AARP Eye Center
AARP Livable Communities Map
El Centro (2023) Print
2023 AARP Community Challenge Grantee
Project Category
Public places
└ Community Gardens
└ Community Gardens
The project will expand a community garden for Hispanic families by adding a 50-foot-by-50-foot patch of tilled rows. Cooking, exercise, and gardening classes will augment the physical improvements.
Photo Gallery
Image:
Click on a photo to learn more
See More Projects Like This One
Arcata, CA
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2023
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: This project will support a community garden for a 60-unit apartment complex serving previously unhoused people to improve their nutrition and provide opportunities to socialize. It will include raised garden beds and accessible paths to accommodate residents who have limited mobility.
Clarksville, TN
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2020
Project Category: Supporting family caregivers
Description: Mental Health America of the Midsouth expanded its Dementia-Friendly Churches Project, which supports older adults and their caregivers by training church staff, volunteers and others about the effects of dementia and how to help those affected. Employing a multi-denominational, multi-belief system approach, MHA trained 200 individuals at 30 places of worship in Clarksville and Franklin. The organization held trainings online and recorded the sessions to make them available after the fact. They also offered congregations technical support from a certified dementia specialist.
Orange County, FL
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2020
Project Category: Public space activation
Description: To promote safe, physical distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic, Curry Ford West created a pop-up park on a vacant lot. During a community event, two-hundred volunteers constructed a labyrinth onsite made of brightly painted recycled pallets. The park remained in place for a month. Project organizers say the park and labyrinth helped connect the community during a time when people were separated. They also report the pop-up project helped demonstrate to local government leaders the importance of community green space. In the future, Curry Ford West hopes to install more pop-up parks as part of its advocacy for more public spaces in Orlando.
Nearby AARP Community Challenge Projects
Brevard, NC
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2022
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: This project equipped Brevard's new community garden with raised beds. Additionally, volunteers installed benches in the garden, as well as in the nearby skate park and along the Estatoe Trail.
Hendersonville, NC
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021
Project Category: Public art installations
Description: Herdersonville has two discrete downtown districts and recently created a safe pedestrian pathway to connect them. Friends of Downtown Hendersonville's initiative beautified the path and dubbed it the Downtown Art Route. First, the organization held an art contest. Then volunteers painted three winning designs onto the path's pavement. The Hendo Bee Line mural depicts pollinator flowers, while another mural features five hands spelling the word Hendo in American Sign Language. A third stretch of sidewalk showcases artwork depicting bears in a mountain landscape. Since the project completed, organizers are looking for locations to install more public art in the future.
LEARN MORE AND STAY INFORMED
Find articles and resources about making communities more livable for people of all ages
Download or order free publications from AARP Livable Communities
Sign up for the free, weekly, award-winning AARP Livable Communities eNewsletter
Don't see your community listed?
LEARN HOW IT CAN JOIN THE NETWORKConnect with your AARP State Office
AARP has offices in all 50 states as well as in the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
AARP North Carolina State Office
5511 Capital Center Drive
Suite 400
Raleigh, NC 27606
United States