Projects funded to help Minnesotans stay home as they age

Link to news release on Minnesota Department of Human Services website: http://mn.gov/dhs/media/news/news-detail.jsp?id=252-140866

More than $5.3 million going to community long-term services and supports statewide

Contact:
Katie Mintz
Communications
651-431-5605
kathryn.mintz@state.mn.us

PDF version of news release

ANOKA, MINN. – Organizations that help older Minnesotans stay in their homes as they age are receiving more than $5.3 million in funds appropriated by the Minnesota Legislature and Gov. Mark Dayton, and awarded by the Minnesota Department of Human Services.

Projects being funded through the department’s Community Service/Community Services Development Grants provide indoor and outdoor chore services, adult day services, grocery delivery, home repairs, alternative housing, support for informal caregivers and other services that allow older Minnesotans to remain in their homes rather than move to nursing homes or other more expensive settings.

“Efforts like these by many Minnesotans, including these grantees, are among reasons Minnesota has ranked No. 1 for two consecutive years on the national AARP scorecard for long-term services and supports for older adults and people with disabilities,” said Human Services Commissioner Lucinda Jesson. “Minnesotans are committed and creative in providing core community services to help people stay in their homes as they age. These include supports for family members and friends, who provide most of the care for older adults.”

Jesson announced the grants today while helping deliver groceries in Anoka with Store To Door, a Roseville-based nonprofit that provides grocery shopping and delivery for homebound older adults in the Twin Cities metro area. Store To Door received a grant last year aimed at bringing more food to low-income seniors. Its work has included expanding a food shelf delivery service to new areas in Ramsey and Anoka counties, and providing information about the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

“These grants provide low-cost, high-impact supports that make a big difference in older Minnesotans’ lives,” Jesson said. “For someone who wants to stay in their home but can’t shop on their own, not only does grocery delivery put nutritious foods directly in their hands, it also helps them remain healthy, as hungry seniors are twice as likely to report fair or poor general health.”

Projects receiving grants in state fiscal year 2015:

