8:00 - 8:15 am  

Opening Remarks with Bob Koehler and Heidi Holste

8:15 - 8:30 am  

Demographic Changes in Minnesota: Annual Updates with State Demographer, Susan Brower, PhD

Description: Minnesota has reached a demographic milestone: we have more residents over age 65 than school-age children.  Dr. Susan Brower, State Demographer examines the implications of this shift for the state’s labor force, economy, and public services.  She will discuss emerging trends in aging, racial and ethnic diversity, and population shifts within the state, and explain how these new demographic realities may impact Minnesota’s future workforce and transportation needs.

Learning Objective:

1.      Participants will learn how changes in fertility, longevity, and migration are reshaping the state’s age structure.

8:30 - 9:00 am 

Virtual Keynote Panel Discussion: Looking Back, Leading Forward

Jim Tift, Rajean Moone, Christina Cauble, Tanya Rand, Meghan Coleman, Phyllis Greenberg & Joe Gaugler

Description:

Learning Objectives:

9:30 - 9:45 AM BREAK

9:45 - 10:45 AM BREAKOUTS #1:                      

1A: COMET: Changing Your Mental and Emotional Trajectory

Sara Croymans & Samantha Roth

Description: COMET (Changing Our Mental and Emotional Trajectory) introduces an upstream, evidence-informed approach to supporting mental and emotional wellbeing across the aging continuum. This session provides an overview of COMET’s seven guided questions designed to help staff, volunteers, and community members initiate supportive conversations before a crisis occurs. Participants will explore how aging-service organizations can integrate COMET to reduce isolation, support caregivers, and strengthen connections among older adults.

Learning Objectives:

1. Describe the upstream mental health approach of COMET and summarize its seven-item conversational guide for supporting individuals in vulnerable emotional spaces.
2. Identify ways COMET can enhance mental wellbeing and reduce isolation across aging-related settings, including caregiver support, senior services, and community programs.
3. Explore options for integrating COMET training within their organizations to strengthen staff, volunteer, and community capacity for supportive mental health conversations.

1B Speaker 1: 9:45 - 10:15: AFMN Grantee Legal Aid Service of NE MN Duluth

Lezlie Paulus & Rachel Albertson

Description: Legal Kiosks are secure computers installed in public community locations (like libraries, courthouses, social services agencies, etc.) that help bridge the digital divide for vulnerable individuals and communities for accessing civil legal services. There are over 250 legal kiosks in Minnesota alone. These kiosks offer free access to legal resources, legal self-help forms, video conferencing for meetings with counsel or court hearings, access to an online application for legal services, and more. Justice North, the non-profit civil legal aid organization serving the Northern half of Minnesota, has well over 100 kiosks in our service area. Each kiosk has software installed that helps us understand kiosk usage across our region.  With support from Age Friendly Minnesota, we have conducted a data analysis to understand which kiosks received the most usage and to develop a profile of a successful host site. Our primary goal was to identify and locate potential "senior friendly" host sites. We also used our funding to explore ways to make the kiosks themselves more user-friendly.

Learning Objectives In this session, you will learn:

1. What a legal kiosk is, how they are helpful to vulnerable individuals and communities, and why they are particularly helpful in rural Minnesota
2. Ways in which we are using data to locate and improve the kiosks to help seniors
3. Whether a legal kiosk might be valuable to your organization and how to contact us if you are interested.

1B Speaker 2: 10:15 - 10:45: S MN Regional Legal Services St Paul

Mary Ann Rivers

Description: What if it’s not medical? The Importance of Legal Health Screenings highlights that many social determinants of health that negatively impact health outcomes stem from underlying legal issues rather than medical or service needs alone. Early identification of legal issues can prevent negative health outcomes by improving stability, ensuring safe transitions, and reducing crisis events.

This presentation introduces legal health screenings, like the Minnesota Legal Risk Detector, as practical tools for identifying risks related to decision-making, housing, finances, and personal safety. The presentation is designed for both medical and non-medical professionals (including care managers, social workers, and community providers). Attendees will learn how integrating legal screening into everyday practice supports better outcomes, strengthens care planning, and connects individuals to timely legal resources.

Learning Objectives:

1. Identifying the most common legal issues that impact health outcomes
2. Gain understanding of the benefits of legal health screenings
3. Gain understanding of available legal services to address the common legal issues
4. How to access legal services through the Legal Risk Detector and other means.

