See More Projects Like This One

Elk City, OK

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2019

Project Category: Community Gardens

Description: Elk City added nine new table gardens -- designed to accommodate gardeners who use wheelchairs or can't bend easily -- to make its community garden more accessible and appealing to all ages. To accommodate the table gardens, the City laid down gravel. They also added three benches installed on concrete pads. The improvements spurred the City to take on the expense of the garden's water, sewer and electric usage. Since the improvements, the City is exploring the possibility of adding shade structures to shield the benches from the sun, as well as hanging baskets of flowers or vegetables.

Lawrence, KS

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2023

Project Category: Community Gardens

Description: This project will enlarge a community garden next to an affordable housing community. Four raised beds will ensure accessibility for residents with disabilities, as well as for older volunteers. Excess produce will be donated to local food banks.

Raymond, ME

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2018

Project Category: Community Gardens

Description: The Raymond Village Library hoped to create an accessible community amenity to foster intergenerational relationships. So they worked to create a community garden. Volunteers installed benches, shade structures and solar lighting, as well as a graded path and waist-high planters designed to be accessible for gardeners with disabilities. To make garden upkeep easier, they also added rain barrels and a drip irrigation system.

Nearby AARP Community Challenge Projects

Lexington, KY

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2017

Project Category: Park enhancements

Description: To give residents a comfortable space to hold a conversation, the Lexington Senior Center installed new accessible benches and raised planters in Idle Hour Park. Guided by a physical therapy student's research, which showed many people are uncomfortable twisting to converse with someone seated beside them, the benches sit in a U shape. This placement allows people to choose whether to sit next to or across from one another. Each seating area also includes extra space for a wheelchair user to join in.

Lexington, KY

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2022

Project Category: Developing projects based on residents' priorities

Description: To strengthen relations between grandparents and grandchildren, this project staged events at which attendees could plant trees and flower bulbs or buildfree mini libraries(or both) in locations across Kentucky.

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