Chicago, IL

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2020

Project Category: Community Gardens

Description: The El Paseo Community Garden in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood added a new gathering space, dubbed El Convivio or The Gathering. The goal of the project was to make the garden more accessible to Latino older adults living in nearby apartment buildings. Improvements to the space include an outdoor kitchen and patio with a fire pit, ADA-compliant seating, walking paths and an accessible planting station. Planters at the site were specifically designed to grow culturally relevant produce, including tomatoes, peppers, garlic and onions. The picnic area's stucco and ceramic tiles mimic designs seen in Mexican haciendas. Garden leaders partnered with nonprofit architectural firm Human Scale to involve garden members in the space's design and volunteers from the neighborhood installed the new amenities. As El Paseo's leadership finalized El Convivio, they also worked with the City of Chicago to secured additional land to expand the garden.

Chicago, IL

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2019

Project Category: Innovative home maintenance, repair and support services

Description: As part of efforts to provide affordable housing in Chicago, Elevate Energy set out to help an older adult homeowner renovate her two-unit building. The owner would be able to safely age in place in one unit, while renting the other unit out to a family in need of affordable housing. The improvements focus on accessibility upgrades and addressing deferred maintenance -- making the building less costly to keep up in the future. Project organizers rewired the entire building and replaced the roof -- improvements that helped project organizers attract funding from other sources to complete the renovation. They hope to use this project as a case study to demonstrate the potential for two-flats to enable aging at place and provide below-market rental housing.