Community human service agencies play an important role in making sure consumers can access services and participate fully in community life. This transportation resource sheet from the Human Service Transportation (HST) Office provides information on the following topics to help community agencies ensure transportation is not a barrier:
- Recommended Transportation Practices
- Help Your Consumers with Their Transportation Needs
- Community Agency Transportation Solutions
- For resources specific to the needs of workforce development agencies, click here
Recommended Transportation Practices
Start with basic transportation planning when developing consumer services and program facilities to help create transportation options that will maximize consumers' mobility.
- Service planning and transportation access
- Consumer transportation needs profile (Scroll down the page to the "Documents You Can Use" section)
- Transportation and Employment: the Role of Service Providers. This is targeted to helping individuals with disabilities get to work, but the strategies are easily adaptable.
Help Your Consumers with their Transportation Needs
- Public Transit Services
The HST Office encourages a "transit first" approach to meeting transportation needs. Today almost all public transit in Massachusetts is accessible to the disabled and the state's transit entities are developing new technologies and broadening services (such as offering long-distance medical shuttles) to better meet customer needs.- MBTA serves the Greater Boston area.
- Regional transit authorities serving almost all of the communities outside of the MBTA.
- Travel Training and Bus Buddy Programs
These services help individuals become proficient, safe and comfortable when traveling on public transit. Several transit and community service agencies provide travel training. Bus buddy programs offer a peer volunteer who will travel with the consumer one or more times.- Easter Seals Project Action has a useful travel training resource page.
- FriendshipWorks in Boston offers a medical escort model that takes the concept one step further.
- Travel Training Curriculum for Staff
- Finding Other Transportation Options
Local inventories of available transportation resources may be published (or available online) by regional planning agencies, transit authorities or other community agencies. Another way to search for resources is to go through Mass211online or call 211.
Community Agency Transportation Solutions
- Coordinate with Others to Fill Gaps
Coordination among community human service providers, state agencies, private transportation providers, and local public transit agencies helps consumers get where they need to go. Visit the Human Service Transportation Coordination page for more resources. - Volunteer Transportation Programs
Volunteer programs that provide personalized trips, often door-to-door, are an important component of community transportation networks and help fill a need. For more information on finding local volunteer driver programs or guidance on stating your own program, go to Volunteer Driver Programs - Funding Opportunities and Resources
Go to the Funding Opportunities and Resources page for information about federal, state and private funding sources for transportation.
This information is provided by the EOHHS Human Service Transportation Office