VOICEOVER: Welcome, Council Member Jen Foley, from St. Cloud, Minnesota.
JEN FOLEY: Hello, my name is Jennifer Foley. I’m a woman with short brown hair in a wheelchair wearing a bright blue pullover. I have served as a member of the Minnesota Council on Disability Governing Council since 2021. I currently live in St. Cloud with my parents, who serve as my primary caregivers.
In my past life, or what I like to call my past life, I spent 25 years as a sports information director at schools across North Carolina, Iowa, and Minnesota before moving over to be the director of the Applied Research Center at St. Cloud State in 2008.
I had the honor and privilege to represent the Minnesota Council on Disabilities on the legislative task force on aging this past year. We were a small task force comprised of just eight members, but we were given a big job.
We were tasked with reviewing current aging-related governmental functions, programs, and services across all state agencies, to look at current public and private strategies to support family caregivers for older adults, define and support quality of care and life improvements in long-term care and home care, and how to sustain neighborhoods and communities for an aging population.
Our goal was to determine the governmental entity best suited to plan, lead, and implement our recommendations for aging Minnesotans across the state. And most importantly, we needed to ensure that all aging-related state policies are inclusive of race, gender, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, abilities, and other characteristics that reflect the full population of the state of Minnesota.
Over the course of 16 months, the task force held 20 public hearings on a wide range of topics affecting Minnesota’s aging population, and at every step, I made sure that the disability voice was heard.
As a numbers nerd, at our very first meeting, we learned a fun fact from the state demographer. In 2024, Minnesota hit two milestones. First, the number of adults living in the state of Minnesota over the age of 65 topped one million for the first time ever.
But more interesting to me is that there are now more Minnesotans over the age of 65 than kids in school, kids K – 12. By 2030, that number over 65 will grow to 1.16 million and stay at that level through 2050. And that is why this task force was so important to me. I will be one of those 1.16 million by 2030, and with a disability, it was important to have a voice at the table.
Another number that is important– there are 307,000 older American– older adults who currently live with a disability in Minnesota, not to mention those that will age into that category, and I was representing them all.
We heard testimony that impact health and aging in community from different agencies and researchers, both public and private. We held presentations on health care, caregiving, transportation services, housing, nutrition programs, care providers, social programs, financial security, older adults in the workplace, just to name a few, and that is just naming a few.
We had presentations on built environments, whether aging at home, or long-term care facility, or senior living community. Additionally, the task force invited representatives from Pennsylvania and Colorado to present on their aging-related government structures and planning processes.
Pennsylvania’s Department of Aging was well-established and has been in existence since 1979, while Colorado’s was much like Minnesota, realizing they had an aging population and needed to adjust to that reality.
At every meeting, members of the public were invited and even encouraged to speak to offer their concerns and suggestions. To me, that was the most impactful and informative part of each meeting. Fellow Council Member, Myrna Peterson, testified on the fantastic GoMARTI! Rideshare program in Grand Rapids.
Former MCD public policy director, Trevor Turner, testified on the lack of accessible transportation, not just for the aging community but for all disabled folks. Trevor had one of my favorite quotes among all testifiers. Aging, for most people, is simply acquiring a disability over time, and that is so true.
My work on the task force allowed me to branch out and work with many groups in the St. Cloud and Minneapolis area to make sure I was hearing from as many voices as I could. I met with members from Age-Friendly Minnesota and the Central Minnesota Council on Aging.
I went to the Whitney Senior Center, the Centracare senior care facility, and I met with elder voice advocates in Minneapolis. I made it a mission to make sure I was hearing the concerns from as many people as I could.
As a person who uses a wheelchair with complex medical needs requiring long-term care, I’m very concerned about ending up in a long-term care facility if and/or when my parents or family members can no longer care for me.
I want to make sure Minnesota seniors age with dignity, receive the services they need in the setting they so desire, whether it’s the home they’ve always known, a senior living community, or residing in a long-term care facility.
After 16 months of testimony, we finalized our recommendations just before Christmas and submitted our final proposal to the legislature in January. Our recommendation would be to create a new cabinet-level office on aging, housed within the Minnesota Management and Budget, under the direction of the governor’s office.
Much like the newly created Department of Children, Youth, and Families that just celebrated its first year, this new cabinet would eliminate perceptions of bias and create a clear line of authority and responsibility, and have the power to direct and coordinate aging policy, programs, and services across multiple state agencies.
This entity would be tasked with developing a multisector state plan on aging that would implement and steward that plan to ensure state government works towards dignified and healthy aging across the lifespan in livable communities with social and economic opportunities.
The entity would advance policy grounded in public health, economic empowerment, and ensuring livable communities. I ask that each of you here read our final report and recommend passage to your legislator.
In addition to my work on the Disability Council, I also serve as an at-large commissioner on the Greater Minnesota Regional Parks and Trails Commission. This past year, Minneapolis hosted the National Americans with Disabilities Act Conference.
I am lucky enough to serve with 12 commissioners from around the state on the Parks Commission, who saw what a phenomenal opportunity it would be to send our executive director and system plan coordinator to the conference. There, they attended sessions on accessibility in parks and on trails and accessibility in playgrounds, and realized that many of our parks and trails were not as accessible as we thought.
The commission has since partnered with one of the accessibility specialists from the conference to create a value statement for inclusivity for our park system and are working with him on improving accessibility in all our regional parks. He recently worked with the city of East Grand Forks on the design of their new fishing pier and their new park, and is working with the few other parks on the grade and surface of new trails.
We learned a commonly asked question when designing a park– how many picnic tables need to be ADA-accessible? Why not all of them? Same with playgrounds. All playground areas should be accessible for all ages, all abilities, all the time.
Our commission is totally committed to making all our parks and playgrounds not only accessible but beyond the ADA minimum standards. We have purchased accessible all-terrain track chairs now for five of our parks and is expanding. The DNR has the track chair now in 13 parks, and these are all free to use.
Now, one of my favorite things I get to do on the Council for Disability is work at the MCD booth at the State Fair. It’s there that I get to meet and talk with people from around the state and hear amazing stories of people and families thriving with disabilities. But we also talk with a lot of people who need help and didn’t know we existed, and we are able to direct them on where to go for more information and help, and that is rewarding.
Last summer, for the first time, I got to do a county fair. I was working with Michelle Severson, the access consultant for MCD. We had a little downtime after getting set up, so we went over and toured one of the area parks that was listed as being a fully accessible playground.
While I was there in my chair, there was little I could access, so I could only imagine a kid in a chair was not going to be able to use many of the cool things in the playground. Michelle now has been working to create a master list of all accessible, inclusive playgrounds in the state of Minnesota. She probably has one of the most complete lists in the state. You should ask her to see it sometime.
For me, it has been exciting to see the overlap of my two board and commission assignments. I find that working on the various commissions challenging and rewarding. It is truly an honor to serve with the many other members of the Council on Disability. I can tell you that working with them and the MCD staff, Minnesotans will find no better advocates for the disabled. They truly care and are there to help. Thank you.