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Fort Pierce, FL

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2020

Project Category: Access to health care services

Description: To help older adults access resources during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Fort Pierce Police Department provided Chromebook laptops to residents of a historically underserved neighborhood. Police staff worked one-on-one with recipients, showing them how to access their entitlement benefits online. Additionally, they taught community members how to order food and necessities online and demonstrated how to avoid internet scammers. To ensure safe social distancing, the training workshops took place outdoors. Five older adults who received the computer training went on to use their new skills as volunteers, helping local children with homework and remote learning.

Clarendon County, SC

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2020

Project Category: Access to health care services

Description: To provide free primary care services in rural South Carolina, the Town of Summerton set out to a mobile health clinic. The town received two donated shipping containers. They worked to retrofit one to become the new mobile clinic and the other to store medical equipment. A generator provides power to the mobile unit, allowing the Town to deploy it in remote areas. After completing construction, the Town plans to donate the clinic to a local health care provider. Project organizers hope this helps uninsured and low-income community members access medical care.

Fairview, OK

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2020

Project Category: Access to health care services

Description: To help people living in rural areas access health care at home, this project piloted a remote cardiac rehabilitation program. Medical Center staff selected participants who were recovering from cardiac events but had a low to moderate risk of developing complications. They provided patients with equipment to monitor their health, including scales, internet-enabled blood pressure cuffs, wearable health monitoring devices and a one-year subscription to monitoring software. Since 2020, the Fairview Regional Medical Center Authority as worked to expand the program to people with chronic health conditions. Additionally, organizers say they are looking into ways to replicate the telemedicine project in other communities.

Nearby AARP Community Challenge Projects

Arlington County, VA

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021

Project Category: Roadway/sidewalks/crosswalk improvement

Description: The Arlington Commission on Aging set out to make local intersections safer for pedestrians. After consulting data on pedestrian-involved crashes, the Commission worked with local organizations -- including nonprofits, churches, civic associations and the local fire department -- to identify ten crossings with high vehicle speeds and insufficient pedestrian infrastructure. Then they provided hand-held orange flags at crosswalks, which pedestrians can wave as they cross the street to make themselves more visible to passing drivers. Organizers mounted bins at eye-level on each side of the street to store the flags. In addition to improving safety, the effort also helped educate the community about the importance of traffic calming interventions.

Washington, DC

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2020

Project Category: Capturing data and feedback from residents

Description: The 1882 Foundation hoped to strengthen community identity and increase civic engagement in DC's Chinatown, particularly among older adults. The Foundation designed a digital map featuring stories about places with historical and cultural significance to the neighborhood's longtime community members, including past and present residents and leaders. The Foundation distributed storytelling kits, which included tools to help participants tell their stories by writing and recording audio. Project organizers provided storytellers with bilingual instructions in English and Mandarin. To promote the initiative, the Foundation held a Mid-Autumn Festival event at the Wah Luck House, an affordable housing complex. Organizers say the digital platform will help inform urban planning policies by ensuring community priorities are included in redevelopment proposals for Chinatown.

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