The LeadingAge Minnesota Foundation (LAMF) is pleased to announce the launch of the Phase 2 Connected Communities for Healthy Aging grants.

Phase 2 Connected Communities grants

LAMF will award two grants of $600,000 to LeadingAge Minnesota provider members to lead Connected Communities pilots in rural Minnesota.

The overall aim of a Connected Community pilot is to create a collaborative and cross-sector system of care and support services that meets the physical, emotional, and social needs of seniors.

The grant period is from September 2024 through May 2027.

Grant application details

• Applications are due by May 23, 2024, at 5 p.m. via LAMF’s online grant system.
• Eligibility: Applicants must be provider members of LeadingAge Minnesota. As designated by the grant funder, this RFP is only open to rural communities outside the seven-county* Twin Cities metropolitan area regardless of population.  (*Anoka, Carver, Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott, Washington)
• Grant Program Summary: The Connected Communities grant project involves creating local coalitions to radically shift how people age—by improving their physical, mental, and social health. In Phase 1, pilots were launched in the Alexandria area through Knute Nelson, the Perham region through Perham Health, and Redwood Falls through Vista Prairie.

While the unique needs of each community inform the details, pilot sites commit to developing a deep understanding of their community and to undertake the following in their work:

• Community planning resulting in an easy-to-navigate network of resources and services
• Care coordination across primary, acute, long-term care, preventive, and community-based care and services
• Improving quality of care through direct care workforce initiatives, caregiving support, and volunteer opportunities
• Social engagement helping seniors reduce isolation, engage in activities, and experience a fulfilled, purposeful life

Selection factors

An independent review panel of professionals with expertise in aging services, health care, and community organizing will evaluate applications. Reviewers will be looking for applicants with an entrepreneurial culture and an identified project lead with a population health focus. The grant applicant will be asked to:

• Illustrate their community’s readiness to create a new ecosystem for aging, including healthcare system partnerships and social care providers.
• Demonstrate their organization’s ability and experience as a community leader.
• Describe their organization’s commitment to integrating care across traditional boundaries.
• Tell reviewers about key project team leaders and their experience managing systems change and engaging community partners in transformation.

Important dates and information

• April 18: A grant information session will be held from 9-10 a.m. Register here.
• May 23: Applications must be submitted by 5 p.m. via LAMF’s online grant system.
• July 8-18: Virtual site visits and/or applicant interviews.
• Late August: Funding decisions announced.
• Preview application questions here.

About Connected Communities:

When LAMF started the Connected Communities grant program in 2019, a central theme was that many people living and aging in rural Minnesota face increased risks and health disparities due to a lack of physical, emotional, and social resources that support health and well-being. Since then, the COVID-19 pandemic has only amplified disparities for rural Minnesotans.

Growing social isolation: Social isolation among older adults is a growing concern in the state. It is known to have the same impact on health as smoking nearly a pack of cigarettes per day. COVID-19 exacerbated this social isolation epidemic because many seniors live alone or far from their families and likely avoided interactions with others to prevent the virus from spreading. While online connectivity served as a social alternative for many people during the pandemic, limited access to technology and digital illiteracy furthered social isolation for older adults.

Fragmented services focusing on medical care vs. quality of life: The pandemic also revealed the importance of connecting the healthcare continuum with broader community resources to comprehensively support people as they age. A lack of cross-sector planning results in siloed primary, acute, and long-term care systems that are disconnected from prevention, social connections, nutrition, transportation, housing, and other supports that significantly impact health and quality of life. (iv) This fragmented system concentrates on acute and medical elements of care—even though we know those services impact less than 20% of a person’s overall health and well-being. This lack of a planful, whole-person-centered approach threatens healthy aging and quality of life. The complexity of this fragmented system underscores the need for communities to provide navigation assistance to support older adults and families in finding available services.

Inability to remain at home: By 2025, it is estimated that up to 25 percent of the total cost of care for Medicare Fee For Service (FFS) and Medicare Advantage (MA) beneficiaries could shift from traditional care settings to receiving care at home. For this to be viable, however, partnerships across community sectors will be required to coordinate and develop a comprehensive network of support wherever people call home. Coordinating this effort through providers who already support the day-to-day living and housing needs of older adults (versus medical care providers who primarily focus on clinical care) is critical for advancing quality of life and resource access.

Rural communities must create cross-sector partnerships to support aging that offers care across a full continuum of need (not just medical) and harness technology and information exchange that enables support anywhere. Centering on the person served, regardless of the setting, will be critical to helping people age well. This approach also fully acknowledges the contribution of community and housing organizations in the health and well-being equation. The University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center published a 2021 policy brief identifying substantial barriers to aging in place in rural communities. A State Offices of Rural Health survey cited transportation, social isolation, food insecurity, and lack of in-home services as critical issues to address for people to age successfully at home.

As the Connected Communities identify local gaps and improvements, the area’s system will likely expand to include new models for transportation, telehealth, housing, shopping, work, social connection, caregiving, and community design.

Insufficient workforce: We are facing a “demographic drought” that will continue to yield workforce shortages for decades to come. This is due to a perfect storm of retiring baby boomers (past workforce), historically low rates of prime-age workers (current workforce), and lower birth rates in families (future workforce). The intense workforce shortage poses a significant barrier to accessing the number of direct caregivers necessary to ensure quality care and support for older adults. Communities must leverage their collective resources and assets to address workforce shortages through greater collaboration, innovative solutions, and higher productivity at a community level.

Connected Communities model as a solution: All of these issues together pose threats for individuals aging in rural areas and for the broader rural communities in which they live. However, working collectively to address these challenges can unlock a new paradigm for aging in rural Minnesota. The Connected Communities pilot communities are already and will continue to address these issues by shifting from a model of rural aging that is health-deficit and decline-oriented to a model of person-centered, life-enriching, and community-supported quality of life for people as they age. The pilots will accomplish this by leveraging and integrating a combination of relationships (including older adult community residents), resources, and innovation across their entire communities.