What strategies have you used to give older adults a significant role in the senior transportation planning process?
Involving older adults in planning
Tags: public involvement community
9 votes
Rank2
Idea#4
What strategies have you used to give older adults a significant role in the senior transportation planning process?
Tags: public involvement community
Comments (6)
We partnered with Easter Seals Project ACTION to produce a webinar on Promising Practices and Solutions in Accessible Transportation: Public Involvement in the Transportation Planning Process. You can read the transcripts at: http://projectaction.easterseals.com/site/Calendar?view=Detail&id=35978.
It is extremely important, in discussing transportation services for older adults, that public transportation systems reach out to their local Area Agency on Aging. These agencies can very easily be located by going to the ElderCare Locator at the following website (copy and paste in your browser):
http://www.eldercare.gov/Eldercare.NET/Public/Index.aspx
You can typ in your zip code, and it will take you to your local contact.
These agencies have access to a wide array of seniors that would be excited to be part of planning in a community.
We have teamed up with organizations like New Horizons Independent Living Center( www.nhilc.org/ )and local Council on Aging centers( http://www.caddocouncilonaging.org/index.php?src= )to reach out to seniors where they live or congregate. By prearranging town hall styled meetings at Senior Apartment complexes in the community, we have an opportunity to inform seniors on available transportation and independent living resources, listen to their ideas, complaints, and comments, and we can determine gaps in available services.
The NCSL and AARP Research Report, Aging in Place:A State Survey of Livability Policies and Practices, has good information related to this.
Also, the idea I just submitted that asks question about how older adults can participate in transit and land use planning can easily be combined with this one.
Warren and Alice Smith in Cape Cod are good resources on how to involve older persons in planning. They themselves are retirees who have been doing community work to prepare older persons for when they have to stop driving; and on creating additonal transportation options. They have formed a non-profit center and are working with a number of key stakeholders in the Cape Cod community. Warren and Alice Smith's e-mail is: wsmithstat@aol.com.
Title III of the Older Americans Act requires states and communities to develop a comprehensive Area Plan for Older Persons. When developing the plan, our Commission on Aging/Department on Aging conducts as many as 20 listening seesions throughout the county. Transportation is always a major concern among participants at those listening sessions and their voice can be used to advocate for increased funding for senior transportation.
Combining Older Americans Act dollars with state or local funds enables Area Agencies on Aging to maximize senior transportation. Wisconsin has a "Specialized Transportation Assistance Program for Counties" that awards funds to support ADA paratransit and specialized transportation programs for older persons. Those dollars help our community to maintain service levels as Older Americans Act funds stagnate.
Seniors need to advocate at the federal, state, and local levels to assure funding for public transit and ADA paratransit do not overshadow the need for other senior transportation programs.