REGIONAL — You’ve probably seen or heard them, a dismissive joke, a knowing smirk, a subtle nudge to step aside.
Ageism shows up in small ways and systemic ones, shaping how older adults are perceived and how they experience the world around them. That’s why St. Louis County’s Public Health Division is working to change the conversation and help communities become places where people can grow older with dignity, visibility, and full participation in public life.
That effort was highlighted when the St. Louis County Board of Commissioners proclaimed Thursday, Oct. 9 as Ageism Awareness Day, joining a national movement to raise awareness about the personal and societal costs of age-based discrimination.
“We’re all getting older every day, so dismantling negative beliefs about aging is not only about loving your neighbor now but also about supporting your future self,” said Cheryl Elj, the Public Health Division’s Aging and Adult Health program coordinator.

Changing how we think
Before communities can take steps to become more age-friendly, Donovan Doffing wants them to do something even more basic: reconsider how they think and talk about aging itself.
“I’d say just for all communities, ageism and the perspectives and beliefs that as a society we’ve been ingrained to think about around age, I think those larger beliefs are the best place to start,” said Doffing, who serves as one of the county’s Aging and Adult Health educators.
Doffing said ageism often goes unnoticed because it’s embedded in the assumptions people make about older adults, assumptions that can lead to social exclusion and diminished health outcomes. But research shows that changing those assumptions can have profound effects.
“There was a large research study that actually shows that if you just have a positive outlook on aging, that has potential to increase your life expectancy seven and a half years,” Doffing said, citing work by Yale psychologist Becca Levy.
That mindset shift can start with language, he said.
“Instead of using words like ‘elderly,’ drop the L-Y and just say ‘elder,’” he said. “There can be a lot of negative connotation and stigma associated with words like ‘elderly’ or ‘senior citizen.’ That one, too, is just really starting to become pretty outdated.”
Another key step? Creating opportunities for generations to connect.
“We like to talk to all communities about the importance community offerings for people of all different ages to come together and build bridges of understanding and appreciation,” he said.
That philosophy is already taking shape in cities like Hibbing, where organizers have hosted a “Decades Dinner” that brought people from different age brackets together for conversation over a shared meal. Other initiatives, like monthly “Lunch and Learn” events in Hibbing and Balkan Township, focus on education and connection among older residents.
“It’s about building those social connections,” Doffing said. “And it’s something every community can do in their own way.”

A framework for action
To help make those ideas real, the county has partnered with the AARP Network of Age-Friendly States and Communities, a national initiative launched in 2012. Communities that join the network commit to a long-term process of assessing needs, setting goals, and making infrastructure and policy changes that benefit residents across the lifespan.
“It doesn’t necessarily mean that their communities are perfectly age friendly right then in that moment,” Doffing said. “But it means that they’re committed to their community and their city and making it a more age friendly place for all.”
The program centers around what AARP calls the Eight Domains of Livability: housing; transportation; outdoor spaces and buildings; civic participation and employment; communication and information; health services and community supports; respect and social inclusion; and social participation. It’s a framework, not a checklist, and Doffing said it’s designed to be adapted to the specific needs of each community.
“We’ve seen this can be structured for each community specific to the local stakeholders, specific to the folks who have the capacity and the interest to be involved,” he said.
And the county doesn’t just encourage participation; it provides hands-on help.
“St. Louis County is kind of part of it,” Doffing explained, “helping with the administration and technical assistance of getting enrolled in the network, and helping roll out their mandatory needs assessment or Age Friendly survey or community health assessment.”
AARP provides additional resources, including templates for everything from survey distribution to the required letter of intent from local leaders.
“Nothing has to be done from scratch,” Doffing said. “No one has to reinvent the wheel.”

Building momentum
While the program may still be new to some, several communities across the county are already certified.
“As of Oct. 1, Chisholm, Duluth, Hibbing, Mountain Iron, Virginia, Balkan Township, and Biwabik have all earned recognition as ‘Age-Friendly Communities,’” Elj noted in a press release for Ageism Awareness Day.
Those efforts helped St. Louis County Public Health become the first county in Minnesota to receive “advanced recognition” from the nonprofit Trust for America’s Health, evidence that the work is being noticed beyond county lines.
The program is ready to welcome additional communities that are ready to get involved, Doffing said.
“I would say the best first step would be going to our website,” he said, pointing people to the county’s Aging and Adult Health page. From there, communities can find the survey tool, read background material, and reach out directly to start the conversation. The county even supplies paper copies of the survey to ensure no one is left out.
“They would meet with us, maybe once or twice, and then it’s just having their highest elected city official sign off on that letter,” Doffing said. “Eventually, a representative from AARP actually makes a trip to that community and delivers a plaque and a little award, and then there’s like a press release and a photo shoot, too, to start getting the word out.”

All of us
For Doffing, the work of building age-friendly communities comes down to a simple truth.
“Everyone is aging,” he said. “It really shouldn’t be any sort of they-them mentality, it’s a we. It’s us. We are all aging, and that’s why this age-friendly work is so important for everyone to have a stake in.”
He’s aiming to speed things up, too.
“They say it takes 100 years to make a generational social change,” he said. “My goal is to get this done in less than 100.”