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Family Service Rochester (2021) Print
2021 AARP Community Challenge Grantee
Project Category
Public places
└ Public space activation
└ Public space activation
After the City of Rochester cut its parks and recreation budget during the COVID-19 pandemic, many small parks in Rochester fell into disrepair. To address this, Family Service Rochester improved a pocket park in the City's Friendship Park neighborhood, a diverse, low-income area of the city. This project added new trees, benches and a multilingual information kiosk. A volunteer team dug holes, planted, watered and staked trees. Others chipped in to keep the park free of litter. Organizers say the project demonstrated that residents will invest their time to improve their neighborhood. After the project's completion, volunteers from the initiative were inspired to improve other parks in the area.
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Roswell, NM
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021
Project Category: Public space activation
Description: Roswell often experiences daytime temperatures well over 112 degrees Fahrenheit. The tourist town also welcomes more than 200,000 tourists each year. This project set out to help visitors and residents alike walk in downtown Roswell despite the brutal heat. Over the course of several years, Maitreet Roswell collected plastic bottle caps and container lids -- part of an effort it called Bottlecaps to Benches. Project organizers then sent a tractor trailer full of the caps to a recycling plant in Indiana, which sent back 30 benches made from recycled plastic. Maitreet Roswell then installed the benches throughout the town's commercial district, allowing pedestrians to sit and recover from the heat.
Central Falls, RI
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2024
Project Category: Public space activation
Description: This project will weatherize a community pavilion, making it welcoming in rain and colder weather. The work will enable Progreso Latino to host more activities, particularly for older adults.
Saint Peter, MN
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2023
Project Category: Public space activation
Description: This project will convert a vacant lot into a downtown plaza and community event space, providing a gathering place for residents and visitors.
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Brainerd, MN
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021
Project Category: Expansion and enhancement of transportation options
Description: Many older adults in central Minnesota are unaware of their public transit options or lack information on how to use them. Organizers with the Region Five Development Commission set out to expand transportation access, while also combatting social isolation. The Commission, which serves Cass, Crow Wing, Morrison, Todd and Wadena Counties, produced How to Ride the Bus videos with information specific to each county. They also distributed transit passes to older adult residents. Additionally, the Commission provided fitness club memberships to residents interested in improving their physical and mental fitness.
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