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Community Gardens of Tucson (2021) Print
2021 AARP Community Challenge Grantee
Project Category
Public places
└ Community Gardens
└ Community Gardens
The Blue Moon Community Garden in Tucson is located next a 17-story apartment building with hundreds of residents, many of whom are older adults. However, the garden lacked shade and amenities, including public bathrooms and benches, which discouraged potential volunteers. Community Gardens of Tucson, which manages twenty gardens across the city, installed tables, benches and pop-up shade structures. They also built raised garden beds, improved pathways and added a compostable toilet onsite. The improvements allow garden to offer more diverse programming for community members, which has led to more volunteer engagement.
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Pearl City, HI
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2024
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: This project will transform a vacant lot into a garden and gathering space with raised vegetable beds and citrus orchards. The space will host educational workshops and concerts, which will welcome residents of all ages.
Laramie, WY
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2018
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: Food insecurity is high in Laramie, with many residents lacking access to healthy, fresh produce. To increase food access, Action Resources International created a community garden. They considered the needs of older adults and people with mobility challenges when designing the space, adding accessible, raised garden beds onsite. The beds allow people in wheelchairs -- as well as those who find kneeling uncomfortable -- to tend to the plots. Project organizers hope the new garden provides learning opportunities for West Laramie residents and helps ease reliance on processed food.
Palmer, AK
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2020
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: This project created raised gardening beds, designed to be accessible for gardeners who use wheelchairs. Volunteers constructed two dozen planter boxes and benches, which project organizers then set up in several locations, including at senior housing complexes community and senior centers, on a town main street and at a community garden. The project also created educational programming to teach older adult residents about adaptive and accessible gardening. Organizers say they hope maintaining the new planters will give people access to fresh food, as well as the opportunity to socialize.
Nearby AARP Community Challenge Projects
Tucson, AZ
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2019
Project Category: Park enhancements
Description: City officials set out to revitalize the underused Francisco Elias Esquer Park, located around the corner from a large public housing community for older adults in Tucson's Barrio Blue Moon neighborhood. To address the needs of locals with disabilities, volunteers installed a wheelchair accessible walking path, benches and a dog comfort station for service animals. They also added passive water harvesting basins to draw birds, bees, butterflies and other wildlife. At a planting party for community members -- one of several events to publicize the new amenities -- neighbors spent a day digging in the dirt and enjoying a renewed sense of community.
Tucson, AZ
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2023
Project Category: Housing Choice Design Competitions
Description: This project will develop a design competition to promote accessory dwelling units and create a model plan catalog featuring ADUs that support a variety of needs, including for older adults and multigenerational families.
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