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Bethel Age-Friendly Community Initiative (2017) Print
2017 AARP Community Challenge Grantee
Project Category
Housing
└ Innovative home maintenance, repair and support services
└ Innovative home maintenance, repair and support services
The Town of Bethel's Age-Friendly Community Initiative created four displays featuring adaptive tools, as well as a catalog with descriptions of each tools and information about where to buy them. One display has been deployed at community outreach events attended by hundreds of residents. Two others are available for nearby communities to borrow for their own events. A local hardware store provided a home for the third display to make adaptive tools available to Bethel residents. In addition, project organizers engaged an occupational therapist to conduct home assessments to help residents determine their risk of falls. Grant funds also supported the local smoke alarm installation and fire escape plan program, conducted in partnership with local fire departments and the Maine Red Cross, as well as the National Fire Protection Association's Be Safe in Your Home initiative.
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Portland, OR
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2018
Project Category: Innovative home maintenance, repair and support services
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La Crosse, WI
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2022
Project Category: Innovative home maintenance, repair and support services
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Spooner, WI
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2020
Project Category: Innovative home maintenance, repair and support services
Description: To help homeowners and renters maintain their homes, Wild Rivers Habitat for Humanity created a tool lending library. Volunteers constructed shelving to display a variety of hand and power tools, which library patrons can check out and take home. To increase residents' DIY know-how, Habitat also hosted a series of skills labs for residents. In the future, the nonprofit hopes to create a mobile version of the lending library to use throughout the community.
Nearby AARP Community Challenge Projects
Fryeburg, ME
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2020
Project Category: Trails
Description: Fryeburg's Age-Friendly Community Taskforce created a recreational trail in the Fryeburg Town Forest. Designed to be easily walkable by older adults and those with mobility challenges, the gently sloping, one-mile loop trail features a pedestrian bridge and benches. Over several October days, volunteers cleared a corridor for the Town Forest Trail, cutting and removing brush and small trees and removing boulders to create an opening for the trailhead. Future improvements include two additional bridges, benches and kiosk signage providing details about the trail.
North Conway, NH
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2019
Project Category: Lifelong housing and accessibility
Description: To help homeowners with extra space in their homes find potential tenants, the Gibson Center created a website. The site features information about homesharing, as well as the option for people looking for rooms to rent to match with those with space to share. Modeled after successful homesharing initiatives in other states, the new homesharing service provides reference screenings and background checks, as well as a guide through New Hampshire's landlord-tenant laws.
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