Access to Jobs Brochure (Excerpts)

[from the Access to Jobs brochure, a product of the Department of Transportation/Federal Transit Administration Welfare to Work Initative]

Keys to Success

Effective transportation plays a critical role in the future success of welfare reform efforts. The following is a list of key components:

Local Stakeholder Collaboration- Leveraging Each Other

While transportation solutions may vary from place to place, a common ingredient to success is getting the stakeholders to discuss what will work best and how the resources of all the stakeholders might be leveraged to produce the best result. Stakeholders include a variety of public and private transportation providers that make up the local public transportation and human services transportation networks; the state, local and nonprofit agencies that comprise the welfare benefits/ employment training network, employers, concerned elected officials and representatives of affected population. Only if the stakeholders work together will strategies produce meaningful results.

Coordination of Local Service

It is also important to take advantage of the resources of existing transportation providers, rather than to establish separate, uncoordinated new systems. It is more cost effective and gives service more long term sustainability. In Chicago, for example, the nonprofit community action agency developed productive routes which it turned over to the transit agency for integration into regular service assuring continued sustainability. In turn, the transit agency supplied vans to the nonprofit agency to get its job trainees to interviews with perspective employers.

Getting Transportation into State Welfare Reform Planning

It is important that state policy and decision makers responsible for welfare reform recognize the importance and nature of the transportation issues involved in getting individuals from welfare to work. Most state welfare plans submitted to the federal government barely mentioned transportation. As they move to implementation, states must put into place supportive strategies for the provision of transportation, especially the necessary financial resources that will be needed. Not only does this mean subsidies or vouchers for individual travel, but support for the development of new and supplementary services that may be needed.

Getting Welfare Issues into Local Transportation Planning

It is equally important to get welfare needs addressed in the local transportation planning process. Local transportation and welfare planning agencies need to be working together to identify where welfare populations are concentrated, where entry level job are and how well the existing transportation systems are connecting the two. In addition to the public transit system, all existing transportation providers ought to be inventoried as potential sources that might be utilized in meeting job transportation needs.

Integrating Transportation and Employment Support Services

Under its new Livable Communities Initiative, FTA has sought to make transit planning more responsive to the needs of neighborhoods and local communities served by transit. This means getting localities involved with the design of transportation services and facilities serving their communities. One outcome of this process is the incorporation of needed local customer services in or around local transit facilities. Services such as day care, shopping, banking and other customer services are beginning to appear at transit stations. FTA encourages job training, health care and other employment services to be located at transit sites to make services more accessible to persons dependent upon transit and travel more convenient to customers who otherwise are forced to take complicated trips. Likewise, transportation needs to be included in customer services offered to clients by welfare and employment training agencies in the One-Stop Shopping programs sponsored by the Department of Labor. It is important that transportation be viewed as one of the essential services that welfare clients need as they undertake actions to move to financial independence.

Applying ITS Technology to Welfare to Work

The DOT is working with the lastest computer information technology to modernize our transportation systems. This technology, known as Intelligent Transportation Systems, can be used to address welfare to work transportation challenges. Automated dispatching systems and satellite geopostioning technology tracking vehicles will allow the coordination of many separate transportation agencies to blend their services to meet the employment transportation gaps. Central dispatching and accounting will also make a one-stop transportation call possible for those seeking transportation and will minimize fraud and abuse.

Projects Underway

The federal government, long ago, recognized the vital connection between transportation and employment. First, FTA recognized that the problems of job and home separation will continue to worsen unless metropolitan areas take strong action to better integrate land use, economic development and transportation planning. As a result, FTA launched its Livable Communities Initiative. Second, FTA initiated the Joblinks program which has funded innovative employment transportation demonstrations in 12 states. More recently, FTA worked with HUD to create the Bridges to Work program to help connect individuals living in inner-city neighborhoods with work.

