Seven organizations across Oklahoma will receive 2024 Community Challenge grants, part of AARP’s largest community investment to date, with $3.8 million awarded to 343 organizations across the country. With a focus on the needs of adults age 50 and older, grant recipients will implement rapid response projects that make their communities more livable by improving public places, transportation, housing, digital connectivity and more.
Funded projects in Oklahoma include:
- Comanche Elders: This project creates community gardens where Comanche elders can grow vegetables and flowers. Gardeners plan, tend, harvest and distribute their produce to the community.
- Food On the Move: This project will support the operation of a community garden. The organization will provide accessibility aids, such as knee pads and chairs with casters, to elderly gardeners. Additionally, Food on the Move will initiate a nutrition education program at the garden.
- Meals on Wheels Metro Tulsa: This project will improve the safety of homes for housebound seniors. Improvements include installing smoke detectors, grab bars and grab bars, and wheelchair-accessible modifications.
- Town of Cole: The town will establish two community storm shelters for residents to use in the event of a tornado or severe weather. Many of Cole’s residents are elderly and don’t have a safe place to shelter in the event of a storm.
- Yukon 66 Main Street Association: This project will provide portable crosswalk signs for use at community events, improving safety for seniors, people with disabilities and families with young children, who do not have enough time to cross at the existing traffic lights.
- Native American Fellowship, Inc.: This project will create a community vegetable garden to grow traditional Cherokee plants. The garden will include raised flower beds and seating for senior residents.
- Town of Davenport: The Town will provide elderly residents with portable generators and carbon monoxide detectors. This equipment will provide power to residents during storms and other disasters, especially those with electronic medical equipment.
