Six WI Projects Awarded Community Challenge Grants

We are thrilled to announce that six projects in five cities throughout Wisconsin will receive a combined $84,300 in 2023 Community Challenge grants. Grants will be awarded to two projects in Milwaukee and one each in Altoona, La Crosse, River Falls and Stevens Point.

Grantees in Wisconsin and across the country will implement quick-action projects that help communities become more livable in the long-term by improving public places; transportation; housing; diversity, equity & inclusion; digital access; and civic engagement, with an emphasis on the needs of adults age 50 and over.

At AARP Wisconsin we are committed to working with communities to improve residents’ quality of life through tangible changes. We are proud to collaborate with this year’s grantees as they make immediate improvements in their communities that will jumpstart long-term change, especially for Wisconsinites 50 and over. Our goal is to support the efforts of our communities to be great places for people of all backgrounds, ages and abilities.

Here are details of the grants awarded to the six Wisconsin projects:

City of Altoona – With its $10,000 grant, the city will hold an accessory dwellings unit design competition to promote their use as a housing solution. The competition will include an open house and presentations of design concepts to help educate builders and the broader community about ADUs.

City of La Crosse – With its $20,000 grant, the city’s parks, recreation and forestry department plans to revitalize a frequently used route and make it more accessible to residents age 50-plus by adding improvements such as a new crosswalk with art, a covered bus shelter and seats, light posts with decorative banners, and other amenities.

City of Milwaukee – With its $12,000 grant, the city’s department of public works plans to create a traffic calming lending library, giving residents the power to try out traffic safety designs on their street so they can understand which options would most effectively address their concerns.

City of Milwaukee – With its $20,000 grant, the city’s Redevelopment Authority plans to support community outreach for the “Growing MKE” initiative, which will amend the city’s comprehensive plan and update zoning to reduce barriers that interfere with development of housing for older adults.

City of River Falls – With its $10,000 grant, the city will fund safety improvements at a major intersection and demonstrate traffic calming interventions such as high-visibility crosswalk markings and an auditory response system.

City of Stevens Point – With its $12,300 grant, the city will install five age-friendly benches at selected transit stops, all of which have a high degree of usage and are situated along major transportation corridors.

This is the seventh year of the AARP Community Challenge Grant. Wisconsin communities that have received grants in previous years include: Appleton, Ashland, Bayfield, Beaver Dam, Berlin, Chilton, Cuba City, Deer Park, Ellsworth, Gays Mills, Green Bay, Greendale, Goodman, La Crosse, Madison, Milwaukee, Oconomowoc, Sheboygan, Spooner and Viroqua.

View the full list of grantees and their project descriptions at aarp.org/communitychallenge and learn more about AARP’s livable communities work at aarp.org/livable.