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Bronx, NY
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2018
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: The Morris Community Garden had suffered years of neglect, and the abandoned site was overrun with rats. To breathe new live into the space, BronxWorks restored the garden, located near a senior center and three schools. They renamed the space Bean Morris Garden to memorialize a young man from the neighborhood. To welcome people of all ages and abilities, the nonprofit added accessible seating to the space, along with raised garden beds. Since the renovation, residents of all ages have volunteered to tend to the plots. Organizers say the amenity offers an important outdoor gathering space for the community.
Providence, RI
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2019
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: Amos House, which serves unhoused and unemployed people and those living in poverty, developed a volunteer-managed garden to provide fresh ingredients for the organization's soup kitchen. Amos House installed four raised garden beds and two containers for growing herbs. The organization relied on labor from participants in its carpentry program and planted seeds donated by a local farm. Following construction of the 900-square-foot garden, Amos House recruited 20 volunteers age 50 and older to tend the garden. In the summer of 2019, the garden yielded produce valued at 6,500, which they used to prepare 15,000 meals. Residents of Amos House's shelter programs participate in gardening and harvesting, which project organizers say represented an important social activity during the COVID-19 pandemic.
South Coffeyville, OK
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2024
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: This project will create a community vegetable garden to grow Cherokee heirloom plants. The garden will feature raised beds and seating to accommodate older residents.
Nearby AARP Community Challenge Projects
Tucson, AZ
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2019
Project Category: Park enhancements
Description: City officials set out to revitalize the underused Francisco Elias Esquer Park, located around the corner from a large public housing community for older adults in Tucson's Barrio Blue Moon neighborhood. To address the needs of locals with disabilities, volunteers installed a wheelchair accessible walking path, benches and a dog comfort station for service animals. They also added passive water harvesting basins to draw birds, bees, butterflies and other wildlife. At a planting party for community members -- one of several events to publicize the new amenities -- neighbors spent a day digging in the dirt and enjoying a renewed sense of community.
Tucson, AZ
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2023
Project Category: Housing Choice Design Competitions
Description: This project will develop a design competition to promote accessory dwelling units and create a model plan catalog featuring ADUs that support a variety of needs, including for older adults and multigenerational families.
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