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City of Urbana (2021) Print
2021 AARP Community Challenge Grantee
Project Category
Public places
└ Community Gardens
└ Community Gardens
The City of Urbana wanted to ensure its community gardens included accessibility features, allowing people of all ages to use them. The city's Arts and Culture Program conducted a needs assessment of five gardens through the Growing Community Initiative. The assessment identified needed upgrades to ensure accessibility, such as shade, accessible seating, tool availability and public safety interventions. They then installed shade sails, tool lending libraries and ADA-compliant benches. Additionally, organizers partnered with local artists to hold a workshop to create peace poles. The public art pieces are now on display in one of Urbana's gardens, located a neighborhood that had been impacted by gun violence.
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See More Projects Like This One
Albany, NY
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2020
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: The Underground Railroad Education Center constructed an accessible, indoor garden in the Arbor Hill neighborhood, whose residents lack access to fresh produce and gardening space. Designed for year-round use, the new hoop house represents an intergenerational collaboration between younger and older adults. Local teenagers created and installed planters and now help grow food there. Albany businesses and volunteers also contributed to the project by building benches for the site. Today, the Center grows produce, such as lettuce, in the greenhouse, which it donates to people in the community.
Aztec, NM
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2024
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: This project will create a flower and vegetable garden with raised planting beds. Located at a restored historic building, the space will also include seating for community events.
Green Bay, WI
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2024
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: The project will create a landscaped garden for growing medicinal plants traditional to the Oneida Nation. Signage will describe each plants importance, history and use and community elders will harvest the plants for social and medicinal purposes.
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Quincy, IL
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2024
Project Category: Digital Connectivity for Disasters
Description: This project will launch a smartphone app to provide residents with important health information and other updates in emergency situations. The health department will conduct outreach with older adults to help them download the app and learn how to use it.
Batavia, IL
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2017
Project Category: Engaging people in transportation options/safety
Description: Local officials and community organizations hoped to increase pedestrian and bicycle traffic in downtown Batavia. To do this, the Batavia Environmental Commission, Batavia Bicycle Commission, the WellBatavia Initiative and Batavia Maitreet undertook a research and promotional campaign. They hosted a walk and bike audit that taught residents urban biking skills, such as how to load a bike onto a public bus. The initiative then paired participants with residents of a local retirement community, as well as with families with small children, to help them learn about biking. The group produced a 15-minute video documentary presenting the town's history, showcasing its pedestrian and bike infrastructure and highlighting the need for future improvements. In 2022, Batavia announced it would create a bicycle and walking plan to improve city trails and make intersections safer.
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