ELY — Northwoods Partners recently celebrated their 25th anniversary, and this is the first of four quarterly articles that explores the Ely institution. Each article will consider a different aspect of Northwoods Partners based in Ely. Today, we’ll focus on The Living Mission — Promoting Independence and Healthy Aging.
“Northwoods Partners' mission is to provide services and programs that help promote independence and healthy aging,” Lisa Porthan, executive director of Northwoods Partners, said. “We hope for people to be able to age with dignity in our community.”
In 2025, Northwoods Partners served over 500 people and contributed over 15,000 hours of service (valued at nearly $500,000) with the help of over 100 volunteers. Distributing their services in Tower, Babbitt, Winton, Ely, and the 480 square miles of surrounding area means plenty of organization, communication, and people.
They find their volunteers through recruitment, word of mouth, and referrals from local agencies like Essentia Health Clinic, Ely-Bloomenson Community Hospital, regional organizations, and churches. The primary programs include transportation (local and long distance for medical appointments), friendly visits for social engagement, exercise programs focused on reducing falls, caregiver support groups, and various activities like coffee groups, card making, storytelling sessions, flexibility exercise training, and cooking classes. They also provide resources and connect people with services like Meals on Wheels, finding medical and assistive equipment to help with aging in place, collaborating with other agencies and the Ely Community Care Team.
Volunteers bring a variety of skill sets to their clients, from general helpfulness to specific expertise like retired nurses or experience with dementia care. It’s important to stay connected with families, including those who live out of town, to provide support and information for their loved ones.
Looking forward three to five years Porthan had this to say: “I think that as we continue to grow our offerings and programs, we need to continue to also grow our volunteer base. And since this is our 25th year of operation, we’re finding that some of our volunteers are now becoming our clients.
"They are kind of aging out themselves," she continued, "and now they are utilizing our services. And so I think it’s important that we keep recruiting, you know, attracting a variety of ages of people who are willing to give of their time, talent, expertise and most importantly, their love.”
Northwoods Partners has made a big step up in the past year and now operate out of a beautiful new space in the Ely Area Community Hub.
“This is a new space for us. We’ve just been here a year since last August and this has been a big change for us and it’s really a huge improvement in our ability to put on programming and have two office spaces, have a program space, room for small group sessions,” she said. “It’s just exclusively ours that we can use. Having access to the huge community room in the building is really super helpful. We hosted our 25th anniversary event in there. So, I think by being here at The Hub we’re continuing to be able to grow our offerings. This is our future. We would love to see some growth with even possible gardens outside, things that allow us to do even more programming, increase our ability to enhance more lives. We really want do some more nature-based programming outside since we live in such a beautiful place. And so, yeah, I think that we’ll continue to keep growing and we’re really fortunate, like I said, to be here.”
Hundreds of people are finding the answer to “What’s in it for me?” and getting their authentic experiences through volunteering with Northwoods Partners. They believe that our community should be a place where all people age with dignity.