Livable Communities

AARP members and other guests are invited to a free screening of LEAN ON PETE, starring Steve Buscemi, Chloe Sevigny and Charlie Plummer.

AARP is now accepting nominations for its 2018 Kansas Andrus Award for Community Service, which honors 50+ Kansans who are sharing their experience, talent, and skills to enrich the lives of their community members. The award is named after AARP founder, Ethel Percy Andrus.

New Poll Finds 1 in 4 Americans Often Not Prepared to Face Aggressive Scammers

The AARP Community Challenge “quick-action” grant program, which is now accepting applications for 2018, is designed to spark change and improve the quality of life for people of all ages in communities nationwide. We know that great communities take a long time to build and sustain. But we also believe that quick actions can be the catalyst for long-term progress. These grants provide localities and nonprofits the chance to fund innovative projects that can inspire change in transportation, open spaces, housing and other area, thereby improving communities.

Members of the Kansas Legislature are back in Topeka for the 2018 session and AARP volunteers and staff are also at the Statehouse meeting with legislators and advocating for AARP Kansas priorities and issues that are important to Kansans who are 50 and older.

It’s tax season once again.

In case you missed it, you can still listen to the AARP Kansas Teletownhall meeting about protecting yourself from holiday scams. AARP Kansas Director Dr. Maren Turner was joined by Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt and Kristin Keckeisen (by phone) with the AARP Fraud Watch Network for a Teletownhall meeting on December 11, 2017 to talk about the latest scams and frauds in Kansas.

Open enrollment for the Health Insurance Marketplace runs through December 15 in Kansas and many other states. That makes it prime time for scammers to try taking advantage of unsuspecting consumers. Be wary of phone or email solicitations selling cheap health insurance that claim to meet all federal requirements. If you bite, you may end up without a plan, and with a tax penalty for not having qualifying coverage. Your best bet is to enroll or re-enroll by visiting healthcare.gov, where you can learn about ways to get help during open enrollment. You can also check with your Area Agency on Aging for help ( www.n4a.org).

AARP Kansas announced a winner for the AARP Community Challenge, which aims to create change and improve quality of life at the community level. The winning project is The Wichita Public Library’s launch of three historical walking tours accessible through the PocketSights app. The project was partially funded through the AARP Community Challenge grant and is set to be completed by November 1, 2017.

When you think of healthy food, do you think bland and boring? Wichita Chef Josh Rathbun proved it doesn’t have to be that way during AARP’s healthy cooking class in Wichita in August.