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Rebuilding Together Nashville (2021) Print
2021 AARP Community Challenge Grantee
Project Category
Public places
└ Public space activation
└ Public space activation
To help older adults age in place in their community, Rebuilding Together Nashville made improvements to three community spaces in the Bordeaux neighborhood. The nonprofit gathered feedback from residents to choose which spaces to update. At FiftyForward Bordeaux -- a senior center -- volunteers installed a shade structure, allowing visitors to comfortably gather outdoors. They also added a shed onsite and updated the center's interior, including painting and installing shelving. The Infinity Center is an after-school center that hosts children's theater and community classes. There, volunteers replaced windows, sealed water leaks and repaired a dilapidated deck. Finally, they helped Brooklyn Heights Community Garden transition from a group of raised beds to a full-scale urban farm. Volunteers demolished and moved old garden beds and prepared the site for a new pack and wash station, greenhouse and production garden.
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Youngstown, OH
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2022
Project Category: Public space activation
Description: This project activated a vacant space in Youngstown, converting it into a pocket park. Volunteers equipped the mini-park with benches, porch-type swings, a flagpole and picnic tables.
Burlington, VT
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2023
Project Category: Public space activation
Description: This project will create an accessible outdoor seating area for older residents by repurposing several paved parking spaces near the local senior center and equipping them with bench seating, tables, chairs and planters for gardening.
Detroit, MI
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2018
Project Category: Public space activation
Description: To give older adults a space where they can interact with local children, Eden Gardens Block Club converted two vacant lots into an intergenerational playground. Ahead of the project, the Edens Garden surveyed residents about their preferences, with 80 percent of respondents asking for exercise equipment for older adults. Volunteers then worked to clear the site and install playground apparatuses, including swings, a see-saw bouncer and a cardio walker. Organizers say the space is now a source of community pride for the community.
Nearby AARP Community Challenge Projects
Nashville, TN
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2017
Project Category: Roadway/sidewalks/crosswalk improvement
Description: The Nashville Civic Center Design Center hosted the Nashville Neighborhoods Celebration at the intersection of 11th and Arthur Avenues. To showcase possibilities for public space there, organizers set up seating, street games and art installations. The gathering featured dance performances, food vendors and live music. Organizers wanted to ensure intersection upgrades aligned with Nashville's Walkike Master Plan. So they installed temporary streetscaping features, including vertical barriers to protect pedestrians crossing the street, signs to alert drivers to crosswalks, sensor lights and reflectors to increase visibility at night and bike lanes separated from traffic by planter boxes. At the event, residents had the opportunity to share their feedback on the improvements. Based on the pop-up efforts, the City permanently redesigned 11th street in 2019, adding a new bike lane. And since then, additional pop-up bike lane projects have informed permanent changes to downtown.
Nashville, TN
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2022
Project Category: Bringing resident insight and volunteer power into local government
Description: This project cultivated leadership skills among people 50 or older at a series of lunch and learn events, helping them become more actively engaged in their neighborhoods.
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