Through Community Benefit and Engagement, Allina Health partners with communities to support health and well-being beyond our clinics and hospitals.

Community benefit and engagement

The year also marked the completion of our 2023–2025 Community Health Needs Assessment implementation plan. Community-identified priorities focused on mental wellness; substance use prevention and recovery; social determinants of health and 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 launched 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:

The numbers presented here represent only part of Allina Health’s community health improvement efforts. Allina Health advances community health and wellbeing through a broad range of strategies including charitable giving, socially responsible investments, employee volunteerism, patient care innovations, community partnerships and policy advocacy. The following examples highlight select initiatives and partnerships that contributed to healthier communities in 2025.

CBE Chart
Mental health and wellness

Allina Health is working to increasing access to integrated mental healthcare within our healthcare system. Additionally, our Community Benefit and Engagement staff work closely with others in the community 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 Heart of New Ulm Brown County Chemical Health Action Team. As part of the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Prevention of Underage Drinking 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.
  • Mercy Hospital, United Hospital, and St. Francis Regional Medical Center care team members remained actively engaged in local Mental Health Roundtables. These metro-based collaboratives bring together law enforcement, social service agencies, health systems, and hospitals to strengthen coordination and improve support for individuals living with mental illness.
  • 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 cars, 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.
  • All Allina Health hospitals 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:

Social determinants of health and health-related social needs

In 2025, Allina Health received the 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:

  • Annual social needs screenings for more than 500,000 patients.
  • Care Meal Bag distribution for primary care patients experiencing food insecurity.
  • 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, Allina Health responded quickly by:

  • Distributing an additional $75,000 in charitable contributions to 50 local food shelves to support their capacity to serve community members experiencing food insecurity.
  • Expanding Care Meal Bag distribution to patients receiving care at Abbott Northwestern Hospital.

Throughout the year, care team members distributed 4,188 Care Meal Bags at more than 40 locations, helping ensure patients and families had access to nutritious food during times of uncertainty and supporting health beyond the clinical setting.

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, providing culturally and linguistically appropriate healthcare across six clinic sites in the Twin Cities metropolitan area.
  • HealthFinders Collaborative, 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 healthcare 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 to culturally responsive care such as the Native American Community Clinic and Minnesota School Based Health Alliance.

CBE Chart 2

Awards

  • Minnesota Hospital Association’s Community Benefit Award