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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.
Evanston, WY
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021
Project Category: Public space activation
Description: To bring vibrancy to Evanston's downtown, Evanston's Main Street program installed a unique, new seating option. This project added swing tables, which consist of a picnic table with bench seating on one side and swings on the other. Each table also accommodates people who use wheelchairs, who can roll up to either end of the table. To make the seating more comfortable, Main Street equipped each table with shade sails and solar lights. Additionally, the program engaged volunteers to paint pavement murals in the central business district's street crossings. The public art serves a dual purpose -- the murals add color to the streetscape and make crosswalks more noticeable to passing drivers. This calms traffic and increases pedestrian safety.
Lapwai, ID
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2026
Project Category: Public space activation
Description: The library will convert an unused side lot into a safe, accessible green courtyard featuring benches and garden beds. This space will support outdoor programs and provide residents with a quiet place to relax away from traffic.
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Lynnwood, WA
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2023
Project Category: Transportation Systems Change
Description: High fares and long rural routes kept many older adults from using paratransit for medical visits and social outings. Homage addressed this by offering over 5,000 fare-free rides through its Transportation Assistance Program, boosting ridership by 8.5% and attracting 11% new riders. Free rides helped reduce isolation and proved demand for affordable transit. Surveys showed most riders would travel more often if fares stayed free, strengthening the case for future funding and expanding access for those in underserved communities.
Project description was created using generative AI and then reviewed for accuracy.
Snohomish, WA
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021
Project Category: Public space activation
Description: To give families an intergenerational outdoor activity, Friends of the Snohomish Library installed a story trail. They set up weather-protected stations at several points along a path, each designed to display pages from a storybook. This allows grandparents and parents with children to walk the path and read together, moving from station to station to piece each part of the story. To give families a reason to return, a children's librarian changes the story displayed four times a year. Since installation, project organizers report other communities have replicated the project, creating their own story walks.
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