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Union, SC
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2022
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: This project provided stipends to residents over age 50 who work in a community garden and FoodShare boxes to residents in need of services.
Albany, GA
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2025
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: This project will provide raised garden beds, accessible seating, and digital literacy workshops for older adults. The initiative aims to enhance access to fresh food, increase digital literacy, and improve community resilience.
Chicago, IL
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2020
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: The El Paseo Community Garden in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood added a new gathering space, dubbed El Convivio or The Gathering. The goal of the project was to make the garden more accessible to Latino older adults living in nearby apartment buildings. Improvements to the space include an outdoor kitchen and patio with a fire pit, ADA-compliant seating, walking paths and an accessible planting station. Planters at the site were specifically designed to grow culturally relevant produce, including tomatoes, peppers, garlic and onions. The picnic area's stucco and ceramic tiles mimic designs seen in Mexican haciendas. Garden leaders partnered with nonprofit architectural firm Human Scale to involve garden members in the space's design and volunteers from the neighborhood installed the new amenities. As El Paseo's leadership finalized El Convivio, they also worked with the City of Chicago to secured additional land to expand the garden.
Nearby AARP Community Challenge Projects
Helper City, UT
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021
Project Category: Public space activation
Description: Helper City Library's Dark Sky Observer Club is a group of predominately older adults with a passion for dark skies and astronomy. To encourage new residents to share in their love of outer space -- and to get help residents stay active -- the City of Helper created a Solar System walk along the local riverwalk. The one-mile path features a signpost for each planet in the Solar System, installed at intervals proportional to each planet's distance from the sun. Additionally, the signs display a QR codes, which link to audio recordings with more information about each planet. Organizers have divided the path into several smaller walks, including Mission to Mars and a comet's journey. Helper is a certified dark skies community and organizers hope the project helps educate visitors about the importance of containing light pollution.
Ephraim, UT
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021
Project Category: Park enhancements
Description: As part of community-wide efforts to improve parks and expand outdoor recreation opportunities, the City of Ephraim made improvements to an underused park. To create an accessible, inclusive space, the City purchased outdoor games for Pioneer Park. The games include concrete foosball and ping pong tables, a cornhole set and a ladder toss. Additionally, the City installed a table and seating in the space. Because the park is located in Ephraim's central business district, organizers hope the upgrades boost economic development in the area. Because many residents live below the poverty line, the improved park offers an important free recreation option. In the future, the City plans to construct accessible restroom facilities onsite.
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