Pocatello, ID

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021

Project Category: Addressing community health

Description: Many low-income Pocatello residents have limited access to fresh fruit and vegetables. Growling Garden, a community-based organization that addresses food insecurity, worked to address this by providing families with raised garden box kits. Each family received a three-tiered garden box, seed packets, compost and trowels to help them plant a backyard garden. The project helped economically strapped families extend their food budgets and gain access to healthy produce.

New Castle County, DE

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2020

Project Category: Addressing community health

Description: As soon as the COVID-19 pandemic hit, staff at the Latin American Community Center knew they needed to begin outreach efforts to ensure that New Castle's Latino communities received information about staying safe. "Most of our community are essential workers, so it has affected us greatly," said Alicia Dominguez, community engagement coordinator for the ConneXiones initiative. "We have clients who are positive in COVID and aren't able to work." The Center conducted a community assessment and developed an action plan. They then held pop-up testing sites and vaccination events, which reached many residents. In addition, LACC supported programs to connect residents to food assistance and rent or mortgage relief.

Lincoln County, ID

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021

Project Category: Addressing community health

Description: When the Lincoln County Youth Center opened in 2021, children would run laps around the building's wide, circular hallway. To allow visitors to exercise, the Lincoln County Youth Commission created an indoor fitness track in the hall. With the track, the Lincoln County Youth Commission hoped to make the Center a welcoming space for residents of all ages. The rural community lacks sidewalks, making walking outdoors difficult for the community's older adults. The Lincoln Loop is ADA-accessible and offers a climate-controlled environment for people to exercise all year round. The path also includes stations where people can perform stretches and warm-up exercises.