Call A Ride Sausalito Seniors (CARSS) - Free rides for persons age 60 or older

Call A Ride Sausalito Seniors (CARSS) – Free rides for persons age 60 or older

Status: Ongoing

Sausalito United States of America

Print this page City population: 705033% over 60Practice started in 2015

Summary

Sausalito is a small hillside town bordering the San Francisco Bay. The steep, narrow residential streets, most with no sidewalks, become barriers as residents age. The town’s shops and services are located on the flat lands. Public transit operates solely on the main street, which runs along the waterfront. Sausalito residents age 60 and over increased by 72% in last decade, to nearly 1/3 of the population. 35% of Sausalito seniors live alone. Without transportation from the hills, many older residents cannot access local services, participate in social and civic activities or utilize the fixed route bus and ferry services. This problem ranked as a top priority of the recent survey conducted by the Age Friendly Sausalito Task Force in the fall of 2013. 2400 surveys were sent to older adults and 1200 responses were returned and analyzed, bringing this long-standing issue into focus. The environmental barrier results in unhealthy isolation for many seniors. The very elements that make Sausalito so lovely make it challenging and potentially isolating for older adults.The voices of the community were clearly heard and Call –A-Ride-Sausalito-Seniors (CARSS) is the response. CARSS is a volunteer driver program providing up to two free one-way rides per day for older adults and persons with disabilities in driver-owned passenger cars. Riders can call up to a week ahead, or same day, to confirm rides anywhere within the boundaries of the town and floating home community. CARSS provides door to door service including assistance carrying shopping bags. CARSS allows Riders to quickly and easily go to shops in town to buy groceries, a last minute gift, attend a class, meet a friend for lunch at a local restaurant, peruse the books on the shelves at the Library or meet face to face with their banker.The Volunteer Drivers are vetted through standard background checks, provided with a short training, and supply proof of insurance for their own automobile. The Sausalito AF Taskforce secured funds though a competitive County Transit grant to cover the most basic costs which include a part time coordinator and a virtual telephone number, which can be forwarded to the driver on duty for last minute ride requests, which are accommodated as possible. Other costs have been covered mostly through in-kind and small cash contributions from local businesses, service groups and the City for such important elements as printing of flyers and creation of a large street banner announcing the program.The program is a partnership of the Age Friendly Task Force, the Sausalito Village in association with the City’s Parks and Recreation Department. The Village was chosen as coordinator for the program, as they had prior experience operating a volunteer driver program. The two organizations share many goals to promote independence for older adults, and share many of the same volunteers.

Website: http://CARSS4You.org

Key facts

Main target group: Older people in general

Other target group(s): Older people who are isolated, or have limited mobility and access to transportation

Sector(s): Transportation

Desired outcome for older people:
Be mobile

Other issues the Age-friendly practice aims to address:

Accessibility
Intergenerational activities

Other Issues: civic participation and social inclusion

Contact details

Name: Smith, Patricia

Email address: agefriendlysausalito@gmail.com

Preferred language(s): English

Age-friendly practice in detail (click to expand):

Engaging the wider community

Project lead: Volunteers

Older people’s involvement: Older people were involved in the age-friendly practice at multiple or all stages

Details on older people’s involvement: The Age Friendly Sausalito Task Force was appointed by the City Council of Sausalito after a request from older members of the community, and it comprises nearly all older adults. The youngest member is 55, other members are in their 60s 70s or 80s. The Task Force originally met weekly to create, distribute, and analyze a community survey of Age Friendly Needs. The need for a transportation solution was a top priority, so task force members decided to get to work on that issue right away; prior to developing the full Age-Friendly strategic plan. The five core Task Force members together designed the structure of the program, sharing ideas with local stakeholders and getting wider community input by discussing the plan with The Sausalito Village and other older adults and City officials, and making presentations to organizations including, Rotary, Lions, The Women’s Club, Chamber of Commerce, and others. The Older adults comprising the Task Force applied for and received a grant from the County Transit Authority. Next, the Task Force Members worked with community volunteers and local merchants to engage them in promotional activities and to recruit drivers and sign up riders. Many of the volunteer drivers are also older adults.

Moving forward

Has the impact of this age-friendly practice been analysed: No

Feedback:
All of the feedback has been tremendously positive and enthusiastic. At the very beginning we limited rides strictly to the Town boundaries and adjacent Floating Home Marinas. However, there is no pharmacy within the town, and we received many requests to include one in our “”territory””. So we expanded our service area to include the nearest pharmacy, located in a neighboring shopping plaza.

Expansion plans:
Start-up was on May 4, 2015. We have started with one 4-hour shift five days per week, and plan to expand the number of shifts, number of days per week and number of drivers as demand increases. We also plan for spikes during inclement weather and City events. Eventually, we expect to provide over 2,000 person rides annually, with that number growing as word spreads through promotion, targeted outreach, and word-of-mouth.

Looking back

Reflections:
Partnerships are key to this program, and the sooner such partnerships can come together, the better for the program’s success. When we first developed the program, the expectation was that the City’s Age Friendly Task Force would manage the Program and supervise the part time employee. At the inception of the program, the City’s Parks and Recreation staff was not fully comfortable with the City taking on the responsibility of running a volunteer driving program. However, we were aware that Sausalito Village, a non- profit with experience in providing volunteer senior transportation did, and we were able to bring them in as a partner. Sausalito Village had provided the service to its 200 members with approximately 40 trained and vetted volunteers for five years. They already carried the necessary liability insurance policy and were able to provide training and background checks and were already familiar with ride scheduling software

Challenges:
We had 23 riders signed up before the first car went out, but they were shy about calling for rides in the beginning. We made phone calls to encourage ridership in the first several weeks. We maintained flexibility with the program and have listened to feedback from both riders and volunteers. Upon requests we added the neighboring town to our territory to include the congregate meal site, pharmacy and expanded dollar store, and began a “Lunch About Town” program – a monthly meet-up at local restaurants for CARSS riders, for socialization and to encourage ridership