AARP Awards Walk Austin with Community Challenge Grant

Austin’s innovative Healthy Streets program that promotes safe, active mobility will get a boost thanks to a 2020 Community Challenge grant that AARP is awarding to the Walk Austin organization.

By ensuring that Austin’s Healthy Streets program is fully implemented and integrates the needs of vulnerable residents, the grant to Walk Austin will allow residents to use neighborhood streets for walking and bicycling safely, and for other crucial activities during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Walk Austin is a coalition of organizations representing parks and trails, mobility, mental health, people with disabilities, faith-based organization, and neighborhood constituents. Walk Austin is one of five Texas organizations – and among 184 organizations nationwide -- receiving 2020 AARP Community Challenge grants, with more than $2.4 million awarded in total.

“We are incredibly proud to partner with grantees in Texas as they work to make immediate improvements in their communities, encourage promising ideas and jumpstart long-term change,” said AARP Texas Director Tina Tran. “Our goal at AARP Texas is to support the efforts of our communities to be great places for people of all backgrounds, ages and abilities and the coronavirus pandemic has only underscored the importance of this work.”

The Community Challenge grant program is part of AARP’s nationwide Livable Communities initiative, which helps communities become great places to live for residents of all ages. View the full list of grantees and their project descriptions at www.aarp.org/communitychallenge and view an interactive map of all of the Community Challenge projects and AARP Texas’ livable communities work at www.aarp.org/livable.