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Community Corner

Roseville Community Receives Grant to Advance Dementia-Friendly Work

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                  

CONTACT:  Kitty Gogins
(651) 481-0500                                                                             kgogins@mindspring.com

Roseville Community Receives Grant 
to Advance Dementia-Friendly Work

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Roseville, Minn. (April 11, 2014) — The Roseville community has been awarded an $8,000 grant through ACT on Alzheimer’s to help make Roseville a more welcoming community for people with dementia.

A group of Roseville community members, organizations, municipal staff and ISD 623 school district personnel has been working for the past eight months to help the growing number of residents with dementia. This group, called the Roseville Alzheimer’s and Dementia Community Action Team, applied for the ACT on Alzheimer’s grant as one important vehicle to achieve their goal.

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Roseville is one of 12 new action communities to receive grants to help prepare Minnesota for the growing number of people with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. The Alzheimer’s Association estimates there are 88,000 Minnesotans age 65 and older with the disease and thousands more with other dementias.

Roseville’s grant is funded through Blue Plus, a subsidiary of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota, the Medica Foundation, and Greater Twin Cities United Way.

ACT on Alzheimer’s is a volunteer-driven, statewide collaboration of more than 60 organizations preparing Minnesota for the personal, social and financial impacts of Alzheimer’s. Working with communities striving to become dementia-friendly is one of ACT’s key strategies.

“The new communities build on the exciting work being done by the seven pilot action communities,” said Olivia Mastry, executive lead for ACT on Alzheimer’s. “The goal is to provide community support for those with dementia and their caregivers, allowing people to live in their communities for as long as possible. That helps everyone— families and taxpayers who pay for institutional care, employers who have workers trying to balance all the demands of caregiving, and the individuals themselves.” Some areas of focus in the new communities will include inter-generational outreach, engaging new immigrants to Minnesota and working with faith communities.

“We look forward to starting the ACT on Alzheimer’s process in Roseville,” said Kitty Gogins, project leader of the Roseville action team. “Supporting our community members with Alzheimer’s and other dementias and their caregivers will do tremendous good for the community as a whole.” Kitty added, “The action team is looking for volunteers to help in this effort. Currently the greatest need is for people willing to commit five hours to help survey local businesses and organizations.” People who are interested contact Gogins at (651) 481-0500.  

Roseville joins the seven pilot communities—Cambridge, Forest Lake, St. Louis Park, St. Paul, Walker, Willmar and the Twin Cities Jewish Community. In addition to Roseville, the new action communities are in Bemidji, Brainerd/Baxter, Detroit Lakes, Edina, Harmony, International Falls, Marshall, Northfield, and St. Paul’s northeast neighborhoods, as well as CLUES (reaching Latino populations) and the Minnesota Council of Churches.

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More information is available at www.actonalz.org

Current participants in the Roseville Area Alzheimer’s and Dementia Community Action Team Act on Alzheimer’s  project include: ACR Homes & Arthur’s Residential Care, Alzheimer’s Speaks & Arthur’s Memory Café, Amherst H. Wilder Foundation, Bluestone Physician Services, Centennial United Methodist Church, Cherrywood Pointe, Como Park/Falcon Heights Living at Home Block Nurse Program, Golden Living Center, Good Samaritan Society, Johanna Shores, Keystone Senior Living in Roseville, Lyngblomsten, Metropolitan Area Agency on Aging, Roseville Area Schools, Roseville Area Senior Program, Roseville City Government, Roseville Fire Department, Roseville Police Department, Sunrise Senior Living, and Roseville community members. 

 

 

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