Buffalo, NY

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021

Project Category: Innovative home maintenance, repair and support services

Description: To help low-income families rehabilitate their homes, Habitat for Humanity Buffalo held a series of construction skills trainings. Designed to reach people without a background in construction, the workshops focused on plumbing and electrical work. Project organizers say these education efforts ensure individuals are empowered to undertake critical home repairs. Additionally, the nonprofit wanted to help its volunteers understand the communities they serve. To do this, the organization hosted training sessions on topics related to diversity, equity and inclusion. Organizers report the sessions informed Home Team volunteers about the history of low-income communities and reinforced the importance of Habitat's mission to construct affordable housing.

Pittsburgh, PA

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2018

Project Category: Public art installations

Description: To bring vibrancy to Pittsburgh's Beechview neighborhood, the Southwestern Pennsylvania Partnership for Aging engaged residents in a public art project. The result was Color Beechview. With the guidance of a local artist, community members wore LED lights on bodies, which they used to create light paintings through long-exposure technology. The resulting digital art depicts the silhouettes of Beechview residents, including children and older adults. SWPPA then displayed the art throughout the neighborhood, including on the sidewalk pavement in front of the senior center, on the side of light rail cars and along neighborhood fences. Organizers say key goals of the project were combatting social isolation and creating intergenerational connections. We encouraged people who didn't know one another to reach across generations and across ethnicities to connect, Lively Pittsburgh's Ted Cmarada said.

Garfield, NJ

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2017

Project Category: Addressing community health

Description: Through its Generations for Garfield initiative, the City of Garfield set up pop-up wellness centers at its local VFW post. Part of a pilot program, the centers provided a centrally located, multigenerational space for programming, including arts, cooking and exercise classes. Since the pilot, the effort culminated in construction of the Garfield Engagement Center in 2019.