go to cities, nonprofit organizations, for-profit businesses and others.

Age-Friendly Minnesota is a statewide initiative aimed at making communities across Minnesota more supportive, inclusive and livable for people of all ages — particularly older adults. It's part of a movement inspired by the AARP Network of Age-Friendly States and Communities and the World Health Organization’s Global Network for Age-friendly Cities.

“These grants are a concrete example of supporting Age Friendly Minnesota priorities,” said Age-Friendly Council Chair Sherrie Pugh. “These projects will help support aging in place, improve community design and foster health, well-being and other ways to improve aging.”

The Age-Friendly Minnesota Council, in collaboration with the Minnesota Department of Human Services, launched the grant program in 2022 to help communities initiate or advance age-friendly efforts. The Council is committed to creating spaces and opportunities that are intentionally designed to be welcoming and inclusive of all Minnesotans.

All 35 grants are listed below, sorted by region.

Central Minnesota, $154,000

*Central Lakes College Foundation*, Brainerd, $52,000. Two initiatives aim to enhance community engagement for adults 55 and older. These include 55+ Listening Sessions at Central Lakes College for prospective and current students; and chatty hour, a program to foster social connections among older adults. These efforts promote an inclusive, age-friendly environment by supporting social engagement and lifelong learning.

*Rivers of Hope*, Monticello, $38,000. Rivers of Hope will equip medical providers, senior centers and volunteers in Wright and Sherburne counties with the knowledge and tools to identify and respond to domestic violence affecting older adults. Older survivors, particularly in rural areas, face unique challenges. This project promotes safety, justice and support.

*Veteran Resource & Enrichment Center Inc.*, St. Cloud, $49,000. This funding allows the Veteran Resource & Enrichment Center to become an accessible facility for all military families and the community. By restructuring space to meet growing accessibility needs of veterans and their families and caregivers, this project will improve their quality of life by reducing self-isolation and alcohol and substance use.

*Wright County Historical Society*, Buffalo, $15,000. This project enables the Wright County Historical Society to improve accessibility for their main doors and t o have an accessible bathroom for their multiuse and multigenerational public building.

Twin Cities, $597,000 

*Age-Friendly Equity Alliance*, Ramsey County, St. Paul, $9,000. Continuing a process of community assessment and planning for action will include a series of community listening sessions. The focus will be compiling background data from multiple sources.

*Age Well at Home*, Minneapolis, $27,000. Grant funding will help create an educational tool to teach Person Centered Trauma Informed approach to working with underserved populations and older homeowners who have experienced significant trauma. This approach will better serve older adults in historically neglected neighborhoods of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

*Asian American Business Resilience Network*, Minneapolis, $50,000. Project CONNECT empowers Asian American and Pacific Islander older adults with essential digital skills through a supportive, intergenerational approach led by trained bicultural/bilingual youth. This program provides both digital literacy and emergency preparedness skills, equipping seniors to confidently engage with today’s technology and increase social connectedness.

*Centro Tyrone Guzman*, Minneapolis, $26,000. Environmental changes to the building will create a more inclusive and accessible space for elders to engage in culturally appropriate educational, health and social activities, like adding automatic door openers to the entrance and bathrooms and converting two offices into age-friendly, Montessori-inspired spaces used for future elders programming.

*Community Mediation Minnesota*, Minneapolis, $60,000. Funding will increase access and awareness of the seven statewide Community Dispute Resolution Programs. More people will use services in the areas of elder law and justice, creating systemic change for individuals and families. The goal is to better integrate mediation and restorative practices around guardianship and conservatorship; caregiving of an aging parent and independent living; grandparent relationships and visitation.

*East Side Neighborhood Services*, Minneapolis, $36,000. This grant will expose youth to careers in health care and dementia care and increase awareness about health care directives for older adults. A focus on integrating youth career readiness training and older adult programming will optimize health and increase social supports for older adults.

*Faith Community Nurse Network of the Greater Twin Cities*, Shoreview, $50,000. This funding will help identify underserved communities and develop faith community nurses and evidence-based program leaders for communities including low-income, communities of color, LGBTQ+ and others.

*Giving Voice Initiative*, Minneapolis, $43,000. A pilot initiative will strategically engage rural and underserved populations, building the framework to launch new dementia-friendly choruses statewide. These choruses will provide respite for care partners and strengthen community and connectedness for older adults.

*Hispanic Advocacy and Community Empowerment through Research*, St. Paul, $70,000. Grant funds will support the Spanish/English bilingual Age-Friendly Economic Security and Vitality Project, which includes conducting a needs assessment, focus groups and interviews. Participants will include Hispanic older adults and caregivers in Ramsey, Hennepin, Nobles and Rice counties.

*Kaleidoscope-Kawm Thiab Siv*, Oakdale, $24,000. This project will enhance health and longevity in Minnesota’s aging Hmong community. Activities include a conference to present a culturally responsive Healthy Aging Framework to agencies and organizations serving the Hmong community and gathering feedback through a listening session for implementation planning.

*Living at Home Block Nurse Program*, St. Paul, $40,000. Grant money will support Living at Home Network members and provide ongoing technical and analytical support. This includes developing training materials for a new volunteer database and hosting virtual training and user group sessions.
Lmnop, St. Paul, $41,000. The “And So We Grow… Sowing Seeds to End Ageism” program brings storybooks to young children that feature positive images of older characters. The grant will support broad outreach and dissemination of this program, securing at least 10 sites to create a network of organizations and entities serving children.

