Innovation grants awarded
The Disability Services Division launched its innovation grants program in 2016 to support new and innovative ideas to empower people with disabilities.
Example of funded projects
St. David’s
This video highlights St. David’s healthy eating class where they teach about nutrition, cooking and gardening to more than 25 adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The program has provided the participants with the opportunity to develop cooking and gardening skills, explore new foods and share their own food traditions and experiences all while building meaningful relationships.
For more information about St. David’s, visit St. David’s website.
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2024 Innovation grants success stories
Read more about the successful projects funded in the 2024 grant round.
Adaptive Wilderness Within Reach
AWWR Programming & Equipment
Service area: Ely, MN
Project: Our project consists of installation of an ADA kayak launch system at North of North Resort in Ely, MN, which will commence in summer 2024 along with summer programming, consisting of weekly adaptive kayak and fishing excursions in the BWCA and SNF July through September. Late summer and fall programming will include a two-week wild rice harvest in August or September depending on the season. Winter programming will include bi-weekly dogsledding excursions into the BWCA and SNF December through March during the 2024/25 winter season. Winter programing also includes cross country skiing on Birch Lake and other groomed trails in the Ely area, including Hidden Valley Recreation Area and a sauna and cross-country ski long weekend event in late winter 2025.Aging Options LLC
Taking Care of Me: Building Confidence and Assertiveness Skills
Service area: Statewide
Project: The Taking Care of Me: Building Confidence and Assertiveness Skills project provides a diverse range of opportunities, such as virtual or in-person workshops and consultations for home and community-based services providers to decrease the likelihood of assault and build confidence and self-advocacy skills with individuals they are providing services to who have lived experience of a disability.Dakota County Social Services
Assistive Technology Capacity Building/Employment
Service area: Dakota County
Project: Dakota County will build capacity for using assistive technology in competitive, integrated employment settings. We will accomplish this by training stakeholders regarding assistive technology options and strategies, incentives for stakeholders to implement the use of assistive technology and marketing the success for others in the state to learn and implement similar best practices based on our experiences.Epilepsy Foundation of Minnesota
Increasing Access to Epilepsy Care for Minnesotans
Service area: Statewide
Project: Increase access to culturally responsive epilepsy health care, education and resources to ensure historically marginalized Minnesotans with epilepsy have the information, skills and resources needed to manage their epilepsy effectively. The Epilepsy Foundation of Minnesota is launching an innovative strategy to increase the number of community health professionals providing culturally responsive education, support and access to the resources and health care Minnesotans need to manage their epilepsy effectively. Providing Minnesotans with epilepsy with these tools will strengthen their ability to work, go to school and become more engaged members of their communities. To support this strategy, EFMN will form partnerships with community-based health care providers and social service organizations to increase their ability to serve Minnesotans with epilepsy and develop referral processes to connect their patients and clients to EFMN.Kaposia
Staying One Step Ahead: Our Plan for Small Business, Wellness & Workforce Retention
Service area: Metro area
Project: Kaposia will continue to provide innovative, customized employment services through three main initiatives with this grant. First, we will create a small business development program for Minnesotans with disabilities. This will broaden choice and opportunity for folks looking to move away from center-based work and to gain income in nontraditional work settings. Kaposia will also continue to develop customized employment services infused with wellness principles. When the whole person is supported, it can make a big difference in helping people find and retain competitive, integrated employment. Lastly, Kaposia will work with transition-age youth to find fair, wage-paying jobs in the community. Work before graduation can make all the difference in helping youth change their expectations around work for decades to come and significantly increase future earning potential.Lifeworks Services Inc.
Convening Disability Inclusion Communities of Practice
Service area: Statewide
Project: Lifeworks seeks to create a disability-friendly Minnesota by building educational materials, assessments and digital tools that address physical, sensory, attitudinal, economic and social barriers to inclusion. We will start by bringing together a community of practice led and informed by people with disabilities to seek input on this work from all Minnesotans.Lighthouse Center for Vital Living
Technology for Inclusion
Service area: Arrowhead Region
Project: The "Technology for Inclusion" initiative will promote community inclusion for people with disabilities by using assistive technology to promote inclusive spaces. It will develop the Lighthouse Assistive Technology Center into a community hub of activity for people with disabilities and their family, friends and caregivers. It will also promote greater use of AT, thereby facilitating improved access to the general community – virtual and physical – for many people with disabilities. The initiative is innovative by using social activities to promote assistive technology – and in turn, by using AT to promote social inclusion.Lincoln Parent Teacher Organization
Lincoln Elementary Inclusive Playground
Service area: Hibbing, MN, St. Louis County
Project: The Lincoln Parent Teacher Organization is dedicated to fostering an inclusive, supportive and enriching environment for all students. The mission of our playground committee is to build a state-of-the-art inclusive playground that ensures every child, regardless of ability, has the opportunity to play, learn and grow together. We believe in the power of play as a vital part of childhood development, fostering physical health, social skills and emotional well-being.LiveLife Therapy Solutions Inc.
