Community Innovation Award Earned by Perham Silos to Circles Program

Posted on January 29, 2019 by Terri Foley

The Connection, a Perham community resource for seniors led by Perham Health, received a 2019 Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) Trailblazer award for community innovation. 

The Connection is a Silos to Circles Rural Age Well pilot funded through LeadingAge Minnesota Foundation. Silos to Circles pilots are also active in Crosby, Moorhead, and Southern Chisago County. The goal of The Connection and other Silos to Circles pilots is to make it easier for seniors, their families and neighbors to find local support services for aging well. 

As Maggie Fresonke, population health coordinator for Perham Health, notes in the Trailblazer Award story, “The problem isn’t the number of services in the area. It is people knowing about them.” 

To solve this problem, a coalition of local healthcare, social services and community organizations developed the idea of The Connection—a local, easily accessible contact for service referrals.

Jill Harder, The Connection’s community resources navigator, fields questions by phone and makes referrals for support in Perham and surrounding towns. 

“People often wait until a crisis situation to find services for their aging parents or for themselves after a medical event,” she reports. “Callers say that they just don’t know where to start and are overwhelmed. I can help them take the first steps by locating providers and starting to create a plan for future needs.” 

The Silos to Circles pilots are also connecting service providers to each other. In Perham, The Connection coalition meets monthly as the East Otter Tail Seniors Network to exchange information and build professional referral relationships. 

The Connection was recently featured in the Perham Focus. To read more, see a One-Stop Shop for Senior Services in Perham: The Connection Keeps Area Seniors in the Loop at Home.

Visit The Connection website at www.the-connection.info. For other pilot websites, visit www.stcmn.org and click on links for Cuyuna Area Connections, Clay County Age Well or Chisago Age Well.