Hazard, KY

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2022

Project Category: Addressing community health

Description: This project installed equipment, including workbenches, a 3-D printer, pipe benders and a drill press, to bolster a program in which volunteers refurbish used medical equipment and adapt toys to aid people with disabilities.

Southern Utah Navajo Reservation, UT

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2020

Project Category: Addressing community health

Description: To combat food insecurity on the Navajo Reservation, Adopt-A-Native-Elder provided food assistance and firewood vouchers to hundreds of Navajo elders. The cash assistance helped older adults access healthy, culturally appropriate food, as well as fuel for heating and cooking. During the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Navajo Nation recorded the highest per-capita rates of infection and fatalities in the U.S. To help keep older adults safe, the organization also delivered medical supply boxes, which included personal protective equipment, such as face masks.

Union City, GA

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2017

Project Category: Addressing community health

Description: Christian City, a 500-acre charitable campus near the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, provides housing and other support for people who are in need. The organization offers affordable housing older adults, as well as assisted living, skilled nursing and memory care. To encourage older people to lead healthier, more active lives, it operates a Senior Wellness program. The initiative also helps stave off social isolation, which cant contribute to physical and mental decline. This project added mile marker posts, a message board, side markers and signs identifying walking paths on the campus. In addition, Christian City provided residents with walkers with built-in pedometers. Following these improvements, the organization reported a 20 percent increase in participation in its walking program. Today, Christian city offers an array of other senior fitness activities, including Tai Chi and chair aerobics.