Working with AT
Service area: Statewide
Project: Assistive technology has remarkable power to bridge gaps for people with disabilities. LiveLife Therapy Solutions Inc. (LLTS) will deliver specialized AT assessment and training services for individuals with disabilities throughout the state who are seeking competitive employment. LLTS will use a team approach involving occupational therapists, physical therapists, speech therapists and others with extensive knowledge of AT and the ways it can support people with a wide range of needs.MacPhail Center for Music
Therapy to Advance Community Inclusion
Service area: Greater Minnesota
Project: MacPhail Center for Music will provide music therapy programming to address mental health and stress management for people with disabilities in the Twin Cities and Austin, MN, with individual clients and community partners. Music therapy is the clinical and evidence-based use of music to accomplish individualized, non-musical goals related to a client’s physical, emotional, cognitive and/or social needs to build community inclusion for participants.PHASE – Pine Habilitation and Supported Employment Inc.
Impact Project
Service area: Greater Minnesota
Project: This project aims to increase competitive, integrated employment outcomes for individuals with disabilities and specifically those who have been supported for an extended period of time in prevocational supports, as well as individuals with more complex support needs. The project will concentrate focus and strategy at the "point-of-service" through a precise, expert-driven and potent real-time mentorship of direct support professionals.Pluto Noodle LLC
Diverse Voices: Building Spaces Through Animation
Service area: Statewide
Project: Building Voices Through Animation is a project that will launch tailored 10-week animation workshops, designed to foster creative expression and storytelling among Minnesotans with Prader Willi Syndrome. This initiative seeks to empower individuals through digital innovation and laying the groundwork for sustained programming, ensuring ongoing support and visibility for our community's unique stories. We believe just one voice is a catalyst for empathy, understanding and change.St. David’s Center
Integrated Healthy Eating and Gardening
Service area: Twin Cities
Project: St. David’s Center will create and implement integrated learning opportunities for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities related to nutrition, cooking and gardening in a multigenerational, community-based setting. In response to community needs, we will develop and maintain an accessible gardening program, contract with a registered dietician to develop curriculum and recipes around healthy eating, provide safe and accessible cooking opportunities and share cultural traditions and customs around food. All of this will be done in partnership with local multigenerational volunteers and neighbors, who will build relationships with participants, leading to increased connections and community inclusion. Our activities will also offer participants opportunities to explore their own cultural traditions around food and nutrition and share that with others.Udac Inc.
Community Employment – Technology Beyond an iPad
Service area: Greater Minnesota – Carlton, Lake and St. Louis counties
Project: This project will use a socially assistive robot to advance independence in employment and/or assist in social interactions for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. It will promote employment independence while decreasing reliance on one-on-one human resources. Lessons learned will be extrapolated to new situations and additional people served. The project will provide new strategies to address the DSP workforce crisis.Upstream Arts Inc.
The Art of Prevention of Sexual Violence with Upstream Arts
Service area: Metro
Project: Upstream Arts will carry out The Art of Prevention, a comprehensive approach to combatting the epidemic of sexual violence in the disability community. This multimodal approach builds a culture of prevention in adult day program settings where adults with intellectual disabilities receive services. This initiative includes residencies for adults with disabilities on healthy relationships, trainings for support staff on modeling consent and bodily autonomy, and conversations with adult day program leadership on creating and maintaining cultures of consent and prevention in adult day program settings. -
2022 Innovation grants success stories
Autism Society of Minnesota
Service area: Twin-Cities metro
Project: The proposal aims to continue to provide culturally appropriate support, empowerment and training to families of children with disabilities through peer-to-peer networks; also continue to serve providers on the unique challenges of providing services to people with disabilities and their families in multicultural communities; and work with autistic adults to self-advocate to address societal views toward disability in multicultural communities.The Arc Minnesota
Service area: Statewide
Project: The Arc Minnesota will launch and implement an individualized grant program for people with disabilities across Minnesota, providing grants ranging from $100 to $2,000 for people to use to progress toward their personal employment and inclusive housing goals. As part of this effort, they will expand outreach to and engagement of diverse populations, with a focus on people whose intersecting identities create additional barriers to employment and inclusive housing of their own.ARRM
Service area: Statewide
Project: A coordinated training program for people, families, vendors, case managers and providers to help people and their families use supportive and assistive technology to support health care, social and employment goals.Autism Society of Minnesota-Somali Partnership
Service area: Twin Cities, Rochester, St. Cloud
Project: The Autism Society of Minnesota and the Somali Parents Autism Network are partnering to pilot a project to reach Somali parents with children or young adults with autism through culturally sensitive education and advocacy.Dakota County
Service area: Dakota County and Twin Cities metro
Project: Incentivizing wheelchair-accessible van (WAV) drivers in the Twin Cities area to drive for Lyft; providing Lyft WAV rides and offering an equitable on-demand transport option for people who use mobility devices.Korean Service Center
Service area: Duluth, St. Cloud, Mankato and Rochester
Project: To address the social isolation of Korean seniors due to language barriers, COVID-19 and unfamiliarity with technology by both increasing use of Korean language mobile video conference apps and providing live support to do so and also reducing barriers to accessing resources in community, including mental health resources.Minnesota First Community Solutions
Service area: Statewide
Project: To provide more training for direct support workers and improve job satisfaction, with a focus on Hmong, Native American and Somali workers. Activities will include peer mentoring, culturally specific training, providing the people served with tools to exercise oversight of their services and a direct service worker retention program.Residential Services of Northeastern MN Inc.
