Clarksville, TN

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2020

Project Category: Supporting family caregivers

Description: Mental Health America of the Midsouth expanded its Dementia-Friendly Churches Project, which supports older adults and their caregivers by training church staff, volunteers and others about the effects of dementia and how to help those affected. Employing a multi-denominational, multi-belief system approach, MHA trained 200 individuals at 30 places of worship in Clarksville and Franklin. The organization held trainings online and recorded the sessions to make them available after the fact. They also offered congregations technical support from a certified dementia specialist.

Sioux Falls, SD

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021

Project Category: Inclusive civic engagement efforts

Description: Sioux Falls residents -- like people in many places -- were grappling with anti-Black and anti-Asian racism. To teach residents how to disrupt bias and address discrimination, St. Michael Parish's newly formed diversity committee organized two Bystander and Upstander workshops. The first workshop invited older adults, youth and their parents and older adults to discuss ways to communicate better, specifically across cultural backgrounds. The second aimed to build awareness of other cultures, with families invited to participate together. Participants learned to recognize racism and intervene with de-escalation techniques. Project organizers said the workshops, helped bridge the gap that some of our diverse members have been feeling and experiencing and brought it to the forefront to those of us who had no idea.

St. Louis, MO

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2022

Project Category: Community Gardens

Description: This project designed and built two areas for peaceful reflection within a community garden--one with a wooden arbor and vining fruit, the other with a fountain and Zimbabwean sculpture. Both include seating.