• Northwoods Interfaith Volunteer Caregivers is receiving $151,677 to provide geriatric case management, caregiver support, companion services and expand other services for American Indians who want to remain in their own homes and their caregivers in Beltrami, Cass, Clearwater, Hubbard and Koochiching counties.
• CLUES (Comunidades Latinas Unidas En Servicio)  is awarded $125,500 to fund a culturally and linguistically specific Adult Day Program providing respite care to Latino elders and caregivers in Dakota and Ramsey counties in partnership with other community organizations.
• DARTS will use $126,874 to expand outdoor chore services for older adults in Dakota County and to update outdoor program equipment.
• Faith in Action for Cass County is awarded $97,936 to strengthen its services, which include transportation, meal delivery, and home repair, including installing grab bars, railings and accessibility ramps for older adults in Cass County’s rural areas.
• NextDoor Inc. is receiving two grants for a total of $342,403 to pilot an accessory dwelling unit in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area that will provide temporary, affordable housing as an alternative to keep older adults independent in their communities while close to family and friends who can help them.
• Sustainable Resources Center, Inc. is awarded $252,000 to work on 120 suburbanHennepin County homes to help create safer and healthier home environments for aging occupants.
• Rebuilding Together Twin Cities, Minneapolis, is receiving $31,756 to provide comprehensive accessibility services to six homeowners.
• ACE of Southwest Minnesota will use $50,000 for evidence-based health promotion programs including memory care consultant services in Lincoln, Lyon, Nobles and Redwoodcounties.
• Lakewood Health System, Staples, is receiving $330,609 to expand its dementia health care home.
• Great River Area Faith in Action is awarded $262,450 to expand its service area and volunteer network in Benton, Mille Lacs, Sherburne, Stearns and Wright counties, increase capacity by partnering with parish nurses, and pilot a transitional care model with a long-term care facility.
• Assumption Community Services, on behalf of the Rural Stearns Live Well at Home Coalition, is receiving $110,369 to help with care transitions between health care and home and community-based providers in southwestern Stearns County.
• CommonBond Communities, St. Paul, is awarded $249,927 to enhance and sustain its Twin Cities wellness and health promotion programs, which include evidence-based classes on falls prevention, chronic disease self-management and physical activity.
• Senior Community Services will use $52,601 to expand its Household and Outside Maintenance for the Elderly (HOME) program to 11 unserved communities adjacent to its current west metro suburban service area.  The new communities are Woodland, Deephaven, Excelsior, Shorewood, Tonka Bay, Minnetonka Beach, Orono, Long Lake, Spring Park, Mound and Greenwood.
• ElderCircle, Grand Rapids, is receiving $219,895 for its joint venture with the City of Grand Rapids, Itasca County Family YMCA, Grand Itasca Clinic and Hospital to expand the local YMCA and enhance it with an active living center catering to retirees, the aging population and caregivers.
• Dellwood Gardens, St. Paul, is awarded $255,000 to develop wheelchair accessible gardens and exercise programs that incorporate gardening, balance and strength conditioning; to create an interior gardening room and make other improvements for elders of different cultural and economic backgrounds in St. Paul’s East Side neighborhood.
• Washington County HRA is receiving $162,100 to implement a falls prevention strategy to help older adults in HRA-owned affordable rental housing live independently and safely as long as possible.
• Community Memorial Home, Osakis, is receiving $162,661 to purchase exercise equipment and develop and implement programs, such as Tai Chi, as part of moving from reliance on the traditional medical model of care to one better balanced with empowering wellness and prevention opportunities.
• Perham Living is awarded $170,072 to develop adult day services in Otter Tail, Becker, Hubbard and Wadena counties.
• Volunteer Services of Carlton County is receiving $260,674 for its Communities Called to Care volunteer-based program focusing on delivery of chore, transportation, homemaker, caregiver respite and caregiver counseling services.
• Lakes Area Interfaith Caregivers is awarded $99,999 for its volunteer-based services inCrow Wing County, which include transportation, chore services, companion visits, ramp building and grab bar installation.
• Waseca Area Neighborhood Service Center is awarded $70,560 to develop a volunteer in-home respite service, education on senior nutrition, self-management of chronic diseases, caregiver self-care and care and falls prevention to older adults and caregivers in Waseca County.
• Horizon Health Faith in Action is awarded $66,700 to provide core home and community-based services across Morrison County and beyond
• West Central Minnesota Communities Action is receiving $199,879 to work with partners to provide grocery and prescription delivery as well as transportation and other services for older adults in Traverse, Douglas, Stevens, Grant and Pope counties.
• Faith In Action In Red Wing is receiving $24,582 to provide transportation; help with shopping, reading and bill paying; minor home repairs; friendly visits; and respite care for family caregivers in Red Wing.
• St. Olaf Community Center is receiving $255,000 to repurpose space for a North Minneapolis community center with exercise equipment, a library and other resources for older adults.
• VINE Faith in Action, Mankato, is awarded two grants for a total of $498,355 for evidence-based health and wellness programs, a warm water exercise pool and locker rooms at its Adult Community Center.
• Adult Day Services, Inc. will use $255,000 to expand adult day services in Bemidji.
• Whitney Senior Center, St. Cloud, is awarded $184,931to partner with satellite sites in rural areas of Stearns, Benton and Sherburne counties to provide health, fitness and consumer protection courses using evidence-based health promotion programming.
• Center for Active Living, Worthington, is receiving $70,261 to expand health and wellness programs and to provide instruction in how to use a computer, Skype, the internet and social media.
• Minnesota Network of Hospice & Palliative Care is awarded $179,262 to collaborate with Minnesota’s Area Agencies on Aging to provide end-of- life care resources, including culturally appropriate information on advance care planning, palliative care, hospice and veterans’ end-of-life benefits, to home and community-based service providers statewide.

More information about the grants is available on the DHS website, www.dhs.state.mn.us/cssd.