Service area: St. Louis, Carlton, Pine, Kanabec, Mille Lacs, Isanti and Chisago counties
Project: This project is intended to decrease turnover and improve employee satisfaction by helping direct care employees address areas of instability in their lives that are interfering with work. This will be accomplished by hiring an employee resource specialist to develop and implement an employee resource program and connect employees with resources to address their needs.Rise Inc.
Service area: Twin-Cities metro and greater Minnesota
Project: The Deaf-Centered Supported Decision-Making and Self-Advocacy Program proposal aims to increase self-efficacy and build resilience to help participants move toward competitive, integrated employment. Participants and guardians will work with a planning specialist in an experiential, person-centered process to develop employment goals, identify obstacles and create a service delivery plan.Touchstone Mental Health
Service area: Hennepin County
Project: Help people living with a mental illness who have experienced homelessness to secure integrated housing of their choice and receive on-site services during the grant period and navigate the process to receive integrated community supports. -
2020 Innovation grants success stories
Advocating Change Together (ACT)
Service area: Twin Cities metro and St. Cloud
Project: “Living the Way WE Want — Housing Choice” is a new 12-session course that uses hands-on, experiential learning in interactive workshops to build individuals’ capacity to explore, express and take action on their personal choices about where to live, with whom and in what type of housing.ARRM – Advancing Statewide Technology Resources & Trainings
Service area: Statewide
Project: ARRM will support people with disabilities through online educational resources and training, which will be available statewide.Central Minnesota Jobs and Training Services (CMJTS)
Service area: Rural greater Minnesota
Project: To promote better health and well-being of people with disabilities in Central Minnesota, CMJTS will raise public awareness about the importance of direct care positions. They hope to increase individuals entering and staying in direct care positions and career pathways.ConnectAbility
Service area: St. Louis, La Qui Parle and Kanabec counties
Project: To help people with disabilities gain greater access to job and social engagements through increasing transportation options with the ride-share service Lyft. This pilot program will create a repeatable infrastructure and process that will give people with disabilities access to the Lyft service under their waiver programs.Empowering Kids Perham
Service area: Rural greater Minnesota
Project: Provide a comprehensive transition and employment program for people with ASD and ADHD, ages 12 to adult.Inclusive Networking (IN)
Service area: Twin Cities metro
Project: IN will train and support Fortune 500 companies’ staff to implement a customized employment and support program, customizing jobs for people with disabilities in five departments at each company. This project partners with employment agencies that provide services to job seekers with disabilities.Minnesota Deaf Muslim Community
Service area: Twin Cities metro
Project: With Rise Inc., the Minnesota Deaf Muslim Community will work with Black, Indigenous, people of color refugees and immigrants who are deaf and hard of hearing to provide internships and apprenticeships in treatment clinics, home care agencies, assisted living centers, nursing homes and day training and habilitation centers.Regents of the University of Minnesota
Service area: Statewide
Project: This project will examine the validity of a program that supports employment for people with autism spectrum disorder and their families. It integrates existing programs into a virtual program that allows families from across the state to access personalized support that otherwise may not be available in their geographic area.Shakir Consulting Services
Service area: Twin Cities metro
Project: Shakir Consulting Services is a housing stabilization services provider. Its culturally responsive housing project will address racial disparities and aims to achieve racial equity for Minnesotans with disabilities in underserved and marginalized communities, particularly historically Black, Indigenous, immigrant and refugee communities.Somali Community Resettlement Services
Service area: Rural greater Minnesota; statewide
Project: Somali Community Resettlement Services (SCRS) is partnering with Opportunity Services for the recruitment of direct care professionals to deal with the direct care professional shortage. The focus will be on the diverse communities of East African and Latinx immigrants.South Central College (SCC)
