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Hennepin County


Hennepin County

Committed To Becoming More Age-Friendly

Hennepin County  United States of America
Print this page City population: 125202419.7 % over 60Joined Network in 2021

Since 1998, our nationally accredited Hennepin County Public Health has, every four years, conducted a Survey of the Health of all the Population and the Environment (SHAPE). SHAPE assesses the wellbeing of our diverse county and provides data that helps formulate age-friendly programs and policies. In 2018, the survey reached over 11,000 residents, and 3,546 of these were age 65 and older, which provides us with a strong evidence-base to describe the health outcomes for this population, and helps to understand how social conditions such as health care affordability, social connectedness, mental well-being, and food-, housing- and transportation-insecurity affect opportunities for health. We participate in the Minnesota Area Agency on Aging Eldercare Development Partnership which has goals to expand and strengthen the capacity of home and community based services, promote risk management strategies, strengthen care transitions, and promote service model sustainability. We also partner with AARP in our Vital Aging programs, encouraging physical activity and older adults’ use of our parks. Hennepin County adopted a complete streets policy, shifting our focus to all modes of transportation. This resulted in an extensive system of bike paths throughout the community. Public Health staff assisted the City of Osseo in the development, administration and analysis of a resident survey that gauged the successes, barriers and opportunities for the city to support their older adult residents in two Age-Friendly domains – communications and social inclusion. We also co-hosted a city-wide event that launched Osseo’s Healthy Generations initiative and convened a Community Leadership Team for one year to help develop, inform and implement Age-Friendly strategies within the City of Osseo.We also partnered with the City of Brooklyn Park to conduct 5 focus groups with diverse groups of older adults to gauge their needs, desires, gaps, challenges and barriers to accessing and/or participating in Park & Recreation activities and programs. Our current Healthy Aging Work Team meets monthly and includes representatives from throughout Public Health. We are conducting extensive internal and external environmental scans of our departments and our community partners to identify age-friendly gaps, needs, opportunities, and creative ideas. Throughout this process, we are focused on reducing disparities.

Baseline Assessment
Strategy and Action Plan
Evaluation