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Elkhorn, WI
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2024
Project Category: Public space activation
Description: This project will create a dementia-friendly park, focusing on the needs of older adults and downtown workers. Plans include quiet areas for reflection, seating areas for socializing and entertainment spaces.
Albany, GA
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021
Project Category: Public space activation
Description: Many communities in Lee County lacked accessibility features and infrastructure to bring residents together. To address this, the Southwest Georgia Regional Commission installed recreational equipment, outdoor art and other amenities in several municipalities. In Albany, the Commission commissioned a large sculpture of a turtle to compliment the town's other public art installations. In Leesburg, it installed park benches and message boards in the community's nature park, which joined outdoor games and cedar benches purchased by the local housing authority. And in Thomasville, the Commission created a pop-up porch, which extends useable sidewalk space into on-street parking spaces. The portable porch can be transported, reconfigured and installed in different locations, allowing residents to gather for conversation and events. The popularity of the parklet inspired a local arts organization to install their own portable porches for its annual art exhibition.
Charlotte, NC
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2018
Project Category: Public space activation
Description: Before the advent of air conditioning, a Southern home was not complete without a front porch with a swing. To replicate the experience of gathering on a porch, the City of Charlotte installed swings at two bus stops in place of the more traditional bench. Located along Belmont Avenue -- a corridor where many older adults rely on public transportation -- the two-person swings provide a space for riders to socialize as they wait for their bus. Inspired by the popularity of the swings, the City is exploring other opportunities for placemaking around local bus stops.
Nearby AARP Community Challenge Projects
Youngstown, OH
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2022
Project Category: Public space activation
Description: Residents of Youngstown's Boulevard Park neighborhood lacked access to public outdoor spaces. So the Boulevard Park Block Watch decided to create a pocket park. Volunteers worked to activate two overgrown empty lots, laying concrete for a walking path, planting shrubs and fruit trees, installing accessible picnic tables and adding seating -- including porch swings -- to the space. Since the improvements, project organizers say residents have begun strolling along the walking path. They say the new pocket park gives community members a safe place to gather and relax in nature, even in Boulevard Park's urban setting. In the future, Youngstown hopes to add more pocket parks across the city.
Alliance, OH
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2023
Project Category: Addressing community health
Description: This project will transform a vacant space inside an old elementary school building into a full-service grocery store located next to senior high-rise apartments.
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