Northland Foundation CI Report – Final

What has been most instrumenta to your progress?

Northland implemented a community-powered problem-solving process aimed at increasing social connectedness among people of all age groups and socio-economic backgrounds in 3 northeastern Minnesota sites: Ely, North Shore Area, and Hibbing.
One activity that was instrumental in making strides was the AGE to age planning process.

While the initial planning process was completed during year 1, we continued to provide technical assistance, training, and resources for the sites. In total, 835 older adults, 795 youth, and 745 adults ages 19-54, engaged in the implementation of activities in the sites. They developed and maintained partnerships with 54 community organizations to help support their intergenerational efforts. Participation of people from of all ages helped to ensure representation of different perspectives. This was essential to develop local ownership of solutions that foster social connections and improve community. All three of the new AGE to age sites developed plans with projects and activities that build upon their programming implemented in the past two years to engage youth, older adults, and the generations-in-between to enhance the community in 2018-19.

During year 2, we continued to provide tailored technical assistance and financial resources to the 3 participating sites to support their innovations aimed at increasing social connectedness among people of all age groups and socio-economic backgrounds. We worked closely with the local coordinators and their respective action teams made up of a diverse group of community partners, including youth and older adults. Each site implemented their locally designed projects and activities that were tested and implemented this past year. In addition to technical assistance, $15,000 in implementation funding was provided to each site for a total of $45,000. Each site has leveraged community assets to implement efforts such as mentoring programs, after-school enrichment activities, arts and cultural opportunities, community service projects, school and community gardens, and healthy living activities. Providing technical assistance and financial resources are critical to assist communities with testing and implementing solutions that make positive change. All of the sites have action plans that will be implemented during 2018-19 following the conclusion of the grant.

A key ingredient to supporting the 3 sites and their intergenerational community-building efforts was the Northland’s regional learning community. This peer learning network was comprised of the coordinators from the 13 existing AGE to age communities and from Ely, Hibbing, and the North Shore Area. Throughout this past year, the coordinators came together for daylong meetings to share their experiences and lessons learned, participate in training, and conduct evaluation.

The regional learning community has assisted the coordinators from the 3 new sites with gaining insights from the experiences of their counterparts across the region, learning about effective strategies for engaging youth, older adults and the generations-in-between, and receiving support to work through challenges. This, in turn, helped the new sites move forward more effectively with providing leadership to their local action teams to test and implement local solutions. The Annual Summit provided another valuable opportunity for the coordinators and their intergenerational teams to participate in leadership training and learn more about an array of innovative projects being implemented in other sites.

Key lessons learned

A key lesson learned this past year is that small rural communities are highly motivated to create intergenerational initiatives when given the opportunity. The Bush Foundation Community Innovation Grant helped 3 rural sites, Hibbing, population 16,355; Ely, population 3,477; and the North Shore Area which includes Silver Bay, Finland, Murphy City, Beaver Bay, Little Marias, and Isabella with a combined population of approximately 2,500 people, undertake an array of projects to help build social connectedness across age groups. Our partnership with the Bush Foundation allowed the Northland Foundation to further demonstrate the effectiveness of our AGE to age planning model as an innovative approach to join youth with older adults, and the generations in between to build relationships and undertake creative problem-solving aimed at improving the well-being of residents of all ages and enhancing community vitality. All 3 of the communities designed, implemented, tested, and evaluated an array of projects that build on local assets and respond to identified needs.

During this past year, a number of lessons were affirmed from our previous community-based work, including:
1) The Northland Foundation’s intergenerational community planning process helps ensure local ownership.
2) Linking community coordinators from the 3 new sites with coordinators from the existing 13 sites is highly beneficial to the coordinators from the new communities which allows them to learn from their peers that have been undertaking intergenerational efforts during the past several years.
3) Local citizens of all ages are eager to build relationships with people from different age groups and work together to enhance community vitality.
4) College interns bring energy, fresh perspectives, and enthusiasm to contribute to the goals of the local programs.
5) Multiyear support helps communities continue to build upon their efforts and begin embedding effective strategies into their community infrastructure.
Program evaluation indicates that our efforts this past year were highly effective in helping the 3 participating sites implement locally-designed solutions to foster cross-generational connections and help enhance community vitality.

