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Barelas Community Coalition (2019) Print
2019 AARP Community Challenge Grantee
Project Category
Public places
└ Public space activation
└ Public space activation
The Barelas Community Coalition hoped to create a welcoming, multigenerational gathering space to allow community members to eat, play, and learn together. The organization constructed a shade structure, added a bench, installed solar lighting and displayed signage at a public courtyard. The outdoor area is part of the Las Esquinita complex, an indoor commercial space that includes a small food hall and artisan market. It is also located next to a new food truck park, which the Coalition helps manage. Today, the space serves as a public art venue where resident can communicate their ideas, wants and feelings alongside an existing mural. Project organizers say the project helped secure long-term support for their activation efforts and allowed the community to rally around local revitalization activities.
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Central Falls, RI
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021
Project Category: Public space activation
Description: Progreso Latino hoped to make better use of its limited outdoor space, expand its program offerings and help combat social isolation among older adults. The organization -- which serves Latino/a elders -- built a community pavilion in the heart of Central Falls to serve as a safe, outdoor gathering space. Organizers outfitted the space with tables and chairs and installed bollards to protect it from vehicle traffic. The pavilion's significance as a community space increased when Central Falls' only other senior center closed. Today the space hosts Zumba classes, walking groups, performances and vaccine clinics.
Fayetteville, AR
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2022
Project Category: Public space activation
Description: This project replaced a gazebo and pergola on the grounds of Hillcrest Towers, a high-rise for older adults and people with disabilities. It also added new seating, raised garden beds, solar lighting and an outdoor projector and screen.
Brattleboro, VT
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2020
Project Category: Public space activation
Description: Residents considered the Brattleboro Transportation Center's parking garage to be ugly and uninviting. To change this, the Downtown Brattleboro Alliance worked with local artists to create signage for each level of the garage. The new signs feature a different animal for each level, with each creature -- the osprey, river otter, American shad and sea lamprey -- significant to the Abenaki indigenous community and the Connecticut River ecosystem. Additionally, the Alliance held a pop-up event in the garage's elevator to display the prototype for a new Ask the River kinetic sculpture. Visitors to the garage could view the sculpture and give their feedback. Today, the full-size version of the artwork decorates the facade of the Transportation Center building.
Nearby AARP Community Challenge Projects
Albuquerque, NM
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021
Project Category: Engaging people in transportation options/safety
Description: To help Albuquerque residents stay physically active and access nutritious food, the Mid-Region Council of Governments repurposed an underused parking lot into a pop-up community wellness and walking hup. Volunteers repurposed wooden pallets to construct benches, tables and planters. They also planted fruit trees and added bird feeders to the site. To give residents a space to meditate, organizers also created a wellness labyrinth onsite. Using paint, they delineated a walking path across the parking lot and created an artistic crosswalk nearby. Additionally, the Council created and displayed interactive walking maps -- available in both English and Spanish -- along with pavement decals displaying QR codes. The QR codes allow smartphone users to access information online about walking and nutrition programs. Organizers say the project is a first step in larger efforts to address health disparities experienced by the community's Latino, Hispanic and Native populations.
Albuquerque, NM
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021
Project Category: Developing projects based on residents' priorities
Description: The National Hispanic Cultural Center Foundation set out to expand its popular book club for older adults. The club features Hispanic and Latinx authors, often inviting the writers to participate in club meetings. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Foundation shifted the book club to a virtual format, which helped expand attendance to members living outside of New Mexico. During club sessions, participants held lively conversations and developed book reviews and discussion questions. Featured books include Argentinian writer Selva Almada's novel, The Wind that Lays Waste and Maria Hinojosa's Once I Was You: A Memoir of Love and Hate in a Torn America. Project organizers say the club's success has inspired them to expand programming related to literature and history. Feedback gathered from book club participants will help inform these plans.
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