Want to Build a Stronger Community for People of ALL Ages? Two New Resources from AARP Can Help.
If a community isn’t safe and accessible for people of all ages—including the youngest and oldest among us—then it can’t truly be called “strong.”
For example, we’ve written about how America’s senior citizens suffer disproportionately in towns and cities built around driving. Similarly, many aging Boomers are struggling to find the right housing options in communities built primarily around “the perceived needs of families with children.” Thus isolated, is it any wonder that people over 65 spend upwards of seven hours a day utterly alone?
The massive Boomer generation is getting older—approximately 10,000 people turn 65 every day—which means making our communities work for people of all ages is both important and urgent. This is one reason we’re so grateful for our friends and partners over at AARP’s Livable Communities initiative.
The Livable Communities program supports the efforts of neighborhoods, towns, cities and counties nationwide to become more livable. It not only helps inspire solutions to make places more livable, it provides resources to help make those solutions a reality. Livable Communities just announced two new resources — a grant program and a book — that the Strong Towns movement needs to know about.
AARP Community Challenge Grant
AARP is accepting applications for quick-action projects that can help your community become more livable. Grants will be given to improve housing, transportation, public spaces, smart cities, civic engagement, and other elements that support great places for people of all ages. Since 2017, AARP has funded 376 projects representing all 50 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The deadline is April 1, 2020 at 11:59 PM Eastern. Check out the video below, then visit www.AARP.org/CommunityChallenge to learn more and apply.
The Pop-Up Placemaking Tool Kit
AARP Livable Communities has collaborated with Team Better Block to create the free book, The Pop-Up Placemaking Tool Kit. The book was created to inspire and inform a broad audience—not only local leaders and policymakers, but also passionate community advocates and neighborhood residents—about how “temporary projects can inspire positive community change.” From the introduction:
The most successful pop-up placemaking demonstrations put people at the forefront of creating change in their community.
When residents help identify and solve the challenges that affect their daily lives — whether it’s a half-vacant Main Street or roads that make walking or bicycling unsafe — communities and local leaders are more likely to achieve and sustain success. When communities of all types (urban, suburban, rural) and sizes experiment and demonstrate solutions, the quicker their methods can be refined and positive change achieved.
AARP Livable Communities and Team Better Block have partnered on numerous demonstration projects in support of communities that want to become more livable and age-friendly. This tool kit stems from Team Better Block’s on-the-ground experience and lessons learned, yet it is not a prescription for how a demonstration or change must be implemented. Community leaders, organizations and residents are encouraged to use this publication and Team Better Block’s pop-up recipe catalog (see page 23) as a starting point. As with any recipe, the ingredients can be substituted as needed and customized to taste.
The Pop-Up Placemaking Tool Kit is available for FREE, both as an ebook or in paperback. Find out more here.
Strong Towns Articles
Building communities that work for people of all ages is a topic we cover regularly here at Strong Towns. Here are a few articles that will help you go deeper:
As Americans Age, the Need for Greater Housing Options Grows, by Danielle Arigoni
Want a city that works for people of all ages? Take these 3 steps., by Rachel Quednau
The Livability of a Multi-Generational Neighborhood, by Daniel Herriges
The Isolation of Aging in an Auto-Oriented Place, by Sara Joy Proppe
Top image via Unsplash.