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Cairo, IL
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2024
Project Category: Walk Audits
Description: In rural southern Illinois, older adults faced unsafe walking conditions with missing sidewalks and overgrown paths, forcing them into streets to reach parks and stores. CHESI organized walk audits across three towns, engaging 37 residents, including many age 50-plus, to review 100 blocks and document hazards. Participants met with local leaders to push for improvements and raised awareness of pedestrian safety. The effort sparked advocacy campaigns and scheduled meetings with mayors. This laid the groundwork for safer sidewalks and crosswalks and inspired future livable community projects.
Denver, CO
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2025
Project Category: Walk Audits
Description: The project will conduct eight walk audits in a commercial district to identify sidewalk and crosswalk improvements. The project will also host two community meetings with participants and city officials.
Easton, PA
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2024
Project Category: Walk Audits
Description: A walk audit during the group's Healthfest revealed cracked sidewalks, blocked ramps and unsafe crossings in downtown Easton, limiting mobility for older adults. The audit led to recommendations for repairs, wheelchair-accessible paths and pedestrian-controlled signals at key intersections. Findings were shared with city officials to prompt safety improvements. "Incorporating the Walk Audit was very enlightening to help the...population of downtown Easton," organizers said, noting the effort gave residents a voice in shaping safer streets.
Nearby AARP Community Challenge Projects
Evansville, IN
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2023
Project Category: Trails
Description: Many trails in this urban old-growth forest were inaccessible for visitors with limited mobility, leaving older adults unable to enjoy nature. The project converted 435 feet of degraded trail into a raised boardwalk with safety rails, added an ADA-compliant bench and installed signage. Volunteers age 50-plus helped prepare and build the trail, which now connects the Nature Center to animal exhibits and a towering tulip tree. The upgrade has prompted visits from assisted living groups and mobility device users, inspiring plans for more accessible trails. "We want more!" said one group after experiencing the new Mini-Loop Trail.
Evansville, IN
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2022
Project Category: Roadway/sidewalks/crosswalk improvement
Description: This project painted the intersection of North Main and West Michigan streets to improve visibility. It also repaired sidewalks and curbs on nearby streets, where there is a high percentage of older adults.
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