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East Hawai'i Cultural Center (2021) Print
2021 AARP Community Challenge Grantee
Project Category
Public places
└ Engaging residents in vibrant public places
└ Engaging residents in vibrant public places
Like in many communities around the country, older adults in Hilo were particularly isolated during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. To help older adults connect with friends and neighbors, the East Hawai'i Cultural Center created an outdoor mobile stage. The modular stage hosted free and low-cost theatre, dance, music, hula, poetry performances and lectures at venues throughout the community, including several at two senior centers.
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See More Projects Like This One
Sacramento, CA
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2023
Project Category: Engaging residents in vibrant public places
Description: This project will transform a park by staging a vibrant pop-up community celebration and organizing workshops where older adults can become involved in decisions about how to improve their community.
Austin, TX
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2020
Project Category: Engaging residents in vibrant public places
Description: Launched during the COVID-19 pandemic, Austin's Healthy Streets program closed streets to vehicle traffic in several residential neighborhoods. This enabled neighbors to go for walks and ride bikes without needing to dodge traffic. To help residents become advocates for slow streets, project organizers held online meetings with neighbor groups to teach them effective ways to share their opinions with City leadership. Local artists also created street murals to decorate the low-traffic spaces. This ultimately helped keep Healthy Streets alive -- the Transportation Department announced it would wind down the program due concerns about cost and staff capacity. But community advocates documented the benefits of the street closures and urged the city council to keep the project. In 2021, the council voted in to make the program permanent. Project organizers also created a report with best practices to help other communities replicate open streets projects.
Tucson, AZ
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2024
Project Category: Engaging residents in vibrant public places
Description: This pilot program will allow community members to close local streets to vehicle traffic, creating a safe space for residents to gather outdoors. The small events are meant to be a miniature version of the community's biannual Cyclovita open streets festival.
Nearby AARP Community Challenge Projects
Honokaa, HI
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2024
Project Category: Addressing community health
Description: This project will update a kitchen used for community meals by replacing appliances, upgrading electrical circuitry and repairing a leaky roof. The improved facility will support the organization's food distribution efforts and create a space for intergenerational cooking classes.
HI
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2020
Project Category: Addressing community health
Description: At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Robin Bush stayed home, alone except for her cat. Fortunately, Bush and more than 100 additional kupuna (the Hawaiian term for grandparent or elder) found a way to develop intergenerational connections through Purpose Pals. A partnership between Hawaii's Afterschool Alliance, Age-Friendly Honolulu, Blue Zones Hawaii, and AARP, the program has matched more than 100 kupuna with young adults ages 18-24. The pairs socialize during regularly scheduled video and phone calls. The initiative takes personal interests, skills, life stories and experiences into account when making matches. Participants can then talk about anything, from favorite recipes to career advice to current events. We looked for ways to promote social connectedness and, in particular, create a more age-friendly community by fostering friendships across generations, Purpose Pals organizer Christy Nishita said.
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