Service area: North Mankato
Project: Uniquely Abled Academy (UAA) is a pilot program at community colleges in California that focuses on bringing young adults with high-functioning autism into computer-controlled machining workplaces. Using a modified UAA curriculum, SCC will build a network of stakeholders to support people during a 13-week summer program to see them through to their hiring and employment by a local manufacturer.Twinports Ministry to the Seamen
Service area: Duluth
Project: Provide the community with a space for connectivity. Emergency stays for people who are in transition still remains a gap. Transportation for people to access resources and services, assistance in searching for affordable permanent housing and participation in community engagements.University of Minnesota Institute on Community Integration
Service area: Twin Cities metro and rural greater Minnesota
Project: This project develops a replicable model to transform the state’s 4H clubs to be inclusive of youth of color with intellectual and developmental disabilities by expanding the skills of the 4H workforce. Clubs selected to participate are in urban and rural areas to engage youth from underserved and immigrant communities. -
Autism Society of Minnesota
Service area: St. Paul
Project: A collaboration with the Somali American Parent Association and the Multicultural Autism Action Network to increase community participation and engagement among individuals and families affected by autism and related conditions. One focus will be transition-age adults under age 25 from East African communities. Several events will offer information on home- and community-based services, including employment, education and housing. Sensory- and disability-friendly community cultural events also are planned.Capital Health Services
Service area: St. Paul
Project: An initiative that will include outreach to underserved minority populations with disabilities. The organization will focus particularly on helping individuals in Somali, Oromo, Sudanese, Ethiopian, Amharic and Karen communities to get competitive employment alongside people without disabilities.Opportunity Services
Service area: Twin Cities metro
Project: Jobs@graduation, a program focused on getting special education students competitive jobs — working alongside people without disabilities — within a year of graduation. Each academic year, students from school districts in Dodge, Olmsted, Goodhue, Stearns, Benton and Sherburne counties will enroll in the program. -
Autism Society of MN
Service area: Twin Cities metro
Project: A collaboration among AuSM, the Somali American Parent Association and the Multicultural Autism Action Network to increase community participation and engagement among people and families affected by autism and related conditions. One focus will be transition-age adults under age 25 from East African communities. Several events will offer information on home and community-based services, including employment, education and housing. Sensory- and disability-friendly community cultural events also are planned.Capital Health Services
Service area: Hennepin and Ramsey counties
Project: For an initiative that will include outreach to underserved minority populations with disabilities. The organization will focus particularly on helping people in Somali, Oromo, Sudanese, Ethiopian, Amharic and Karen communities to get competitive employment alongside people without disabilities.Guild Incorporated
Service area: Dakota and Scott counties
Project: To support youth with disabilities transitioning into employment and adults with disabilities in competitive jobs. Guild is pioneering individualized placements and support for youth with disabilities who are moving into jobs. It also supports adults with disabilities who are working with people who do not have disabilities. Dakota and Scott counties have partnered with Guild to support employment, part of recovery for those with serious mental illnesses.Interact Center for Visual and Performing Arts
Service area: Twin Cities metro
Project: To increase capacity of visual artists with disabilities to earn income and increase community engagement for visual artists with disabilities.Opportunity Partners
Service area: Twin Cities metro
Project: This is an internship program for people with disabilities to experience and secure employment in an integrated work environment. On-site mentors are provided to the interns and off-site monitoring and support are provided as needed by the interns and employers. Disability awareness trainings are provided to employers to promote and recruit them to participate in the internship program.Opportunity Services Inc.
