Advocacy

Thomas Elness has been appointed as the new AARP Minnesota Director of Advocacy. Thomas brings a wealth of experience and a deep commitment to advocating for the needs of older adults.

December 2 to 6, 2024, is Older Driver Safety Awareness Week (ODSAW), a time to empower older adults to improve their safety on the nation’s roadways. This is important because – even though they are safe drivers overall – older drivers are more vulnerable to severe injury or even death when involved in a vehicle crash.

As the 2025 Minnesota State Legislature gets underway in January, AARP will advocate for a range of measures to improve the lives of those 50 and older.

AARP Minnesota seeks volunteers to support its 2025 legislative priorities, including creating a Consumer Fraud Restitution Fund. Add your voice and make a difference.

AARP is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that empowers people to choose how they live as they age. We're advocating for what is important to our members and giving you a voice at the state and federal levels. This year, at the state level, we urge lawmakers to fight fraud, make aging a strategic priority in Minnesota, expand affordable housing options, and strengthen Assisted Living protections for residents living in facilities exempt under the law.

AARP Minnesota is pushing for the passage of legislation to create a state-level Consumer Fraud Restitution Fund (Fund) for victims of fraud, modeled after the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Civil Penalty Fund.

Do you have an idea to make your community more age-friendly? The Age-Friendly Minnesota Council announced its second round of Community Grants, offering up to $80,000, in support of projects that strengthen and improve communities for people of all ages, including older adults. Applications are due Friday, November 8, 2024, before 4:00 p.m. CT., and the funding period is expected to run from February 2025 through March 2026.

People are 20 times more likely to save for retirement if contributions are automatically deducted from their paychecks. Minnesota’s Secure Choice Retirement Program is a new state-sponsored plan designed to help small businesses offer employees an easy way to save for their future. Set to launch after January 2025, Secure Choice is:

Approved by state lawmakers in 2023, the Minnesota Secure Choice Retirement Program will allow employees who don’t have access to a retirement savings plan, such as a 401(k), at their jobs to contribute to an individual retirement account via automatic payroll deductions.

Given the projected Social Security shortfall in 2034, AARP is focused on helping older Americans better understand their Social Security benefits and learn about the policies that would strengthen the program for current and future generations. If Congress doesn’t act, millions of Americans who are counting on Social Security will see cuts to the money they’ve earned. If Washington doesn't take action in the next 10 years to protect and save Social Security, it could be cut by 20%, an average of $4,000 a year. That's why AARP Minnesota and AARP Wisconsin have teamed up to bring two events to the Duluth-Superior area that wrestle head-on with the economic impact of Social Security and generational perspectives on retirement.