Operation Prairie Venture

Over the past several months, Connie has been collaborating with a group of dedicated volunteers in her home town of Slayton, MN, to address the urgent need for housing options and other services for older adults in the community since the Slayton Reahbilitation and Healthcare Center closed last July. Operation Prairie Venture, which is now a formal nonprofit organization, aims "to build innovative services and spaces for older adults that enable all generations to live and thrive in a vibrant community." OPV has been working with the City of Slayton, the Southwest Regional Development Commission, local organizations, church leaders, and individuals to generate solutions for providing better elder care in the community, and they recently received a grant from the University of Minnesota Extension's Southwest Regional Sustainable Development Partnership through which U of M grad student Rajeev Atha will explore options for a model intergenreational neighborhood with housing options for older adults. The first phase of this project is seeking community input through a community suvery which can be found online or in various bricks-and-mortar locations throught Slayton.