1C: Aging & Safe Driving - Tools to Help this Happen Community Connection

Joan Somes

Description: Aging leads to physical & cognitive changes that can affect safe driving, independence, and life. This session briefly describes these changes, how driving is affected, and actions that can be taken to mitigate some of these changes, as well as recognize the at-risk driver and actions to consider when concerned. A train-the trainer program and file folder of materials that can be used to increase older driver safety has been developed by the MN Emergency Nurses Association. This presentation will share some of these materials and how to access them for no cost.

Learning Objectives:

1. Describe how aging affects driving
2. Outline actions that can be taken/shared with others to mitigate effects of aging and promote older driver’s safety
3. Access resources developed/collected by MN emergency nurses that can be used to increase older driver safety - either for themselves or for groups they interact with

1D: Together Well Toolkit: Addressing Social Isolation & Loneliness Among Older Adults and Caregivers

Natalie Matthewson & Melissa Lyon

Description: Social isolation and loneliness (SIL) are well-documented risk factors that significantly impact the physical and mental health of older adults and family caregivers. The Together Well Toolkit (TWT) was designed to help organizations integrate simple, evidence-informed practices into existing services—raising awareness, identifying risk factors, and initiating supportive conversations that empower individuals to make positive changes. In this introductory session, participants will gain a foundational understanding of SIL and its impact, as well as an overview of the TWT's purpose and structure. Key components—such as screening tools, motivational interviewing techniques, and personal action planning—will be introduced at a high level, without the expectation of technical mastery. Participants will also explore practical ways the toolkit can complement current programs without disrupting workflow and, if desired, learn about next steps for full training and implementation.

Learning Objectives:

1. Recognize the significance of social isolation and loneliness as critical issues for older adults and caregivers.
2. Identify how compassionate, person-centered conversations—using motivational interviewing technique—can build trust, encourage engagement, and support individuals experiencing social isolation and loneliness.
3. Enable participants to explore the purpose and structure of the Together Well Toolkit, discuss how it can enhance their current programs, and identify situations where more in-depth training may be appropriate.

10:45-11:00 am BREAK

11:00 - 12:00 PM BREAKOUTS #2

2A: Getting Comfortable with Grief End of Life

Ted Bowman

Description: Grief is always with us, changing with time, becoming less or more intense, weaving its way into the fabric of individual and family lives. Grief will always be with us. The key is to learn to live with grief. Getting more comfortable can be especially challenging for elders given messages like…aging is not for sissies. Being comfortable can require charting new paths for grieving people and for providers of services for elders. In this session, perspectives related to putting grief in perspective while acknowledging losses will be presented and discussed. “There’s more to me than” can be an honest practice.  Palliative care focuses on the person first, not medical or mental conditions, deaths of friends, aging pains, any losses. And facing whatever the losses can foster conversations with family members, friends, and providers of services, thereby more comfort with grieving.

Learning Objectives:

1. The ability to discuss the assertion that WITH may be one of the most important words in grief and bereavement care
2. Name three or more examples of using WITH in their care of others
3. Make a plan for use of the presentation in their work
   
   

2B Speaker 1:
11:00 - 11:30: AFMN Grantee - Bringing Emergency Preparedness & Response Within the Older Population to the Forefront

Cheryl Elj

Description:

Learning Objectives:

2B Speaker 2: 11:30 - 12:00:
AFMN Grantee And So We Grow.. Sowing Seeds to End Ageism; using selected storybooks to give young children characters that represent positive age beliefs.

Marsha Weiner

Learning Objectives:

1. Understand the value of introducing the benefits of helping young children develop positive age beliefs.
2. Understand that using selected storybooks is a strategy to introduce positive age beliefs as a way to inform a child's understanding of aging on the short-term; and to mitigate ageism as part of fulfilling a longer term aspiration.
3. Become acutely aware of how to ascertain Age-Friendly media for children.

2C speaker 1: 11:00 - 11:30:
AFMN grantee- Theatre 55 St. Paul

Richard Hitchler

Learning Objectives:

1. Understand how Theatre 55 engages older adults as performers.
2. Learn strategies for telling stories through the lens of older adults.
3. Explore methods for using theatre to address social issues like loneliness.

