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Center for Creative Aging North Carolina (2021) Print
2021 AARP Community Challenge Grantee
Project Category
Public places
└ Community Gardens
└ Community Gardens
Creativity as a Catalyst for Inclusion, a project of the Creative Aging Network, worked to create a community garden and outdoor classroom for community events. Assembling a team of volunteers and community activists, they cleaned up the grounds, built raised garden beds, created walking paths and planted native vegetation. A local artisan created custom benches for the garden, created from the wood of a fallen tree on the property. To bring people into the space, local artists led a series of workshops onsite. Project organizers say activities programmed for the garden are meant to be inclusive and appeal to people of all ages and abilities.
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Providence, RI
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: To give residents of the Amos House shelter program opportunities to socialize, as well as access to fresh produce, the Southside Community Land Trust created a community garden at the St. Martin De Porres Center. Participants in the Trust's youth program worked to build raised garden beds onsite, added seating and painted murals. To honor residents' African, Caribbean and Central American roots, organizers chose a tropical theme for the artwork. The effort was intergenerational -- older adult residents supervised the youth workers as they planted herbs and vegetables. Today, Amos House residents are involved in all aspects of tending the garden, from planting to harvesting and meal preparation. Additionally, the nonprofit's soup kitchen uses vegetables from the garden to provide tens of thousands of meals to food insecure families each year.
Pablo, MT
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2022
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: This project created a greenhouse and an adjacent garden and supplied them with soil, cultivation materials and other necessities. The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes gave the resulting produce to meal programs and individual families.
Providence, RI
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2022
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: This project engaged young people to grow herbs and vegetables which were given to older adults. It also helped create a second cookbook that preserves the older adults' recipes and stories.
Nearby AARP Community Challenge Projects
High Point, NC
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2024
Project Category: Walk Audits
Description: This walk audit will identify walkability upgrades in an urban neighborhood where nearly a third of the residents have no vehicle. Improved public health is a primary goal since the neighborhood experiences the county's highest rate of chronic diseases.
Forsyth County, NC
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2023
Project Category: Supporting family caregivers
Description: The project will train 100 volunteer Aging Services Ambassadors to provide information about local services for older adults.
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