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Active Living

Helping cities create healthy, livable, and people-centered communities

Active Living brings a multidisciplinary approach to improving places where people live, work, learn, and play. This program offers assistance for cities and partners to improve accessibility, quality of life, and health outcomes in Hennepin County.

Funding and technical assistance for cities

The Active Living program provides funding and technical assistance to cities and local agencies for activities that improve the walkability and bikeability of business and community nodes.

Who is eligible for assistance?

Applicants can include cities and government agencies within the Hennepin County Public Health jurisdiction (all cities except Bloomington, Edina, Minneapolis, and Richfield).

Types of projects

Funding and technical assistance are available to help with the following activities:

Policy and plan development to advance the creation of compact, walkable places while highlighting the needs of populations experiencing inequities.

  • Bike and pedestrian plans
  • Wayfinding plans
  • Travel demand management plans
  • Complete streets policies
  • Active Living policies

Demonstration projects to show how potential changes or improvements will influence pedestrian and bike access.

  • Walk, bike, and roll assessments to document current conditions within an area
  • Pop-up placemaking events to activate public spaces and/or engage the community about potential improvements
  • Temporary bike lanes/trails and pedestrian improvements to test concepts prior to implementation

Programming and equipment investments that aim to create a culture of walking and biking in a community to support implementation of planning efforts or demonstration projects.

  • Equipment investments that are tied to specific efforts to support biking and walking among communities experiencing health disparities
  • Programs aimed to educate, encourage and engage the community to increase walking or biking to a route or a destination in a community

Projects must demonstrate how they are part of a more comprehensive strategy to support walkable, bikeable communities and not a stand-alone effort.  Eligible activities must support walkable and bikeable business and community destinations, focusing on the routes to the destinations or the destinations themselves. In addition, projects should prioritize the needs of residents most likely to experience health disparities, including low-income residents, communities of color and indigenous people, seniors, young people, and people with disabilities.

Application

Active Living applications have closed for the 2024-2025 program. Funding awards, 2025-2026 program guidelines and other information will be posted on the website as available. 

For additional information or questions, please contact Denise Engen denise.engen@hennepin.us 

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Contact

Denise Engen
denise.engen@hennepin.us