2C speaker 2: 11:30 - 12:00:
AFMN Grantee- Storytelling sessions with rural 2SLGBTQIA+ elders

Ryan Boosinger & Karter Starling

Description:

Learning Objectives:

1. Attendees will learn about the current inequities facing rural 2SLGBTQIA+ elders in Northern Minnesota
2. Attendees will learn about the work that is being done to explore and address areas of concern, as well as opportunities for improvement within rural communities 
3. Attendees will learn about the qualitative findings of this program and the stories of the elder community members served

2D PANEL: A Win-Win: Partnerships Between Community Organizations and Pre-Service Students in Supporting Persons W/ Dementia

Jane Cunningham, Andrea C. Harrison, Melissa Gibbs, Samantha Sleeman, Jessica Thorto, Jen Rose Timm & Chisolm “Phoebe” Enebechi

Description: By 2025, the number of Minnesotans with Alzheimer’s is expected to increase 21.2% to 120,000, largely due to the state’s population aging. National data suggest 2025 numbers may more than double by 2060 (2025  ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE  FACTS AND FIGURES, https://www.alz.org/alzheimers-dementia/facts-figures)

People living with dementia and their care partners benefit from services and supports from a wide variety of healthcare and social service professionals. Recent research, however, suggests that both health care workers and students need more extensive dementia education than they often receive (S. Kirve and A. Teague, Limited education opportunities with dementia for OT and PT [https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1438085.pdf] and M. Kinsey and B. Mastel-Smith, Impact of dementia simulation on nursing students [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.teln.2021.11.010])

In this interactive, virtual panel, aging services organizations funded through Minnesota Board on Aging’s Local and Regional Dementia Grant program will share their experiences in creating interprofessional and experiential education experiences in a variety of settings – rural, urban, and culturally-specific communities. Through these community and academic collaborations, students in nursing, social work, occupational and physical therapy, nutrition science and health care leadership are gaining hands-on skills and competencies in delivering preventive health, wellness and social care for persons with memory loss. Panelists will share how these community-academic partnerships meet the needs of pre-service students while extending the capacity of home and community-based organizations that support the growing number of Minnesotans with dementia and those family and friends caring for them.

Learning Objectives:

1. With a focus on person-centered dementia care, participants will gain insight into the value of interprofessional and experiential learning coming through collaboration between higher education and home and community-based services.
2. Participants will learn the nuts-and-bolts for structuring and sustaining reciprocal partnerships in a variety of settings that meet the needs of both participating students community-based organizations.

12:00-1:00 pm LUNCH

1:00 – 2:00 PM BREAKOUTS #3

3A: Making Care Visible: Human-Centered Strategies to Support Older Adults, Caregivers and Communities

Sheena Yap Chan

Description: As Minnesota’s population ages, many of the greatest challenges facing older adults and caregivers are not medical, they are relational, emotional, and systemic. Needs often go unspoken, caregiver strain remains hidden, and services struggle to align with lived experience. This session introduces a human-centered framework for making care more visible, equitable, and responsive across aging services. Drawing on real examples from community programs, caregiving contexts, and service delivery systems, the session explores how listening to older adult and caregiver voice improves outcomes, how identity and culture shape care experiences, and how early visibility of stress, isolation, or access barriers can prevent crisis. Participants will leave with practical tools to strengthen communication, reduce caregiver burnout, and design more inclusive, age-friendly supports that reflect dignity, autonomy, and wellbeing.

Learning Objectives:

1. Identify how invisible needs and communication gaps affect older adults, caregivers, and service providers.
2. Apply practical, human-centered strategies to improve caregiver support, community engagement, and service alignment.
3. Strengthen age-friendly, equitable approaches that promote wellbeing, dignity, and inclusion across aging systems.

3B: Clinical Ethics Case Analysis: A Workshop

Amanda West & Karen Gervais

Description: This presentation will walk participants through a method of analyzing ethical issues that come up in congregate living arrangements for older persons. These types of settings frequently encounter values conflicts in clinical care that could benefit from having an ethics lens applied to them. The field of health care ethics, however, has not devoted significant attention to long-term care in general, let alone residential settings like Assisted Living. For this session, we will present hypothetical cases specifically tailored to these settings and demonstrate a process we have developed for thinking through them using an ethics lens. Participants will be welcome to add their own insights into the analysis and there will be time for questions and discussion.

Learning Objectives:

1. Gather relevant health-related facts of a resident case and organize them in a way that will facilitate ethical deliberation
2. Understand how to apply ethical principles and reasoning to real-life resident scenarios

3C: AFMN Action Team: Integrated Emergency Preparedness Planning for Community Members

Lisa Edstrom & Amy Lucht

Description:

Learning Objectives:

3D Speaker 1: 1:00 - 1:30: AFMN Keep it Simple; Listen, Learn and Keep showing up

Jeanna Kujava, PHN, Steven Prebish & Mary Carlson

Learning Objectives: 

1. Learn how mentors and partners impact program development.
2. Three ways to build trust among neighbors.
3. Learn why mission matters in a complex transportation system.

3D Speaker 2: 1:30 - 2:00: AFMN MN Medication Repository

Rowan Mahon

Description:

Learning Objectives: