The Minnesota River Area Agency on Aging (MNRAAA) is providing an opportunity for two communities to engage in the Age-Friendly Community Building Project. The goal of the project is to identify each community’s age-friendly assets and desired assets through community-wide surveys and focus groups. The communities will use the data from their survey and focus groups to develop and implement initiatives that will result in new and/or enhanced assets that have a positive impact on the age-friendliness of their community and the community’s livability for all ages.

What is an age-friendly community or a community for a lifetime? They “are good places to grow up and grow old, and offer physical, social and service features for residents of all ages and abilities. Through collaborative action and strategic planning, community leaders across sectors build places that support health and vitality for residents and the community as a whole.”¹

MNRAAA is soliciting Letters of Interest from communities in the following counties:

• Big Stone
• Chippewa
• Cottonwood
• Jackson
• Kandiyohi
• Lac qui Parle
• Lincoln
• Lyon
• Meeker
• McLeod
• Murray
• Nobles
• Pipestone
• Redwood
• Renville
• Rock
• Swift
• Yellow Medicine

Upon receipt and review of the Letters of Interest, two communities will be offered the opportunity to become part of MNRAAA’s Age-Friendly Community Building Project. For each community, MNRAAA will conduct a community-wide survey and community focus groups, and assist the community in determining small-scaled initiatives it can undertake to become age-friendlier. In addition, MNRAAA will provide up to $10,000 for each community to implement a large-scale initiative(s) that will result in an age-friendlier community.

It is anticipated the Age-Friendly Community Building Project will begin in June 2017 and be completed by August 2018. Communities will be required to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with MNRAAA prior to the implementation of the project.

If your community is interested in becoming one of the two communities that will participate in the Age-Friendly Community Building Project, submit a Letter of Interest postmarked no later than April 10, 2017 to:

Linda Giersdorf, Executive Director
Minnesota River Area Agency on Aging
201 North Broad Street, Suite 102
Mankato MN 56001

Letters postmarked after April 10, 2017 will not be reviewed.

If you have questions, you may contact Linda at lgiersdorf@mnraaa.org or 507.387.1256, extension 103, or you may contact one of MNRAAA’s Program Developers. Below is a link to the Letter of Interest Requirements Checklist and an Agency Commitment Form.

• Letter of Interest Requirements Checklist
• Agency Commitment Form

The Age-Friendly Community Building Project is made possible through a grant from the Southwest Initiative Foundation and an Area Plan approved by the Minnesota Board on Aging.

¹ 2016 Minnesota Board on Aging, Minnesota Department of Human Services website.