Sioux Falls, SD

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2024

Project Category: Reconnecting Communities

Description: Fast, wide streets made downtown unsafe and unwelcoming for pedestrians, especially older adults who needed safer crossings and social connections. The initiative installed traffic delineators and painted bump-outs to calm traffic and improve walkability. Volunteers, including many age 50-plus, helped implement changes and joined ribbon-cutting events while cameras tracked use for future planning. The project boosted safety and social interaction and influenced plans for permanent traffic-calming measures. "It was not just about painting bump-outs... it was about connecting people to their community," organizers said after volunteers completed four days of work.

Project description was created using generative AI and then reviewed for accuracy.

Anchorage, AK

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2024

Project Category: Reconnecting Communities

Description: Fairview has endured decades of disinvestment and danger from a highway that splits the neighborhood, leaving older adults with few safe options to walk or connect. To address this, NeighborWorks hosted creative engagement events, including a block party with real-time greenway design, art installations and a bus/walk audit focused on safety. Outreach engaged older adults and youth, with translated materials and workshops at the local center. These efforts amplified a long-standing campaign to redesign the corridor, prompting city plans for improved lanes and a greenway demonstration.

Project description was created using generative AI and then reviewed for accuracy.