Cristina Rouvalis

Eight entities received AARP Community Challenge grants in Pennsylvania this year, for a total of $86,500.

The Pennsylvania Department of Aging and Area Agencies on Aging are developing a 10-year Master Plan for Older Adults, hoping to guide policymakers on ways to ensure older Pennsylvanians and those with disabilities get the support they need. Exorbitant rents, transportation troubles and a shortage of home care workers are among the issues the plan will address.

Mary Bach has spent years traveling the state to help consumers protect themselves in the marketplace. As she says: “It’s your money we’re talking about. I don’t care if it’s a couple of pennies or several dollars.”

Introduced last summer, the Yoga and Mindfulness series was so popular that it continues in 2023 as part of a lineup of healthy living programs that AARP Pennsylvania offers to keep people over 50 moving.

The AARP Community Challenge grant program awarded money to Thomas Jefferson University to build a garden to combat social isolation by turning vacant land into green space for neighbors to gather.

Housing costs across the tri-state areas are skyrocketing. AARP is working to help ease the burden on those affected.

Milly Laible, 70, sits in Bethlehem, smiling into a computer screen and getting her audience moving. Some of them are thousands of miles away. One woman has even exercised along with Milly from her apartment in Shanghai.

AARP estimates that there are 1.6 million unpaid family caregivers in Pennsylvania.

From rural bike paths to urban gardens, the AARP Community Challenge program is funding quick-action projects this year in five Pennsylvania areas.

AARP is fighting fraudsters by educating consumers with its Scam Jams, which feature officials such as the state attorney general and FBI experts.