Service area: Twin Cities metro
Project: For jobs@graduation, a program focused on getting students in special education competitive jobs — working alongside people without disabilities — within a year of graduation. Each academic year, students from school districts in Dodge, Olmsted, Goodhue, Stearns, Benton and Sherburne counties will enroll in the jobs@graduation program.RISE
Service area: Twin Cities metro
Project: The “Let’s Get to Work” program focuses on 18- to 24-year-old people with significant barriers to competitive employment. RISE will help people to develop customized employment plans, secure jobs and maintain them for more than 90 days.Rochester Public Schools
Service area: Rochester School District
Project: To support youth ages 16 to 21 whose needs have not been met through traditional educational and rehabilitative programming. The Launching Emerging Adults Program supports young people in the Rochester area who have mental health disorders, histories of adverse childhood experiences, chemical use and/or physical aggression with the goals of improving overall functioning, participation in competitive employment and access to housing options.Touchstone Mental Health
Service area: Twin Cities metro
Project: To help people with disabilities to find housing of their choice and explore employment and vocational opportunities using a person-centered planning approach.University of Massachusetts Boston - ICI
Service area: Minnesota Statewide
Project: A partnership between University of Minnesota and University of Massachusetts Boston to provide technical assistance and support to service providers statewide to build their capacity to increase community integration for people with disabilities. -
Advocating Change Together/SAM Central
Service area: Cambridge, MN
Project: Community Garden – to increase community integration and engagement by building raised garden beds to allow people with disabilities to participate in the community garden activities.Advocating Change Together/SAM Central
Service area: Isanti County
Project: Remembering Our Past – to empower people with disabilities by helping them to develop educational materials and videos about the impact historical institutionalization has had on people with disabilities. The project focuses on the history of the former state hospital in Cambridge, MN, and includes interviews with former residents of the state hospital.All Star Academy
Service area: Twin Cities metro
Project: Provide trainings/workshops to parents in multicultural communities about services for children with disabilities with a special focus on children with autism spectrum disorder.The Arc Minnesota
Service area: Statewide
Project: Provides micro-grants ($500 to $2,000) directly to people with disabilities to help them reach their competitive employment, integrated housing and/or community integration goals.Bethesda Lutheran Communities
Service area: Twin Cities metro
Project: Provide shared living options and supports for people with disabilities.Bridges MN
Service area: Twin Cities metro
Project: Develop a web-based platform, RUMI, to provide people with disabilities with options for housing, potential roommates and supports so they can live independently.Can Do Canines
Service area: Twin Cities metro
Project: Train and match service dogs to help people with diabetes.Cook County Public Health and Human Services
Service area: Cook County
Project: Employment planning with people with developmental disabilities and their parents with the goal of job placement.Dakota County Library
Service area: Dakota County
Project: Renovate libraries with sensory rooms and provide appropriate sensory equipment and materials to serve children with ASD and their families. Disability awareness and sensitivity trainings will be provided to all Dakota County Library employees to increase service competency to people with disabilities.Dakota County / Lyft
Service area: Dakota County
Project: Partner with Lyft to develop an on-demand transportation model to help people with disabilities get to work and get fares reimbursed by their disability waiver through the county. The successful model will be shared with all Minnesota counties.Hammer Residences
Service area: Minnetonka
Project: Increase transportation coordination to support community integration opportunities for people with disabilities who live at Hammer Residences.Lifetrack
Service area: Twin Cities metro
Project: Intensive employment support services for people with disabilities who have criminal backgrounds.Mad Hatter Wellness
Service area: Twin Cities metro
Project: Provide workshops on safety and healthy sexuality to youth and young adults with disabilities, training and support for service providers and web-based education to families/caregivers.Mental Health Minnesota
Service area: Twin Cities metro
Project: Support peer-to-peer employment groups for people with serious mental illness.Natalis Outcomes
Service area: Twin Cities metro
Project: To work with people with mental health disabilities to achieve job-related outcomes.Project for Pride in Living
Service area: Minneapolis
Project: Provide youth and parenting services onsite at five housing sites in Minneapolis.Residential Services of Northeastern Minnesota
Service area: Duluth, up the North Shore, on the Iron Range and in five east-central Minnesota counties
Project: Increase community integration of people with disabilities through matches with community members.Southern Minnesota Independent Living Enterprises and Services
Service area: Mankato
Project: For a sidewalk safety campaign in Mankato. The effort will bring together people with disabilities and other community members on accessibility and other neighborhood issues and include events and a media campaign. -
Community Involvement Programs
Service area: Twin Cities metro
Project: Use Self-Directed Discovery to provide a set of tools and methods to people with disabilities and people who support them to facilitate finding competitive employment that is right for them.Kaposia
Service area: Twin Cities metro
Project: Secure integrated, competitive employment for transition age youth. Kaposia will train and work with two school districts in the Twin Cities on a discovery process to help students with disabilities begin to explore competitive job options before they leave high school.Lifetrack Resources
Service area: Twin Cities metro
Project: Develop a competitive, integrated employment program for refugees and immigrants with disabilities, particularly those with mental illness.Lutheran Social Services/Altair Accountable Care Organization
Service area: Twin Cities Metro area
Project: In partnership with five organizations, the project seeks to increase the number of people with disabilities who work in competitive jobs, live in the most integrated setting and have valued social roles in the community.