Palmer, AK

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2020

Project Category: Community Gardens

Description: This project created raised gardening beds, designed to be accessible for gardeners who use wheelchairs. Volunteers constructed two dozen planter boxes and benches, which project organizers then set up in several locations, including at senior housing complexes community and senior centers, on a town main street and at a community garden. The project also created educational programming to teach older adult residents about adaptive and accessible gardening. Organizers say they hope maintaining the new planters will give people access to fresh food, as well as the opportunity to socialize.

Fort Lawn, SC

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2022

Project Category: Public space activation

Description: This project installed ADA-compliant picnic tables and a gazebo with porch-type swings in the town's mini park, as well as benches for its walking track. Franklin County Master Gardener Volunteers also created concrete walking paths at both locations.

Brooklyn, NY

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021

Project Category: Developing projects based on residents' priorities

Description: Organizers hoped to document the experiences of local African-American older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic via a Wellness Works initiative. The organization trained volunteers to conduct interviews using the StoryCorps model. Volunteers then interviewed more than 25 people from each of New York's five boroughs -- including their own grandparents. Information from the interviews helped shape local health policy, highlighting disparities in health care during the pandemic. Since the project concluded, organizers have continued to offer webinars and look for ways to preserve oral history.