Welcome to the first issue of "Job Access: Transportation Matters" - a new source of transportation information for the Santa Clara County social services community. The purpose of the newsletter is to provide a short weekly update about transportation happenings, including this week's feature...the new Guaranteed Ride Home Program. Please forward this newsletter to others you think would be interested in the information!
GRHP Service Update
The new Guaranteed Ride Home Program is off to a great start.
Up and rolling for almost three months now, the GRHP has 375 customers
enrolled in the program. OUTREACH has worked extensively with
the County Social Services Agency and community partners to inform
CalWORKs customers about the new service. This has included dozens
of presentations and a direct mailing to CalWORKs customers of
the Transportation Resource Guide and information about the GRHP
in English, Spanish and Vietnamese.
CalWORKs customers are using the service for a variety of purposes - to get to work, school, training, interviews and more. If you know of a CalWORKs customer who would benefit from the GRHP service, please call the Job Access Program at OUTREACH at 408-436-2865 for more information.
Who is riding the GRHP?
Let's take the example of Earnestine. Earnestine lives in San
Jose and found a good job at Moffett Field. She used the GRHP
to bring her child to daycare and then get to work in Mountain
View. She found the program to be a great help for her transportation
needs and has used all 48 rides.
How is she getting to work now? By working on her Transportation Plan, Earnestine identified a few options available to her - driving her truck or taking the new light rail line to the Moffett station and catching the free shuttle bus to her job. Neither is a perfect choice for her - her truck really needs some work and while taking the light rail gets her to work fine, she has trouble getting to daycare before it closes at 5:30.
What will she choose? By learning about these
transportation options, Earnestine is making some changes with
her transportation to work:
· She now knows of the First Wheels program at the Family
Loan Office and has applied for a loan for a new car. In the meanwhile,
she sometimes drives her truck to work, though she feels it is
risky. She is saving for some truck repairs.
· She knows the new Light Rail service can take her to
work, and it is free through January 31 between Mountain View
and Baypointe. She can connect to the light rail by either taking
a bus or parking her truck in a park & ride. Her employer
provides a free shuttle that connects from the light rail station
to her job site. She may consider with her employer a schedule
that can get her to daycare before 5:30.
· She is considering finding a new daycare for her child
that stays open beyond 5:30 p.m.
What did we learn?
· Earnestine found out about GRHP from her case manager
and enrolled in the program right away.
· Earnestine pointed out that some confusion about the
definition of a "ride". Thanks to her input, the GRHP
instructions that are now sent to all GRHP enrollees better defines
that a ride is a one way trip -for example from home, to daycare,
to work - and that the trip home is a second ride.
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For more information about the Guaranteed Ride Home Program, please call the Job Access Program at OUTREACH at 408-436-2865.
For more information about transportation resources available in Santa Clara County, call the Job Access Program or check the online version of the Transportation Resource Guide, found at http://www.outreach1.org/jbxs/index.htm