Reflections on the community innovation process

Northland is deeply committed to ensuring inclusion in the planning process. We worked with each of the 3 sites to engage local partners and ensure that youth, older adults, and the generations in between were actively involved in the planning process, testing, and implementation. This intentionality of being inclusive helped each site generate strong engagement across age groups and develop creative ideas that were implemented to foster intergenerational connections and benefit the community. While inclusion was a key element in making progress, we also focused on collaboration and resourcefulness. For example, community members in each site worked together to make a decision on a local coordinator to provide local leadership, oversee the testing and implementation of community-powered plans, and serve as a link to Northland. Members at each site worked together to prioritize ideas, and come to consensus on the priorities for testing and implementation that respond to local needs. Finally, throughout the planning process, each site focused on how to build upon assets and resources to maximize opportunities that bring all age groups together to improve community.

Other key elements of Community Innovation

As reported last year, an essential ingredient of our community planning process is our learning community model. When working with community members to address an area of need, it is highly beneficial to connect representatives from the participating sites.

Our learning community promotes sharing effective intergenerational strategies. This network promotes information-sharing and assists with maximizing resources by generating ideas that can be easily replicated and adapted by others.

The coordinators from the 3 sites participated in quarterly meetings with the coordinators from the 13 existing AGE to age sites. This opportunity helped the new coordinators to capitalize on the experiences and advice from the seasoned coordinators.

Another key ingredient is multi-year support. The Bush Community Innovation Grant provided instrumental resources to provide two years of funding for the 3 sites as they tested and implemented their breakthrough solutions. We are pleased to share that we are able to provide each site with a third year of support. This third year of support will further help them to embed effective efforts into their community infrastructure.

Progress toward an innovation

Bush Foundation support allowed Northland to further test our community organizing model to help 3 rural sites to identify breakthrough solutions that inspire and unite local residents from different age groups to build social connections and improve community. We worked with the Ely, North Shore Area, and Hibbing to develop locally driven intergenerational efforts. Our program team guided adults 55+, youth, and the ages-in-between using our planning model. The impact has been incredible. Youth are teaching older adults to use information technology, community beautification and healthy living projects are now in place, and community spaces that are friendly to all ages and abilities have been created. Through the voluntary engagement of people of all ages, the sites were able to design, implement, test, and evaluate projects that improve the health and well-being of children and older adults and enhance community vitality. Prior to AGE to age, the 3 sites didn’t have formal networks to ensure youth thrive through connections with older people. Evaluation data shows improved health and well-being of older adults and youth; increased leadership capacity; and reduced age-segregation.

What it will take to reach an innovation?

What’s next?

Through our extensive community work, we have learned that to sustain community momentum and action, multi-year support is key. We have been able to secure a third year of funding for the 3 new sites that were developed through the Bush Foundation’s grant. During 2018-19, we will continue to provide capacity building technical assistance, peer learning, training, and financial support to the 3 new AGE to age sites. This third year of support will help them to further test their community-driven projects and sustain effective intergenerational efforts.

Through our extensive community work, we have learned that each community has its own culture and traditions. Thus, a one-size-fits-all approach is not effective. We give each community the flexibility to respond to their local needs in unique ways. Our role is offer technical assistance, training, and support to maintain inspired leadership and community participation of all ages. The Bush Foundation has been a critical partner in our efforts to implement a community-powered problem-solving model in rural communities and Native Nations aimed at increasing social connectedness among people of all age groups and backgrounds.

If you could do it all over again…

As shared in our last report, one learning we would share with ourselves prior to launching the planning process is working in a relatively large community like Hibbing (Pop. 16,355), takes more time than working in smaller sites like Ely (pop. 3,477). While we were able to meet our goals, we experienced some delays in getting started in Hibbing. After some initial challenges, we determined it would be more effective for the Foundation staff to hold individual meetings with local leaders. Foundation leadership met with local leaders including the superintendent, mayor, and higher education administrators. This allowed our program team to share information about the goal of AGE to age and gathered names of key stakeholders to invite to the initial meeting. As a result, Hibbing had a high level of participation during the planning process including 167 people representing different age groups and a large number of organizations. The planning process resulted in the implementation and testing of intergenerational projects that addressed local needs. These efforts engaged 300 youth, 400 older adults, and 200 people in the generations in between and 20 partners.

One last thought

The Northland Foundation was able to secure funding from another partner to provide college interns in the 3 Bush Foundation-supported sites. The College Intern Program was originally piloted with a special Bush Foundation grant in 2012, as a program enhancement to AGE to age to provide a summer work experience for college students in community-based intergenerational programs. The program was highly effective in helping the interns increase their leadership skills and gain a better understanding of community organizing, and working with people from different age groups. The internship program has now added a new dimension to AGE to age.

Additionally, we would like to share that we recently received a $200,000, three-year grant from the Mardag Foundation to expand AGE to age to two more rural communities this fall. Our AGE to age program continues to receive significant attention on the regional, state, and national levels. We appreciate the support of the Bush Foundation.