Through Community Benefit and Engagement, Allina Health partners with communities to support health and well-being beyond our clinics and hospitals. This work includes collaboration with community-based organizations, employee volunteerism, charitable contributions, and targeted community health improvement programs.

Community benefit and engagement

The year also marked the completion of our 2023–2025 Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) Implementation Plan. Community-identified priorities focused on mental wellness; substance use prevention and recovery; social determinants of health; health-related social needs; and access to culturally responsive care. Guided by community input and partnership, our efforts aimed to improve access, advance equity, and support whole-person health.

In 2026, Allina Health will launch a new CHNA implementation plan cycle. We remain committed to listening to our communities and working together to address evolving needs and build healthier futures.

2025 highlights include:

Mental health and wellness

Allina Health is working to increasing access to integrated mental health care within our healthcare system. Additionally, our Community Benefit and Engagement staff work closely with others in the community to work to decrease stigma, increase access to care, and increase community members’ knowledge and skills for building mental well-being.

Examples of 2025 activities include:

  • More than 200 people attended Buffalo Hospital’s first annual Wright Wellness Walk/Run 5k Community Fundraiser in May 2025 at Buffalo High School. Vendors and resources from various organizations were present to provide information on mental health and wellness support that is available in the Wright County area.
  • New Ulm Medical Center co-leads the HONU Brown County Chemical Health Action Team. As part of the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Prevention of Underage Drinking (ICCPUD) Alcohol Policy Academy, this team successfully passed a social host ordinance in Brown County in May 2025, making it unlawful for individuals (social hosts) to provide a place for underage drinking to occur on a premises under the host’s control. This policy creates a safer environment for youth and supports their overall mental health.
  • Owatonna Hospital partnered with NAMI Minnesota, Steel County Public Health, and United Way of Steele County to provide a free on-site QPR training, equipping community members to recognize suicide warning signs and take action using the Question, Persuade, and Refer method. 14 community members attended the training.
  • Cambridge Medical Center staff serve on the Regional Suicide Prevention Coalition. This coalition provided local Sheriff departments with QR code stickers to place on the back of patrol car, providing instant, discreet access to mental health, suicide prevention, and community resources for local support services in Isanti, Chisago, Kanabec, Pine and Mille Lacs Counties, including Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe. These QR Codes allow individuals to scan for help, such as connecting to crisis hotlines or counseling services.
  • Provided financial and in-kind resources to 34 middle and high schools via Change to Chill School Partnership. New this school year, two schools — Isanti Middle School and Shakopee High School — participated as “in-depth” school partners, receiving additional funds and monthly check-ins with Allina Health staff.
Substance use prevention and recovery

Allina Health’s Change To Chill website, geared to teens and adolescents, continued to focus on adding resources focused on substance use prevention. In 2025, the Change to Chill team partnered with community partners to add fifteen new online resources, including a video highlighting the value of culturally tailored prevention interventions with longstanding partner Indigenous Peoples’ Taskforce, numerous resources for parents and caregivers, and a suite of webpages describing the risks associated with using a variety of substances. Altogether, these webpages and videos had more than 37,000 views in 2025.

Social determinants of health and health-related social needs

In 2025, Allina Health was awarded Minnesota Hospital Association’s Community Benefit Award for its Access to Healthy Food Initiative. This initiative uses a comprehensive approach to addressing food insecurity, including meal bag distribution to primary care patients facing food insecurity, annual social needs screenings for more than 500,000 patients, and community partnerships with regional food banks and local food shelves.

Allina Health mobilized and expanded on this initiative in response to the November 2025 delay in SNAP benefits and resulting increase in demand for food support. During the delay, Allin Health distributed an additional $75,000 in charitable contributions to 50 local food shelves to support their capacity to serve community members experiencing food insecurity. Additionally, Allina Health expanded its meal bag distribution to patients receiving care at Abbott Northwestern Hospital. In total, Allina Health Care Team members provided 4,188 Care Meal Bags across 40+ locations in 2025.

Culturally responsive care

Community clinics are an essential safety net for the thousands of uninsured and underinsured individuals across our service area. To support these essential services, in 2025, Allina Health gave $220,000 to cover lab expenses and provide general operating support to local community clinics specializing in providing care to uninsured and underinsured people in the Allina Health service area. Specifically:

  • St. Mary’s Health Clinics (SMHC), providing culturally and linguistically appropriate healthcare across six clinic sites in the Twin Cities metropolitan area;
  • HealthFinders Collaborative (HFC), a community health center providing health services in Minnesota’s Rice and Steele Counties;
  • Portico Healthnet, supporting Minnesota families in applying for health insurance and navigating the healthcare system; and
  • Free Clinic of Pierce and St. Croix County, a community health center providing primary health care and preventative health education to residents of Pierce and St. Croix County, Wisconsin.

In addition to the above, Allina Health gave $167,700 to other initiatives supporting access culturally responsive care such as the Native American Community Clinic and Minnesota School Based Health Alliance.

Awards

  • Minnesota Hospital Association’s Community Benefit Award
CBE Chart