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Morgantown, WV
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2018
Project Category: Public space activation
Description: Many older adults in Morgantown do errands on foot. But patrons of the city's senior centers reported they often needed to sit and take a break while walking downtown. Unfortunately, the downtown area lacked suitable seating options. To make the space more welcoming, the City of Morgantown installed accessible benches throughout the business district. Project organizers say the new seating has sparked enthusiasm for additional downtown improvements. Additionally, the seating is allowing more people to walk to local shops, restaurants, doctors' offices and other amenities.
Greeley, IA
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2022
Project Category: Public space activation
Description: This project supported the City of Greeley's efforts to create a downtown corridor. The placemaking effort involved adding decorative light poles along State Highway 38.
Ellsworth, WI
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2019
Project Category: Public space activation
Description: Ellsworth's once-bustling East End corridor had declined over several decades, with a 60 percent vacancy rate along Broadway Street. The Local Chamber of Commerce hoped to see the neighborhood rise again as a pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use area. To promote its vision, the Chamber commissioned six murals celebrating local agricultural history. They also put up light pole banners and window clings with branding for the neighborhood and added benches, bistro tables and hanging planter baskets along Broadway Street. The Chamber then staged a historical walking tour, which garnered local news coverage and spurred the County historical association to consider designating the East End as an official historic district. In conjunction with these placemaking efforts, the Chamber launched a pop-up program for small businesses opening in the East End. Following that initiative, two of the participating decided to operate permanently in the neighborhood.
Nearby AARP Community Challenge Projects
San Diego, CA
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2024
Project Category: Public space activation
Description: This project will create a large mural, transforming an alley into a green space. A pop-up event will feature mural designs chosen based on community input. Residents will vote for their favorite design and join professionals and city staff to create the mural.
San Diego, CA
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2017
Project Category: Engaging residents alongside thought leaders in problem solving
Description: To raise awareness about the needs of older adults and the ways communities can be more age-friendly, consumer advocacy organization CARR created boomer.ology, a conversation-starting board game. The game is based on the 8 Domains of Livability framework used by the AARP Network of Age-Friendly States and Communities. CARR designed the game to be set up at public events. To play, participants move their game pawns across the board based on their answers to a series of questions on housing, transportation, outdoor spaces and buildings, social participation, health and community services, respect and social inclusion, communication and information and civic participation and employment.
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