Powerful Purpose
Mission
Core Values
AGING WITH DIGNITY
We value the inherent worth of older people and how their insights and experiences contribute to Minnesota’s social fabric and vitality
EQUITY AT THE CENTER
We value efforts that center equity, ensuring all people have an equal right to be full participants in all spheres of life as we age
STRENGTH IN SOLIDARITY
We value collective power, built on authentic relationships, trust, transparency, and a willingness to mobilize together to amplify impact
SPIRIT OF POSSIBILITY
We value the continuous pursuit of wisdom through listening, learning, and broadening our thinking, while embracing possibility as a driving force for change
Organizing Strategies
STRONG RELATIONSHIPS
We build trusted connections that bring forward and center the full diversity of voices aging across our state.
POWERFUL CONVENINGS
We cultivate understanding, forge consensus, co-design solutions, and learn together.
SYSTEMS CHANGE
We mobilize collective expertise and networks to develop and advance transformational aging policy and initiatives.
Our Story
2004
In an effort to elevate the advocacy voice of home and community-based services, leadership from the Minnesota Senior Federation, Volunteers of America MN and the Metropolitan Area Agency on Aging invited large non-profits to the table.
2005
Together, we started working on our first mission, to "coalesce the resources and power of consumer, advocacy, social and health service organizations to advocate boldly and achieve positive systems change for older adults and their families in Minnesota." We also began working on the Blueprint to Rebalance Long-Term Care.
2006
While digging in to the Long Term Care Invesment Study, we embarked on a Living the Questions project to increase awareness of aging across several sectors, including higher education, faith-based organizations, the business community, workforce organizations, foundations, civic engagement organizations and others.
2007-2009
During these early years, our members engaged in a number of community engagement efforts, such as Listening to Leaders sessions, shared legislative advocacy for the Community Care Act (2007-2008) and helped to successfully pass Communities for a Lifetime (2009).
Throughout our first decade, our strong member leadership built trusted working relationships and gained the respect of policymakers. To build on our early effectiveness, we strategically started growing our ranks in the late 2000's to include additional healthcare thought leaders and strong associations across our state.
2013
Moving our shared work to a new level, Mary Lenard was selected as our first Executive Director. Having served as Director of Aging Programs at the Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies and Executive Director of the Alzheimer’s Association MN-ND Chapter.
2015
On February 5, we finalized Articles of Incorporation, Bylaws, and received our 501(c)(3) designation. With Mary Lenard leaving to co-found the Giving Voice Initiative, Dr. Rajean Moone was selected as our second Executive Director. A nationally recognized gerontologist, policy leader and educator, he brought deep expertise on age-friendly strategies and a focus on promoting equity and inclusion for LGBTQ elders.
Our mission evolved to "create communities and systems that support aging with dignity and a spirit of well-being in Minnesota" and we adopted core strategies focused on issues of systems integration, health equity, caregivers and workforce, communities for a lifetime, and organizational strength.
2016
We launched a five-year Emerging Leaders in Aging Network project and selected Alana Wright as our Director of Equity and Operations. She served more than five years before transitioning to a Delegate role, as Executive Director of the Minnesota Gerontological Society.
2017
Entering a new phase of planning and development, we formalized policies and procedures to grow and diversify our work, updating our Bylaws to their current iteration and growing to 25 members while working on the MN 2030 project.
2018
Expanding our membership again to 30, we operationalized our equity work and thanks to support from the St. Paul & Minnesota, Mardag, and Bigelow foundations, we elevated missing voices by establishing the Aging Together Minnesota project and forming the Minnesota Diverse Elders Coalition.
2019
We welcomed the Finish Strong Funders Network for Aging to affiliate under our banner and continued to diversify our ranks by welcoming four organizations bringing perspectives from LGBTQ, Vietnamese, Latine, and African American communities along with census mobilization efforts focused on older Minnesotans.
At our 2019 Summit in St. Paul, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz signed Executive Order 19-38
establishing the
Age-Friendly Minnesota Council.
2020
After serving five years, Dr. Moone went on to serve as our Delegate for the University of Minnesota, where he is now Faculty Director for Long-Term Care Administration and the Associate Director of Policy at the Center for Healthy Aging and Innoviation. Adam Suomala was selected as our third Executive Director just as the pandemic reshaped our work across communities and led to a pivot in advocating on vaccination access, the Blue Ribbon Commission, and our first virtual Summit: Improving Health Equity for Minnesota's Older Adults.
2021
In an effort to create a shared agenda for aging in Minnesota, we convened the AGEnda project, alongside the Minnesota Board on Aging and Age-Friendly Minnesota Council. We focused on elevating community voices and equity programming, such as Foundations for Change: Evaluating Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Home and Community Based Services and Thriving Diverse Elders: Effective Communiation Strategies.
2022
Chao Yang was selected as our Director of Equity and Engagement to enhance our work creating diverse, equitable and inclusive communities in which to age. We offered From Microaggressions to Inclusion, a Leaders in Aging IDI Cohort, and worked with the Department of Human Services on Closing the Gaps in the 2022 Needs Assessment. We also conducted our first Combating Ageism training and Diversity Matrix.
2023
We launched Aging 101 for lawmakers and legislative staff, trained leaders with Age-Friendly Advocacy and Media Strategies and Storytelling for Change sessions. We endorsed a record 13 legislative solutions, which all saw passage in the 2023 Legislative Session and offered A Pragmatic Approach for Building Strong Community Partnerships on community engagement and launched the Catalyst Conversations series.
2024
Kate Seng was selected to serve as Co-Convener of the Finish Strong Funders Network in Aging. We also partnered to bring forward Reframe Aging Minnesota, a state focus for a national long-term social change endeavor. Celebrating our 20th year, our 2024 Summit convened under a theme of EMPOWER and featured the long-awaited release of Minnesota's Multisector Blueprint for Aging.
2025
Building on our 20 year history, we adopted a new strategic framework, including a revised mission of "uniting leaders to advance equitable opportunities for all Minnesotans as we age" as well as refreshed values and strategies. We launched a free Reframe Aging Minnesota virtual series, continued the popular Catalyst Conversations, and welcomed four new members into our organization.
Our
2025 Summit was convened under the theme PURPOSE, POLICY, POWER to mobilize our collective expertise and networks to develop and advance transformational aging policy for Minnesota.
2026
Our year begins with preperations for the 2026 Legislative Session, including offering an Aging 101 policy briefing for lawmakers, turnkey election engagement activities, and our annual endorsement process.
We also welcomed our new Accountant,
Vanesa Arreola Rodríguez
to the team.
With Appreciation
Along the way in our shared journey, the work of our Delegates and staff have been helped by several state leaders, volunteers, contractors and interns - each of whom has offered generously their gifts and contributions to advancing our work. We offer special recognition to:
