See More Projects Like This One

Opelika, AL

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2022

Project Category: Public space activation

Description: This project installed an outdoor game station in an underutilized public space, so residents and visitors could have fun while spending time downtown.

Ellsworth, WI

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2019

Project Category: Public space activation

Description: Ellsworth's once-bustling East End corridor had declined over several decades, with a 60 percent vacancy rate along Broadway Street. The Local Chamber of Commerce hoped to see the neighborhood rise again as a pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use area. To promote its vision, the Chamber commissioned six murals celebrating local agricultural history. They also put up light pole banners and window clings with branding for the neighborhood and added benches, bistro tables and hanging planter baskets along Broadway Street. The Chamber then staged a historical walking tour, which garnered local news coverage and spurred the County historical association to consider designating the East End as an official historic district. In conjunction with these placemaking efforts, the Chamber launched a pop-up program for small businesses opening in the East End. Following that initiative, two of the participating decided to operate permanently in the neighborhood.

Chicago, IL

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2019

Project Category: Public space activation

Description: Public plazas are not always grand sometimes they can make a big impact in a tiny space. The Rogers Park Business Alliance and other project organizers purchased a pop-up People Spot from the nearby Chicago neighborhood of Andersonville. The Alliance then deployed the People Spot on Clark Street, with the aim of amping up pedestrian engagement along Rogers Parks' commercial corridor. Also known as a parklet, the mini plaza extends from the sidewalk in what would otherwise be a parking space. Featuring new wood benches and greenery, the parklet offers visitors a pleasant spot to rest or eat lunch. In the future, the Alliance will move the pop-up plaza to different locations throughout the Rogers Park neighborhood.

Nearby AARP Community Challenge Projects

Bowdoinham, ME

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2017

Project Category: Community Gardens

Description: The Town of Bowdoinham provided elevated planters to six residents who, because of disabilities, could not maintain traditional, in-the-ground gardens. Members of the local Masons Lodge constructed the raised beds and delivered soil to each recipient. To showcase the planters, the Town hosted a community meal featuring local produce, which included a presentation about the benefits of raised beds. In addition, the Town founded a garden club, which meets monthly.

Bowdoinham, ME

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2023

Project Category: Lifelong housing and accessibility

Description: The town will develop a plain language guide promoting the use of Universal Design as an approach to more inclusive, safe and accessible housing for people of all ages and abilities.

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