David Nelson, a member of the national board for AARP, Wednesday will tour the University District, which has been been selected for a project focused on improving the quality of life.

AARP, the leading association for the over-50 population, has selected Arkansas for as-yet unspecified the project. The state chapter chose the University District, which surrounds the UALR campus, as the focus of the project.

Nelson will be in Little Rock to present AARP’s Anders Award to the state association’s top volunteer for the year at a Thursday luncheon. He will tour the district at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 14, with UD Director Ron Copeland. Others on the tour will be Maria Reynolds-Diaz, Arkansas AARP director; Nancy Stockbridge, AARP’s Washington, D.C., regional vice president; Jim Clements, Missouri regional AARP volunteer; and Becky Williams, AARP consultant.

“Becky Williams was chosen to lead the project and she has been joined by a team of AARP volunteers,” Copeland said. “I’ve met with the team three or four times in work sessions to define the scope of the project. Team members have met with some of the neighborhood associations and will probably partner with the neighborhood associations to do a needs assessment and develop some project ideas.”

AARP has three areas of emphasis for the project to focus on people 50 and over –  walkability and fitness, connectivity to ease isolation, and public safety to assuage fear.

“A number of ongoing initiatives on campus target the University District and will be a great complement to whatever the AARP volunteers do,” Copeland said.

Those projects include:

• Heath Sciences Chair Donna Quimby and instructor Janea Snyder and their project, “Growing Healthy Communities” is helping UD residents establish vegetable gardens.
• Criminal Justice Associate Professor David Montegue’s Senior Justice Center utilizes student interns to present crime information to seniors utilizing a criminal justice training technique, helping them how they can avoid being victimized.
• Assistant Professor John Miller organizes Martin Luther King Service Day activities focused on UD neighborhoods.
• The University District Engaged Scholars program organized by Assistant Professor Lillian Wichinsky of the School of Social Work.
• Programs organized by UALR’s Office of Community Engagement.

Nelson, who retired from IBM, created an “encore” career by joining National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship, an educational foundation that teaches low-income high school students how to start and operate a business as an incentive to stay in school.

He was elected to AARP’s board of directors in 2008.