Grants Boost Livability in Illinois Communities

Patsy Burton, 77, was increasingly worried about being able to do basic tasks in her Chicago home — things like getting in and out of her bathtub or going up the basement stairs.

But a nonprofit called Rebuilding Together Metro Chicago stepped in last year to help through its Safe at Home program, which provides repairs and improvements for older homeowners on the city’s South and West Sides. Local carpenters volunteered their time to install grab bars in her bathroom and basement, along with a smoke alarm and other safety updates.

The nonprofit is one of nine Illinois recipients of 2025 AARP Community Challenge grants, totaling more than $90,000. The grants fund local projects to help improve housing, transportation, public spaces and other amenities that benefit residents of all ages. Nationally, AARP awarded $4.2 million in grants for 383 projects this year.

In Chicago, Rebuilding Together’s $15,000 grant will allow the nonprofit to expand Safe at Home so it can do repairs on the second Saturday of every month instead of only a few times a year. It will also cover the cost of supplies, such as grab bars, handrails and smoke alarms.

“We wanted to be able to reach more homeowners who want to stay in their homes but may not have the financial capacity to be able to afford these important improvements that will help them live safely,” CEO Wanda Ramirez says.

A team of AARP volunteers reviewed nearly 100 grant applications and selected those that seemed most likely to enhance community livability, especially for those 50 and older, says Ellen Acevedo, AARP Illinois’ director of volunteer engagement and mobilization. Many of the applications focused on home improvements, aligning with AARP’s mission to help individuals age in place, Acevedo says.

ENHANCING GREEN SPACE

Other grants are funding projects focused on improving public spaces and providing technology and disaster support.

In northwestern Illinois, the village of Erie is using a $5,000 grant to install four seating areas along a new walking path in Heritage Park, its main green space.

“The park has literally become a hub of activity since last year,” when Erie installed a quarter-mile path and upgraded the playground and baseball diamond, says Carla Jaquet, village president.

But people using the path want spots to rest and socialize, says Jaquet, who is leading the park’s redevelopment. The new seating areas along the path will have accessible benches and cement pads for people in wheelchairs.

In the Chicago suburb of Skokie, the nonprofit Orchard Village received a $2,500 grant to expand disaster preparedness training for its clients: adults with intellectual and developmental delays, many of whom are 50 and older.

Orchard Village staff are already trained on how to help those adults, whether living in group homes or independently, if there is a fire, tornado or other emergency. The new project will instruct staff on how to teach the adults — through regular discussions and visual aids adapted from AARP’s Disaster Resilience Tool Kit — so they can be ready themselves.

The other 2025 AARP grant recipients in Illinois are:

• Levy Senior Center, which received $8,100 to host digital literacy workshops for Evanston residents 50 and older. Participants will learn skills, such as how to use mobile apps.
• The nonprofit Habitat for Humanity of Northern Fox Valley is using its $15,000 grant to provide low-income older homeowners in Elgin with interior and exterior home-safety modifications, such as wheelchair ramps.
• The city of Kewanee in northwestern Illinois received $2,500 to hold educational events at a senior center. Topics include home safety and fall prevention.
• Blackhawk Hills Regional Council, a nonprofit, is using its $15,000 grant to hold a design competition for modular, scalable housing that addresses the needs of older adults and families with young children in rural northwestern Illinois.
• The nonprofit Cycle Brookfield received $2,500 to carry out bike audits. It will assess safety and accessibility issues along three major avenues where most cycling accidents in the Chicago suburb have occurred and then recommend improvements.
• Edgewater Chamber of Commerce, a nonprofit, received a $25,000 grant from AARP, with funding support from Toyota Motor North America Inc., to paint colorful designs on the crosswalks of a major intersection on the North Side of Chicago to help slow traffic.

Learn more at aarp.org/communitychallenge. ■

Carina Storrs, a New York–based journalist, covers aging, health policy, infectious disease and other issues.

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• Download a Free AARP Walk Audit Toolkit
  
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