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Underground Railroad Education Center (2020) Print
2020 AARP Community Challenge Grantee
Project Category
Public places
└ Community Gardens
└ Community Gardens
The Underground Railroad Education Center constructed an accessible, indoor garden in the Arbor Hill neighborhood, whose residents lack access to fresh produce and gardening space. Designed for year-round use, the new hoop house represents an intergenerational collaboration between younger and older adults. Local teenagers created and installed planters and now help grow food there. Albany businesses and volunteers also contributed to the project by building benches for the site. Today, the Center grows produce, such as lettuce, in the greenhouse, which it donates to people in the community.
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Long Beach, CA
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2024
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: In Long Beach, older adults lacked spaces for cultural connection in a neighborhood marked by poverty and pollution. Placemaking US built a traditional communal comal using techniques developed long ago, and hosted tortilla-making workshops where elders taught masa preparation. More than 100 participants, including local chefs and volunteers, joined intergenerational sessions that celebrated heritage and sustainability. The project created lasting programming at Rancho Los Cerritos, turning it into a hub for cultural exchange and reducing isolation. One participant shared, "I didn't realize how much I missed this until I felt the heat from the comal and smelled the fresh masa."
Urbana, IL
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: The City of Urbana wanted to ensure its community gardens included accessibility features, allowing people of all ages to use them. The city's Arts and Culture Program conducted a needs assessment of five gardens through the Growing Community Initiative. The assessment identified needed upgrades to ensure accessibility, such as shade, accessible seating, tool availability and public safety interventions. They then installed shade sails, tool lending libraries and ADA-compliant benches. Additionally, organizers partnered with local artists to hold a workshop to create peace poles. The public art pieces are now on display in one of Urbana's gardens, located a neighborhood that had been impacted by gun violence.
San Antonio, TX
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2025
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: This project will create a community garden at Ella Austin Community Center, offering adults 50+ hands-on gardening activities. This project promotes healthy aging, social connection, and food access.
Nearby AARP Community Challenge Projects
Albany, NY
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2024
Project Category: Walk Audits
Description: In Albany's South End, unsafe streets and concerns about violence make walking risky for residents who rely on it as their main transportation. To address this, the organization led 10 walk audits across key blocks, engaging 27 older adults to pinpoint hazards and recommend improvements. Findings will guide advocacy for safer streetscapes and violence prevention. One participant said she was thankful someone was doing an audit in her neighborhood, which she felt was often overlooked.
Albany, NY
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2025
Project Category: Walk Audits
Description: This project will conduct walk audits near senior housing facilities and apartments on Central Avenue. The audits will be conducted in collaboration with the City of Albany.
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