An Assessment of the Rosemount Senior Community: Building Capacity for the Future

Abstract

This project was completed as part of a year-long partnership between the City of Rosemount and the University of Minnesota’s Resilient Communities Project (http://www.rcp.umn.edu). As the United States senior population is projected to reach 55 million in 2020, it is increasingly important for communities to be “age-prepared” and have plans to meet increasing needs for housing, transportation, social services, and health care options that meet the needs of older adults. The goal of this project was to help the City of Rosemount prepare for the aging of its own community by identifying unmet needs of seniors, effective methods for City outreach to seniors, and strategies for avoiding isolation among the senior population. In collaboration with city project lead Alan Cox, Communications Coordinator for the City of Rosemount, a team of students in SW 8551: Advanced Community Practice: Assessment, Organizing, and Advocacy conducted interviews with seniors in the community and provided recommendations for the City of Rosemount to better meet the needs of Rosemount’s senior community. A final report from the project is available.