Oxford, OH

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2017

Project Category: Supporting family caregivers

Description: Oxford Seniors provides services to older residents, including transportation and meal deliveries and a day service for special-needs older adults unable to stay home by themselves. This project created the Oxford Area Community Resource Directory, a 50-page resource guide for older adults and their families. The guide contains a wide range of information for older residents, from listings for public agencies and health and wellness program to credit counseling, mental health care and home repair services. The organization publicized the guide by sending postcards to 14,000 households and staging a launch event. In 2020, Oxford Seniors and other community groups released an updated version of the guide.

Cincinnati, OH

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2020

Project Category: Roadway/sidewalks/crosswalk improvement

Description: Hoping to reduce traffic accidents at a busy intersection, the City of Cincinnati created a crosswalk mural in the Clifton Heights neighborhood. Community groups helped choose the mural's design and volunteers worked to paint it on the pavement. The crossing -- which is located near shops, restaurants, a high school and the University of Cincinnati's campus -- attracts heavy pedestrian traffic. In addition to beatifying the streetscape, project organizers hope the mural will make pedestrians more visible. The colorful, abstract artwork is meant to catch drivers' attention, causing them to slow down as they approach. In the future, organizers plan to install crosswalk murals at other popular intersections nearby.