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AARP Funds Community Improvements Around Arizona

Projects focus on on transportation for older adults in rural areas, home-safety improvements and wildfire preparedness

Christine Bedell,

AARP

Published November 01, 2026

older couple with arms around each other, riding with public bus

Getty Images

From behind the wheel of the Burrito Bus, Carl Deithorn saw how residents of Arivaca — an isolated southern Arizona community of about 500 people — depended on a weekly ride out of town.

Many passengers were older adults or people with disabilities who rode the bus to Green Valley for groceries, prescriptions and medical appointments. He saw that the outings also offered companionship as riders talked, ate lunch together and helped one another in stores.

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So, it was a hardship for many when the service stopped due to the pandemic and mechanical problems with the bus. Residents had to arrange rides with friends and neighbors whose schedules didn’t always align.

“The Burrito Bus was a dependable thing; people could count on it,” Deithorn, 55, says. “When it was discontinued — well, that sense of security vanished.”

Now, with a $14,860 AARP Community Challenge grant and other funding, the bus is back. Burrito Bus 2.0: The Arivaca Connector began carrying passengers to Green Valley, about an hour away, in September, says Suzanne Kammerman, executive director of the nonprofit Arivaca Human Resource, which operates it.

“‘We will be consistent,’” Kammerman recalls telling the new bus driver. “‘Every Wednesday we will be driving into Green Valley as long as there is someone on that bus other than you.’”

The AARP Community Challenge grant program supports quick-turnaround projects that make communities more livable, particularly for older adults who want to age independently. The grants fund a range of community improvements, including home modifications, walkability projects, transportation systems and new public spaces.

Many are in rural areas where relatively small grants can have an outsized impact, says Laura Flannigan, AARP Arizona’s advocacy analyst.

This year, AARP funded 17 projects in Arizona, totaling more than $225,000. Efforts also aim to improve telehealth, digital access, accessibility and disaster preparedness. Flannigan’s favorites are projects like the Burrito Bus that respond to needs residents identified themselves.

“You can always find something to fund, but when you have community members coming to you over and over again with a need, you know, it’s great to be able to help with that,” Flannigan says.

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Building Community Resilience

Also responding to a community concern is a $15,000 grant the city of Sedona received to support a new wildfire-preparedness campaign. The funding will pay for branding, educational materials, printing, distribution and community presentations that help residents understand wildfire risks and how to protect their homes and neighborhoods, says Christian Santa-Gonzalez, senior planner for the city.

A 2024 city survey found that wildfire safety was among residents’ top concerns, prompting the Sedona City Council to make development of a preparedness program a priority, he says.

The urgent need for such work was underscored by this summer’s Pocket Fire, which burned 27,000 acres north of Sedona, Santa-Gonzalez says. He also hopes the awareness and mitigation efforts will help build insurers’ confidence in the community and contribute to a more stable local insurance market.

To the north, Red Feather Development Group is also increasing safety for residents. The Flagstaff nonprofit, which works with Navajo and Hopi communities to make housing safer and healthier, is using its $15,000 AARP Community Challenge grant to distribute 60 aging-in-place kits. They will include items such as hallway lights, toilet risers, safety bars and nonslip mats, says Development Manager Tav Sousa.

The assistance can be especially important on the reservations, where many older residents live in dilapidated homes without running water or electricity — and far from relatives and services. Red Feather distributed these kinds of kits during the pandemic but hasn’t been able to since.

“Our community coordinators out there are excited to deliver these because they’re saying that there are a lot of people that could benefit,” Sousa says.

Other grant projects include:

$25,000 to the Tucson Planning and Development Services Department for a design competition aimed at expanding the city’s repository of blueprints for smaller, age-friendly housing options.
$20,000 (with funding support from Toyota Motor North America Inc.) to the Downtown Mesa Association to install lighting that will transform a dark downtown alley into a clear pedestrian path.
$15,000 to the Pima County Office of Digital Inclusion for telehealth services at local sites.

AARP will begin accepting applications for 2027 AARP Community Challenge grants in January. Learn more at aarp.org/communitychallenge.

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Christine Bedell is a freelance writer who covered government and politics at newspapers for nearly 25 years.

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