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Columbia, SC
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2025
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: In Columbia, many older adults want to grow and preserve food but face tight budgets, limited space and few chances to learn practical skills alongside others. NoMa STEAM addressed this by expanding hands-on and virtual programming at the Bridge of Hope Community Garden. Older adults joined garden talks and food preservation workshops. Volunteer days focused on low-maintenance growing, composting and safe canning. One participant said simple tips, like new ways to prepare harvested vegetables, helped them use what they grew at home. Over time, the project strengthened confidence, encouraged regular physical activity and deepened connections between older adults and younger volunteers. By anchoring consistent programming in the garden, the space was reinforced as a lasting neighborhood resource for food knowledge, skill building and social connection.
Project description was created using generative AI and then reviewed for accuracy.
Brillion, WI
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2026
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: The library will create an outdoor reading garden with seating, shade and accessible raised garden beds in a downtown green space. The garden will support reading, gardening and storytelling programs in a comfortable gathering space for all ages.
Cusick, WA
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2026
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: The tribe will create a Medicine Wheel Garden near the Elder Center featuring native plants, seating and shaded space. Elders will have easier access to culturally important plants and enjoy a peaceful outdoor gathering area.
Nearby AARP Community Challenge Projects
Richmond, VA
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2026
Project Category: Public or private transit access
Description: Volunteers will build and install shaded bench seating at selected bus stops in high-heat areas. The benches will offer safer, cooler waiting spaces for transit riders, especially older adults who use the city’s zero-fare bus system.
Richmond, VA
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2026
Project Category: HomeFit Modifications
Description: Several workshops will teach residents simple home maintenance and modification skills. The sessions will support safer aging in place through hands-on learning.
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