*Minnesota Medication Repository*, Minneapolis, $46,000. The Minnesota Medication Repository, also known as Roundtable Rx, collects surplus medications from health care facilities, pharmacies and individuals and redistributes them to needy Minnesotans. Funding will help expand donor partnerships and establish partnerships with pharmacies that serve older adults.

*Theatre 55*, St. Paul, $75,000. Theatre 55 will develop a series of educational video segments focused on addressing loneliness and isolation among ethnic minority communities and LGBTQ+ older adults. This project will increase awareness of and access to video content among LGBTQ+ older adults. 

Northeastern Minnesota, $208,000

*Ecolibrium3*, Duluth, $50,000. Funding will help establish home assessment tools that combine energy efficiency, electrification, healthy housing, aging-in-place and disaster resilience to benefit Minnesota households of all ages. Expanding workforce training on age-friendly built environment approaches will be a focus.

*ElderCircle*, Grand Rapids, $29,000. ElderCircle will build a plan for a medical and essential ride transportation program with the possibility of billing Medicare or other insurances for individuals who live in rural Itasca County.

*Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa*, Cloquet, $12,000. This project will increase mobility and improve cognitive health for the Brookston community by installing a high tunnel and providing accessible raised garden beds. All ages will benefit from easier access to community gardening and fresh produce through the year.

*Justice North*, Duluth, $33,000. Legal kiosks help people find legal information, apply for legal aid, connect with an attorney and attend remote hearings. Grant funds will improve placement and accessibility of these kiosks, locating them at easy-to-access locations frequented by older Minnesotans.

*Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota*, St. Paul, $41,000. Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota will host a series of events for rural LGBTQ+ older adults in Beltrami, Itasca and St. Louis counties. The events bring together older adults, members of the LGBTQ+ community, supportive organizations and organizations that serve older adults.

*Northspan Group*, Duluth, $30,000. The goal of this project is to create a comprehensive training program for businesses and organizations to implement “returnships,” structured job opportunities designed for older adults reentering the workforce. The program uses age-friendly workplace practices, helping employers and returning professionals by addressing skill gaps, offering mentorship and enabling smoother transitions back to work.

*St. Louis County*, Duluth, $13,000. The county will bring emergency preparedness and response to the forefront for aging populations, seeking to integrate older adults into emergency response plans.

Southern Minnesota, $109,000

*Center for African Immigrants and Refugees Organization (CAIRO)*, St. Cloud, $23,000. A series of listening sessions with older adults and their caregivers in Faribault, Minn., will help design a program around their needs. An outreach campaign will promote the program to increase older adult and caretaker health and longevity in Faribault.

*Byron Public Schools*, Byron, $17,000. The Community Education team will conduct a needs assessment and strategic planning process, using an age-friendly lens to enhance adult enrichment programming and optimize the built environment at the Community Education Center. These efforts will address the growing demand for age-friendly public spaces and programming in Byron.

*Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services*, St. Paul, $69,000. The grant enables upgrades to the Legal Risk Detector for use across the state. The Legal Risk Detector is a web-based legal health "check-up" tool designed for use by eldercare professionals using technology and human support to screen elderly individuals and refer them to legal services.

Northwestern Minnesota, $259,000

*Advance Thief River*, Thief River Falls, $28,000. A comprehensive planning process will help create a housing plan for residents ages 55 and older, addressing health, accessibility and social needs. The plan will prioritize features that support active lifestyles, accessible design elements that reduce fall risks, and amenities that encourage regular physical activity. The process will include focus groups and community forums to ensure older adults and their families can voice their preferences and aspirations.

*Bemidji Senior Center*, Bemidji, $22,000. Building and program improvements at the Bemidji Senior Center will address safety concerns and make it a more welcoming place. Activities include replacing the floor in the multipurpose room and surveying members to explore social networks, interests and barriers to participation.

*Brink Senior Center*, Baudette, $25,000. This multifaceted project will update the intergenerational community space. Improvements include purchasing and installing a new sanitizing dishwasher, a digital sign for providing information and a computer for public access.

*City of New York Mills*, New York Mills, $32,000. This project will place shaded seating areas along a city owned walking trail. Rest areas will be covered with benches that are open on one side for wheelchair accessibility, creating a more accessible space.

*City of Roseau*, Roseau, $18,000. Funding will be used to purchase equipment to maintain dedicated snowshoe and cross-country ski trails within the community. As a recreational activity, cross-country skiing and snowshoeing are an ideal activity for an aging population. This project will provide snowshoeing and cross-county skiing on well-groomed, marked and beginner-friendly trails.

*Hallock Area Senior Center*, Hallock, $75,000. Funds will support obtaining an accessible vehicle, improving the current transportation system and strengthening the community volunteer driver program. This project will also incorporate an age-friendly component to the 2025 Community Health Needs Assessment.

*Headwaters Regional Development Commission*, Bemidji, $59,000. Funds will help create a regional housing plan with extensive community involvement. This plan will include design, accessibility, zoning, land use and in-home service considerations. A regional housing strategy will ensure that all people have a range of safe and affordable housing choices to create a healthy and prosperous future, including eliminating racial disparities in housing access.

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