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Rincon, PR

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021

Project Category: Community Gardens

Description: To help community members reconnect after COVID-19 shutdowns, ACOMER Puerto Rico created community gardens at several centers for older adults. The organization purchased raised garden beds for each site and provided seeds for planting. Additionally, ACOMERPR held seminars on gardening techniques and recruited agronomists to provide technical assistance onsite. Local leaders manage each garden and organize group gardening sessions. Project organizers say they hope the garden plots allow residents to grow their own produce, increasing the community's access to nutritious food. This supports ACOMERPR's wider mission to offer food and medical resources to at-risk older adults and people displaced by natural disasters.

Pensacola, FL

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2022

Project Category: Accessory dwelling units, tiny homes and manufactured housing

Description: This project built twotiny houses. One housed a low-income older adult, the other became a model home to educate the community about the ways tiny houses can help alleviate the city's severe housing shortage.

Louisville, KY

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2020

Project Category: Public space activation

Description: This project made a series of placemaking improvements to the Woodlawn Avenue business district, located in the Beechmont neighborhood. First, the Center for Neighborhoods added pedestrian-level lighting along the street to improve safety. They also converted three parking spaces into an outdoor cafe space. Originally meant to be temporary, the picnic area's popularity spurred project organizers to create Louisville's first permanent parklet in the spot, which includes a deck, seating, a green wall and planter boxes. Beautification efforts also included activating a nearby alleyway. That included painting a mural for the space, which community members named Beechmont Alley. New, accessible parking spaces helped make the corridor more welcoming to people of all ability levels.

Nearby AARP Community Challenge Projects

Trenton, NC

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2019

Project Category: Public space improvements to support recovery after extreme weather events

Description: To honor first responders who saved lives during Hurricane Florence, the Town of Trenton planned to develop a new park. The green space's design focuses on mobility and includes a freshwater pond, memorial and gathering space for entertainment. Organizers hope the project helps the community as it recovers from the storm.

Greenville, NC

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2022

Project Category: Engaging people in transportation options/safety

Description: This project set out to create a space where drivers, cyclists and pedestrians can learn street safety practices. To do this, organizers installed the Greenville Traffic Garden. Volunteers painted markings on the pavement to make a simulated roadway. Visitors to the garden -- including children and older adults -- can practice yielding to traffic, riding alongside traffic and walking safety along the roadway. Organizers hope the space helps encourage people of all ages to walk and bike.

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