The nonprofit Care Partners of Cook County has received a $65,000 grant on behalf of a group of community partners to develop and carry out plans for helping area older adults and their families successfully age in place. The grant is part of Northland Foundation’s three-year special initiative, the Integrated Rural Community Aging Program.

Guided by the Northland Foundation through a coalition-building and planning process, the group developed a vision statement: The Cook County Aging Coalition envisions a connected community which empowers citizens to age successfully throughout Cook County and Grand Portage. Access to a wide array of services enhances quality of life, health, and social engagement.

Their two-year action plan includes creating a single access point with a variety of online, print and in-person ways for the public to learn about all available resources for older adults and the people who care for them. It will also establish a Care Navigator position to help manage the access point, provide in-person intake and referral, and facilitate improved communication and response by community partners to requests for their resources. 

“Care Partners is honored to be working with such dedicated local partners,” said Kay Grindland, Executive Director at Care Partners. “We all work to help older adults, family members, and caregivers in Cook County find services, but with all the different programs it is sometimes hard to know where to start. It is exciting to collaborate on a joint venture that will make it easier for everyone to access the information they need.”

The coalition includes Care Partners of Cook County, the Cook County Council on Aging (The Hub); Cook County Public Health and Human Services; Grand Portage Health Service, Grand Portage Human Services, and Grand Portage Elderly Nutrition Program; North Shore Health Care Foundation; North Shore Health, and Sawtooth Mountain Clinic and other community leaders. Regular coalition meetings will help the group guide the projects, share information and develop additional efforts and outreach.

About the Northland Foundation’s Integrated Rural Community Aging Program

Care Partners of Cook County and its coalition members are one of eight sites in northeastern Minnesota selected to participate in the Community Planning and Care Coordination Project, one facet of the Northland Foundation’s new, three-year, $3.75 million Integrated Rural Community Aging Program. Northland and its key program partners, the Arrowhead Area Agency on Aging, will provide resources and assistance over the next two and a half years to the help fund exciting projects among the eight coalitions in the region to create well-connected programs and services that support rural older adults and their family caregivers. The Community Planning and Care Coordination Project is just one strategy of the Integrated Rural Community Aging Program. Northland will also leverage its nationally recognized AGE to age program in 18 sites across the region to increase social engagement among older adults while helping children and youth thrive; work with Tribal Nation partners to provide resources that will help them further support their Elders; and support workforce strategies to increase the quantity and quality of caregivers for older adults.