Grassroots Beginnings ~
ACT on Alzheimer’s is a grassroots organization developed by the Alzheimer’s Association with the sole purpose of creating dementia friendly communities. Forest Lake was picked as one of the first of seven pilot projects in Minnesota. We have been working as a team since 2013 and currently boast a very active membership of 20.
The start-up process for the pilot project was to conduct surveys of ordinary citizens to determine what our community knew about dementia. While totally the results of the surveys we concluded that our community needed resources, education, and caregiver support. Our projects, events, and services have all been based on the survey results.
The Alzheimer’s Association created the pilot projects with technical and advisory support for a three year period. The hope being that each pilot would become self- sufficient. Due to rules set by The Alzheimer’s Association our group was strongly encouraged to pick one city of the lakes area to focus our attention; Because of that ACT on Alzheimer’s Lakes Area began as ACT on Alzheimer’s Forest Lake. Once we were past the three year project period we were able to expand our service area to include the whole lakes area which created the need for a name change.
The goals created to be reached by the designated time period were that each ACT group would have established a team, become integrated into the community, and developed its own support resources. Fortunately ACT on Alzheimer’s Lakes Area has done all of that and more!
