Chula Vista, CA

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2018

Project Category: Public or private transit access

Description: The City of Chula Vista wanted to increase older adults' familiarity with public transit options. Partnering with the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System, they held Travel Training 101 courses with more than forty older residents. Instructors provided trainees with information on how to read transit schedules, plan trips and purchase fares. Then they held field trips, using transit to visit a community festival and the Norman Park Senior Center. Additionally, participants received a 30-day senior transit pass. Following the training, participants said they felt more comfortable using transit, with 83 percent planning to renew their passes. One said she realized that the 20-minute bus ride between their home and the Senior Center saved her 62 a month. Previously she paid 40 round trip by taxi at least twice monthly.

Washington County, VT

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2020

Project Category: Public or private transit access

Description: An iconic bus shelter known to Mad River Valley locals as The Snail sat unused and had fallen into disrepair. The Yestermorrow Design/Build School stepped in to rescue the structure, replacing rotting siding and roofing, upgrading structural elements and adding accessibility features, such as handrails. After clearing a space on School grounds, volunteers then moved The Snail four miles down the road. They also planted native vegetation around The Snail. Following these improvements, the spiral-shaped bus shelter is now back in use at a public bus stop.

Carson City, NV

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2019

Project Category: Public or private transit access

Description: Organizers at the Brewery Art Center hoped to improve accessibility at a nearby bus stop. So they installed new lighting and benches at the site, allowing more residents to take advantage of public transportation to get them to the Center's events, classes and galleries. Project organizers also worked with the local transportation department to increase transit service hours during the Center's events. These accessibility improvements enabled the Center to offer new programming for older adults, including a rock choir called School of Rock, Senior Years. Additionally, grant funding allowed for the restoration of a mural painted in the 1990s, which depicts the family who ran the Carson Brewery Company.