Wheels of Hope Increases Access by Providing Rides

The City Center church campus provides services to unhoused residents or individuals who are struggling financially, including laundry, haircuts and meals, as well as a sense of compassion and community. In 2021 alone, the Center did 924 loads of laundry, provided 214 clothing appointments, 1,225 diapers and 109 free haircuts.

In a local school district with a lack of buses, parents, and community members are stepping up to drive the buses and provide transportation to and from school. Working with Mountain Transit, volunteers are able to get trained and licensed to drive the bus routes, resulting in a significant decrease in absences and tardies, and providing a safe means to and from school.

The Ground Support Guest Transportation Unit offers a city-run alternative to relying on rideshare and cabs to transport people to cooling shelters by relying on Portland’s Neighborhood Emergency Teams (NET), a volunteer-run neighborhood group that provides services during times of need. During a July 2022 heatwave, the program received 215 ride requests, 138 of which were completed by NET volunteers.

The high census completion rate in Lee-Harvard, as high as 70%, compared to Cleveland’s 50% as a whole, is the result of regular meetings, pre-pandemic, to educate residents of the benefits of the census and dispel common myths. After the pandemic, volunteers at the community center’s monthly food distribution provided census-related information. A group of retired women, called the Ward 1 Volunteer Navigators, also went door-to-door to make sure everyone got counted. Because many of the residents are long time homeowners, neighbor-to-neighbor relationships also led more residents to complete the census.

New, detailed driver badges, and bus route charts are reducing dangerous crashes involving buses on roads in Uganda. In an attempt to weed out incompetent bus drivers, they are now legally required to have a badge that includes information like their license number, training information, and the company they work for.

A father/daughter dentist duo provides dental services to refugees in need of care by setting up a pop-up clinic at a refugee camp on the Greek island of Chios. The pop-up clinic provides much-needed dental care to the refugees who haven’t had the ability to care for their teeth during their journey to Europe and dentists from around the world will take turns staffing the clinic on a volunteer basis.

Making personal connections supports mental health and wellbeing. The San Francisco-based nonprofit, Sidewalk Talk, trains volunteers to go out and engage on a personal level with individuals in underserved communities. The volunteers simply listen and provide empathy, a valuable resource for those who might not have access to mental health care.

A plan to redesign Market Street in San Francisco uses a controversial approach used by cities around the world: eliminating personal cars entirely. This bicycle, pedestrian and bus-oriented layout approach reduces traffic accidents and fatalities; San Francisco plans to move forward with their plan in 2020.

Rather than go through extensive urban planning processes to improve bus commute times, cities across the United States are simply relying on paint and human behavior to create dedicated bus lanes. Denver, Seattle, San Francisco and others have piloted these bus lanes by setting up cones or painting a bus-only corridor in traffic-heavy areas of the city, cutting down interactions between buses and other vehicles in order to make commuting more efficient.

Since the Lincoln Avenue School Walking Bus program started, the school has seen marked improvements in attendance rates. The volunteer-run transit alternative promotes neighborhood safety and offers another chance for disconnected students to socialize.