Program promotes workforce mobility

By John Faucher

“To think that you’re stuck in this wheel of not being able to do anything would be a horrible way to live,” said Jared Tierney, lead transportation coordinator for Lutheran Social Services.

Tierney, a retired US Coast Guard veteran and former taxi cab professional, is also the facilitator for New London’s Catch-A-Ride program.

The program coordinates volunteers with existing private and public transportation assets to ensure disadvantaged populations have access to employment.

A recent American Communities Survey found nearly 15% of all households in Waupaca County face transportation access challenges.

Tierney said that while there are services available in the county for people aged 60 and older, or for disabled adults aged 18 and older, there are many residents who fall in the gap.

Residents aged 18-59 without access to a vehicle are often left behind.

Not everyone drives

Holly Keenan, a mobility manager at Lutheran Social Services of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan said, “There are people in the community who simply don’t drive, can’t drive or can’t afford a car.”

Tierney works with Keenan operating programs like Make the Ride Happen.

In 2018, ThedaCare’s New London Community Health Action Team (CHAT) hosted a “plunge” group of partners focused on looking at issues in transportation.

“This group came together and they identified there is a real gap here in transportation,” said Tierney. “So they identified the problems and then looked to find solutions.”

Through funding from ThedaCare and other sources they hired a staff member and proposed a partnership with Make the Ride Happen.

Make the Ride Happen provides mobility management, which means they have paid staff that know all the transportation resources available in the area and can help people figure out the best, low-cost options for a ride.

Catch-A-Ride is another program that builds off those same connections to develop a call center and they actively recruit volunteer drivers to fill in those gaps.

Tierney said Catch-A-Ride does not duplicate existing transportation services in the community, but leverages the strengths of all partners involved to serve a broader range of people who were not previously served.

“Transportation is probably one of the most complex industries I’ve worked in,” said Tierney.
“What we’re trying to do here is incorporate essentially two existing programs into one program and bring it into New London,” he said.

Building a reliable dedicated group of volunteer drivers who use their own cars can take time, Tierney admits.

It’s also challenging to match volunteers with rides for shift workers and other people who require rides during non-traditional hours when existing services either do not operate, or are not available at all.

“So that’s where we have to go to utilize taxi providers in a community,” said Tierney.

They realized to get launched they would have to utilize a cab service as a primary source of transportation.

Cab service reaches New London

“Fox Valley Cab has been extremely supportive of our efforts here,” said Tierney. They’ve taken the risk, acquired a license and hired a driver to establish that full-time 24-7 presence here in town.

They’ve been quite helpful in this initiative,” he said.

“Having Fox Valley Cab come into this community has been a huge asset and really the start of New London’s Catch-A-Ride program,” explained Tierney.

“First of all, having a taxi company involves a lot of cost. That margin for a taxi company is very thin. For them to come from Appleton to here in town was a huge obstacle that they took upon themselves to resolve,” said Tierney.

Catch-A-Ride is going to be working with Fox Valley Cab to provide subsidized transportation for individuals looking for employment.

Eventually the volunteer base will be able to transition between providing employment rides and transportation to other things like appointments, shopping and church services.

Tierney said as more pieces fall into place, it will be easier to set up individual ride programs that fit everyone’s needs.

Relieving shortages

A primary goal is getting people to their jobs.

“Two major issues facing employers right now when they’re looking at staffing shortages are transportation and childcare,” said Tierney.

“We can help bolster the employment of the community, if we can get everyone that’s willing and able to work to those available jobs,” Tierney said.

“If you can’t get your child into childcare and you cannot get to a better paying job, what do you do?” asked Tierney. “Are they stuck in that perpetual cycle of reliance on government assistance?

The more people we can enable to work in the community, the more opportunities will open up for everyone living here,” he said.

The Catch-A-Ride program has formed a partnership with Mission of Hope House in New London in providing their clients rides to job interviews and jobs with local employers.

Tierney said it’s been an effective starting block for the program and a win, win for everyone.

“Now we can finally sit down and say ok, now can we get this resident over to a local employer and provide that workforce to them. That helps the community as a whole,” he said.

Community engagement

Andy Wilson, Executive Director of Mission of Hope House in New London said the Catch-A-Ride program lines up perfectly with the MOHH vision mission statement of “Communities Engaged in Ending Poverty.”

“The majority of residents that come to our shelter do not have their own transportation and that adds another challenging barrier to their success,” said Wilson.

“For those of us with our own transportation, we don’t often think about the fact that lack of transportation exasperates the poverty crisis.

With that barrier, one might be fully employable, but unable to travel to an employer, or falsely labeled as unreliable,” Wilson said.

The ride program is helping open new opportunities for families facing poverty, hardship and or homelessness.

Tierney admits the program has taken some time to roll off its beginning phase and they’ve been faced with challenges of the pandemic, a software development delay and issues in volunteer availability thus far, but he’s confident progress continues.

“Where there is a will, there’s a way,” said Tierney. “There’s a lot of behind the scenes work and case management. We’re being very careful to get it right the first time,” he said.

“We have too, because rural transportation issues aren’t going away anytime soon.”