Every year the
AARP Community Challenge grant program funds quick-action projects that make communities more livable for residents. As part of the
AARP Livable Communities initiative, the program aims to bolster the efforts of communities in making short- and long-term improvements to the quality of life for people of all age groups.
The AARP Community Challenge grant program began in 2017, and since then, it has given almost $13 million via close to 1,100 grants in almost 700 communities across the U.S. About 100 million people have been positively impacted by these grants.
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In 2022, the Bloomingdale Neighborhood Association won the AARP Community Challenge grant, which it used to improve Wells Street Park.As AARP reopens its application process, Emily Gorman Director of Community Engagement with
AARP Indiana, encourages people to think about how they can make their communities more livable and enjoyable for everyone.
“I think it’s at the core of what AARP stands for, making communities more livable for all, not just 50 and older,” says Gorman, “It can be something, like the Bloomingdale neighborhood grant, that's not specifically for the older population, but just makes a place so much more inviting and useful for the whole community.”
In recent years, a few of Fort Wayne’s communities have received this grant. In 2022,
Bloomingdale Neighborhood Association and historic
Wells Street Corridor received grant funding. In 2019,
Bridge of Grace Compassionate Ministries Center won a Community Challenge grant to make the
Mount Vernon Park neighborhood safer, healthier, and more walkable.
Here's a look at what those two projects have accomplished.
Bloomingdale boosts community connections
In 2022, the Bloomingdale Neighborhood Association used its grant to improve
Wells Street Park, a green space south of Hyde Brothers Booksellers, and the new alley between the Indiana Mexican Bakery and the La Michoacana ice cream shop. New outdoor furniture, lighting, and flowers now enhance these spaces, and community programming includes music, block parties, fall festival events, and family activities.
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In 2022, the Bloomingdale Neighborhood Association won the AARP Community Challenge grant, which it used to improve Wells Street Park.The grant also addresses transportation needs in the Bloomingdale neighborhood by increasing walkability, bikeability, and wayfinding through improved crosswalks and signage. Monthly events are used to increase civic engagement and foster community.
Chris Walker, President of the Bloomingdale Neighborhood Association, says that the Fort Wayne
Active Transportation coalition made his association aware of the AARP grant.
Bloomingdale, Walker says, is an urban neighborhood with a commercial corridor. During the pandemic, and even prior, many communities and cities across the U.S. faced challenges with a lack of walkability and isolation, exacerbating mental health challenges and addictions. Walker is hopeful the grant will help reconnect people in his neighborhood.
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In 2022, the Bloomingdale Neighborhood Association won the AARP Community Challenge grant, which it used to improve Wells Street Park, a green space south of Hyde Brothers Booksellers, and the new alley between the Indiana Mexican Bakery and the La M“Neighbors weren’t coming out of their homes, and we weren’t doing community events,” Walker says. “The Community Challenge grant was a huge catalyst to help us reengage our neighbors by activating public spaces and then hosting events in those public spaces to give them a reason to come out of their homes once again, to talk with their neighbors, to develop relationships.”
Some of these events have been simple get-togethers to build flower boxes and planters with neighbors. During the winter, residents assembled at a newly opened railcar on the south end of Wells Street to eat popcorn and drink hot chocolate or coffee. Furniture purchased with the grant, including the popcorn machine, can be moved to different locations for various events.
“We have a community garden now in the neighborhood, so if I have a popcorn machine and tables and chairs and planters that were purchased through the grant, those can move around,” Walker says. “They can be in a park one day on Wells Street, in a greenspace the following week, and then at the community garden.”
Community banners tell powerful stories in Mount Vernon Park
In the Mount Vernon Park neighborhood, Bridge of Grace Compassionate Ministries Center, a nonprofit affiliated with Many Nations Church, used the AARP grant to install more than 55 banners, put up porch swings in empty lots, and complete landscaping in some pocket parks in the neighborhood.
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In 2019, Bridge of Grace used the AARP grant to install more than banners, swings in empty lots, and complete pocket parks in Mount Vernon Park.These banners have made a significant impact, visually and otherwise, says Réna Bradley, a Neighborhood Planner with the City of Fort Wayne and former Community Development Director with Bridge of Grace, who helped lead the project.
“The pictures on all the banners are residents of our neighborhood, so it’s a way to get the culture and identity from within the homes in the community out into a very public space, and then taking their sentiments about the community out to a public space as well,” Bradley says. “Rather than just having some tagline or slogan on the banner, which we still have on the front side, on the back side we have quotes from our residents about what they love about their community. We really wanted to share that and help shift the perception in ways—sort of a good news campaign for the neighborhood about the neighborhood.”
The banners were a joint effort of
Enter.Connect.FW., a Bridge of Grace campaign, and the Mount Vernon Park Neighborhood Association.
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In 2019, Bridge of Grace used the AARP grant to install more than banners, swings in empty lots, and complete pocket parks in Mount Vernon Park.In addition to its banners that share the stories of neighborhood residents, Bridge of Grace, through the Community Challenge grant, installed porch swings and ornamental landscaping in parks, which was not only something that senior residents of the community wanted but enhancements that positively impact people of all ages.
Two of the main objectives of the grant were to foster community in the neighborhood and to shift outside perception of the Mount Vernon Park neighborhood and the South East portion of Fort Wayne.
“I think, a lot of the time, there’s a perception of South East, that South East is a scary place, that it’s a place where people don’t want to be,” says Bradley. “When I told my neighbors more than the seven years that I was at Bridge of Grace and asked what they wished people knew about their community, they said, ‘I wish people knew that we care; I wish people knew that this is a good place to live; I wish people knew that our kids are happy, they’re outside; they’re playing; they’re laughing.’ It’s a great place to live, and there are phenomenal people here who care deeply and who are doing good work.”
Bradley says the visible and tangible improvements in the Mount Vernon Park neighborhood have had positive ripple effects in other Fort Wayne neighborhoods.
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In 2019, Bridge of Grace used the AARP grant to install more than banners, swings in empty lots, and complete pocket parks in Mount Vernon Park.“When we saw the Mount Vernon Park banners go up, then we started to see banners pop up in other neighborhoods, like Pettit–Rudisill,” she says. “I think most people can visualize and see something, and they can latch onto it and figure out how to apply it to their own communities, so I think it helped to cast a vision a bit about what is possible in neighborhoods, to help people dream a little bit bigger.”
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Other recent local AARP Community Challenge grant recipients are the
City of Kendallville in 2021 to transform an abandoned lot into usable park space, and
Active Living Indiana in Fort Wayne to pilot the Team Better Block project that resulted in a new traffic calming plaza and an event that promoted active communities in 2017.
To apply for the AARP Community Challenge grant, visit:
https://communitychallenge.aarp.org/2023/organizations/aarp/home.
For more information about the grant, email
[email protected], or visit:
https://www.aarp.org/livable-communities/community-challenge/info-2023/2023-challenge.html.
This story was made possible by AARP Indiana.