Livable Communities in New Jersey 2018

AARP New Jersey endorses the efforts of all neighborhoods, cities, towns, and localities to make each and every New Jersey community a safe and inclusive place to live for people of all ages. This includes providing safe, walkable streets; age friendly housing and transportation options; access to needed services; and opportunities for residents to be active members of their communities. These initiatives are propelled by the reality that these resources, among many others, influence whether a person can remain in the community and for how long. Once in place, those resources enhance personal independence; allow residents to age in place; and foster residents' engagement in the community's civic, economic, and social life.

The  AARP Livable Communities initiative works to educate and inspire elected officials, local leaders, planners and citizen activists on how to identify their community's specific needs and then create and implement the programs, policies and projects that will help meet those needs. These programs and policies include, but are not limited to, issues such as housing, mobility, transportation, land use, and area planning. A large part of this initiative is: www.aarp.org/livable, which houses relevant information from a

wide range of sources about age-friendly communities across the country and internationally.

AARP Community Challenge Grant 2017 Awarded to Garfield and Jersey City  

This past year, AARP introduced the first ever AARP Community Challenge Grant which invested nearly $780,000 to create change and improve the quality of life for people of all ages in communities across the nation. Every winning submission implemented projects that aimed at making measurable and sustainable changes that benefited older adults at the community level. Of the 1,200 applications that were placed from cities across the country, New Jersey’s very own Jersey City and city  of Garfield were chosen as recipients. In Garfield,  the grant is being used to fund pop-up wellness center events in an effort to provide wellness programming in a centrally located, multi-generational space and includes  programs such as:  culinary workshops to teach residents how to cook and prepare healthy meals; physical education programs; fiscal health workshops; “mutual tutoring” for younger students and seniors; and much more. To learn more about Garfield’s age-friendly community initiatives, visit their website https://www.generations4garfield.org/

In Jersey City, residents of a senior housing building engaged in a community beautification project; planting trees and other greenery to transform an empty adjacent lot area into an urban oasis.

For more information about how your city or community group can apply for a 2018 Community Challenge Grant, visit www.aarp.org/livable frequently, as the application process will open at the end of March/beginning of April.