Job Access and Reverse Commute (jarc) Program fy 2009 Service Profiles Region X alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington October 2010 fta-08-0162 Job Access and Reverse Commute (jarc) fy 2009 Service Profiles: Region X

Location: Snohomish County (WA)
Type: Information-Based Services/Mobility manager
Goal: Improved access/connections
Service description: The Mobility Coordination Manager (MCM) for the Snohomish County Transportation Coalition (SNOTRAC) is funded by this grant. The MCM oversees all activities of SNOTRAC, it's programs, it's governing Board, and it's committees. The MCM also oversees the updating of the SNOTRAC Transportation Plan, and any staff or volunteers that work for the SNOTRAC programs. Programs currently include Travel Ambassador, Pay Your Pal (travel voucher), and Ride Around the Sound (Bus Buddy) programs. Staff include a Program Coordinator.
The MCM helps build partnerships between the community transportation and human services providers to help improve coordination is serving the public, with a special emphasis on those with special needs and Veterans. The MCM is an active member of the Puget Sound Regional Council, CTANW, ACCT, and other transportation groups as the opportunity arises.
Evaluation: Goals were set for the various programs, and actual were collected and compared to the goals to see progress.
Accomplishments:
- We piloted the Pay Your Pal travel voucher program. This program reimburses drivers that are recruited by the disabled person needing the ride. So far it has been successful in providing 978 trips for seven clients. $4,947.71 has been paid out to volunteer drivers.
- Our Travel Ambassador program updated and reprinted 150 Travel Ambassador notebooks, which are given out during train-the-trainer trainings to teachers, case managers, and anyone who works with people that need transportation choices. 80 such notebooks had already been distributed prior to this revision and reprint.
- We also piloted the Ride Around the Sound (RAS) (Bus Buddy) program in which we chaperone groups of new riders (primarily seniors at this point) on interesting, and progressively more challenging, transit trips to destinations throughout the Puget Sound region. To date we have provided 41 RAS tours serving 327 new senior riders, which far exceeds our goals. Many riders have now volunteered to lead trips themselves.
- We moved the MCM and the Project Coordinator to Senior Services of Snohomish County, who provide DART and TAP services in Snohomish County. This has improved the coordination with TAP so that clients who do not fit the TAP program are transferred to the Pay Your Pal Project Coordinator who can offer that service to them if there is a fit. This has resulted in more applicants for the Pay Your Pal Program. Voucher checks and brochures were designed and professionally printed.
Lessons learned: Pay Your Pal - Because of the guidelines set by the program, we cannot recruit volunteer drivers. Finding people who were willing to do the work of finding their own volunteer driver was our biggest obstacle. Connecting with the destinations that such people would be needing rides to has improved our outreach to the needy populations. Examples are Dialysis Centers, Cancer Treatment Centers, Senior Centers, etc.
It is very important to have a solid marketing budget and to develop strong partnerships amongst many social service agencies within your community, as this will aide in promoting the programs through many avenues.
Our first MCM resigned, and it was difficult to replace the position, partially due to the difficulty of getting the full time working members of SNOTRAC to help with the hiring. During the interim it was challenging to keep all aspects of the program going. Plan ahead for such times.