Livable Communities

Find out how to make your home a safer and more comfortable place to live as you age.

These organizations will provide immediate improvements to their communities and jumpstart long-term change.

AARP is working to make communities across Missouri more livable for residents of all ages. It’s supporting revamped transit stops, the installation of exercise equipment in public parks to promote healthy living, and a home renovation designed to let older adults live independently for as long as possible.

What is Livability? A livable community is safe and secure, has affordable and appropriate housing, diverse transportation options, and supportive community features and services. Once in place, these resources enhance the personal independence and health of community residents and enable residents of all ages to engage in a community's civic, economic and social life. Policy makers at the federal, state and local levels play a huge role in designing and maintaining cities, towns and neighborhoods so they are active places where residents of all ages can live, work and play.

AARP Community Challenge grants have funded two projects in the Kansas City area.

By John Reinhart

AARP Missouri presented the City of Gladstone with a check for $20,000 at the October 23, 2017 Gladstone City Council Meeting.

By Tim Poor

Seniors Count of Greater St. Louis is a local initiative supported by a coalition of community organizations and eldercare agencies. The mission of Seniors Count is to address the quickly growing gap between the needs of seniors and available resources in our community. Our population is rapidly aging, especially as the Baby Boomer generation reaches retirement age. Perhaps you have heard of this as the “silver tsunami”; by 2030, the number of people age 65 and older in St Louis is projected to increase by 15,000 every year. In the next three decades, the number of people in that senior set will jump by 77 percent to almost 300,000 people. Census figures from 2014 show the St Louis area had the eighth highest percentage of older people in the country, at 14.9 percent, and by 2045 it is projected that a full quarter of the region’s population with be 65 or older.

Join AARP in St. Louis and Citizens for Modern Transit as we look for ways to improve three MetroLink transit stations in the St. Louis region. Your transit station could be a place to meet up with neighbors and friends for coffee and a snack, a convenient place to grab groceries on your way home, a peaceful garden to read a book in, an active and engaging corridor that connects to your neighborhood. Help us conduct a walk audit at one or all three stations.