Experience Ability: Removing Barriers

A USDA TARGET Center Training Series.

Creating Inclusive Transportation Access to Community Services

Transportation and mobility services are important to individuals to access healthy foods and groceries. In some communities, USDA grantees, and specifically those that offer summer food service programs, work closely with transit providers to ensure that children and families can access meals. For instance, through The Texas Hunger Initiative at Baylor University in Texas, project staff invited transit personnel to learn about the program and collaborated to ensure that children could access meals. In Effingham, Illinois, the mobility manager coordinated and helped to publicize the free rides youth receive from Effingham County Public Transit (ECPT) to SFSP sites operated by a local nonprofit, Mission: Summer Fun (MSF). In other communities, such as Flint Michigan, Rides to Groceries program, transit agencies provide services so that residents can access grocery stores.

Join us for a cross-Federal agency presentation about how resources related to transportation coordination and mobility management can support the ability of all individuals to access community services, such as nutrition assistance, education, employment, and healthcare. Dr. Judy Shanley, Asst. VP of Education & Youth Transition and Co-director of the National Center for Mobility Management at Easterseals, along with Carl Ringgold, Program Analyst, from the Federal Transit Administration will share information about the Coordinating Council on Access and Mobility and the resources that can help support USDA activities related to mobility and transportation.

Attendees will:

•Learn about strategies to support inclusive mobility options for people with disabilities

• Gain an understanding of mobility management and opportunities to strengthen transportation and mobility connections at the state, regional, and local levels; and

• Acquire resources from projects supported by the Federal Transit Administration and the Coordinating Council on Access and Mobility (CCAM).

The National Center for Mobility Management (NCMM) is a national technical assistance center funded through a cooperative agreement with the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), U.S. DOT. Launched in early 2013, the mission of NCMM is to facilitate communities to adopt transportation strategies and mobility options that empower people to live independently and advance health, economic vitality, self-sufficiency, and community. The Center is jointly operated by three national organizations: Easterseals, the American Public Transportation Association, and the Community Transportation Association of America.

What is Easterseals?

For nearly 100 years Easterseals has been the indispensable resource for people and families facing disability, offering a wide range of services and supports nationwide. Now, as America faces a broad range of new issues, they are especially committed to making major, positive, life-changing differences in the lives of people and families facing today’s disabilities. The work they do every day is redefining disabilities for the 21st century and changing the way the world defines and views disabilities by making positive and profound differences in people’s lives every day.

Via http://www.easterseals.com

What is Experience Ability: Removing Barriers?

Experience Ability: Removing Barriers is a nationwide training series hosted once a month in the TARGET Center and streamed online to registered attendees. The TARGET Center will host a series of guest presenters from a variety of organizations with experience in removing barriers for individuals with disabilities.

Where can I learn more?

Subscribe to the TARGET Center podcasts on iTunes, Google Play, or SoundCloud and look forward to a companion podcast interview with Judy Shanley, Easterseals Asst. VP of Education & Youth Transition and Carl Ringgold, Program Analyst, from the Federal Transit Administration. TARGET Center's Education Program Manager, Paul Lloyd, will interview Judy and Carl about their experience with accessible transportation.