1. Chicago, Ill.
   Suburban Joblinks, a nonprofit agency, has been providing employment transportation for the past 25 years. Today, the agency is focusing on reverse commute strategies from innercity Chicago neighborhoods to the job-rich suburbs. Suburban Joblinks also develops routes and then passes them on, complete with built-in ridership, to the suburban-Chicago public transit provider PACE. Currently, Suburban Joblinks is a Bridges to Work recipient.
2. Louisville, Ky.
   Two projects in Louisville highlight the need for collaboration on the part of local stakeholders. First, the local public transit provider, TARC, has developed a reverse commute from several areas of high unemployment to suburban industrial parks. These new routes save considerable time and make the journey much more convenient. Second, the area has seen fantastic economic development through the development of the NIA Center, a facility that will house child care, job training and other services under a single roof. Transit, by linking to this new facility and being a player in its development, becomes more convenient. TARC is a Joblinks recipient and a Livable Communities Initiative site.
3. Glendale, Ore.
   When the logging industry died in this rural area, this community nearly followed. But with the construction of the Glendale-Azalea Skills Center (a job training site) and a new emphasis on transportation, prospects greatly improved. An innovative aspect of this project was that the local school system offered to coordinate its transportation resources with job seekers. The program linked training and skills development with effective transportation. Glendale is a Joblinks recipient.
4. Detroit, Mich.
   The local suburban transportation provider, SMART, redesigned its service and routes to provide better access to jobs to unemployed inner-city residents. With a concentrated effort, SMART markets its services to job seekers and new entrants to the workforce with free passes and radio commercials. SMART's redesigned service provides access to far more jobs and the agency is using innovative technology to allow job training centers to place potential workers on its buses using remote computers. Also, in downtown Detroit, Operation ABLE, a job placement agency, trained homeless and unemployed residents and transported them to jobs throughout the area. SMART is a Joblinks recipient.
5. Baltimore, Md.
   A van service has been launched linking an economically depressed neighborhood in East Baltimore with a job-rich suburban industrial/warehouse complex around the BWI Airport. This project enlisted considerable support from the BWI Business Corridor and will serve more than 400 people. Baltimore is a Bridges to Work project.
6. Anne Arundel County, Md.
   The AdVANtage program not only connects welfare recipients with jobs, it also creates an entrepreneurial opportunity. Unemployed residents can become transportation providers through operating vans designed to take people to work. Local YWCA chapters will provide business training. AdVANtage is a Joblinks project.
7. Talahina, Okla.
   A rural transit provider in a small town in Eastern Oklahoma used its vans to provide employment transportation to chicken processing plants in Northwestern Arkansas. The vans make the trips for the night shift, so local public transit service was unaffected by the employment routes. A local chamber of commerce official estimated that more than $5 million of additional money was brought into the rural community with this program.
8. Kansas City, Kan.
   The Kansas Department of Public Works is establishing a new transportation service linking inner-city residents with suburban job opportunities. To help fund the new program, a public-private collaborative effort is underway. Kansas City is a Joblinks project.
9. Zuni Pueblo, N.M.
   Zuni Entrepreneurial Enterprises will develop, implement and maintain a transportation system that provides vital linkages for Native Americans and other traditionally unserved persons to access needed vocational training and jobs. Zuni is a Joblinks project.
10. Pine Bluff, Ark.
    The local area agency on aging collaborated with a transportation provider and a local Jobs agency to transport unemployed residents to-and-from employment centers. The program also expanded the hours of a current subscription service so more workers could access it and better coordinate transportation throughout the county. Pine Bluff in a Joblinks project.
11. Clarksdale, Miss.
    The project improved the availability of transportation services within the entire community by developing a transportation system to meet the needs of transit- dependent residents, including people on public assistance. All of the services launched will connect with a community health center and with intercity bus service. Clarksdale is a Joblinks project.
12. Hartford, Con.
    The local metropolitan planning organization has developed an employment transit coalition. The Welfare to Work Transportation Access Work Group has brought together representatives from several transportation, labor, and human service agencies — as well as from local businesses — to focus on key areas where new or enhanced transit services are most needed. The combination of workforce development and transportation planning expertise has resulted in ridership and cost forecasts which, in turn, have been used as valuable inputs to a two-year pilot welfare to work transportation program funding proposal.

State Efforts

13. New Jersey
    NJ Transit has created the Work Pass Program to assist Work First New Jersey (the name of the state's new welfare plan) in accessing public transportation to work. NJ Transit will provide training to county Work First Agency staff on reading bus schedules, determining fares, determining transit availability and more. In addition, NJ Transit will conduct research to determine the transit availability of different work sites and work activities as well as establish resource centers at each county agency which contain transit timetables, maps, guides and informational brochures on special services. In addition, the New Jersey Departments of Human Services and Transportation have convened an Interdepartmental Transportation Work Group to improve the quality and efficiency of transportation services funded by various state programs. This work group is currently cataloging transportation resources (capital and operating) and analyzing current laws and regulations related to transportation to identify barriers.
     
14. Michigan
    Under Michigan's welfare reform initiatives, three state agencies are zeroing in on the lack of transportation as a major barrier to moving residents from welfare to work. The initiative is part of Project Zero, a pilot effort in five Michigan counties to reduce to zero the number of public assistance households without earned income. Through Project Zero, the state's Family Independence Agency (FIA) is partnering with the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) and the Michigan Jobs Commission to lessen the personal transportation difficulties that can limit a person's ability to get to and from a job.
     
15. Wisconsin
    Wisconsin has been a leader in the welfare reform process. Its program, entitled Wisconsin Works, is premised not on welfare reform but on ending welfare entitlements. The state has placed its focus on local partnerships to deliver work initiatives; for example through cooperative planning teams and community steering committees made up of businesses, job centers, other workforce agencies and transportation agencies. Statewide, only 3.5 percent of families receiving public assistance own automobiles. The state developed Job Ride in 1989 to respond to the emerging transportation need for welfare recipients. The landmark program sought to link transit dependent, low-income job seekers with jobs in outlying suburban areas that are not served by traditional fixed-route transit. This innovative van pool program, last year alone, served more than 1,100 job placements in Milwaukee and Southeast Wisconsin. During it's eight-year term, it has recorded more than 72,000 trips to work.

Ahead of the Curve

The potential impact of transportation on employment and training for people on public assistance was not lost on the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). Long before President Clinton signed the new welfare legislation into effect last August 22, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) had launched an innovative demonstration program called Joblinks. Beginning in 1995, 16 demonstration projects have been launched in 12 states. Then, last year, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), in cooperation with FTA, launched Bridges to Work, to explore new ways to link urban welfare recipients with suburban jobs. Bridges to Work project are now underway in Baltimore, Md.; Chicago, Ill.; Denver, Colo.; Milwaukee, Wisc.; and St. Louis, Mo. FTA's Livable Communities Initiative, too, has had a profound impact on access to jobs. Effective transportation can improve the quality of life for everyone in the community. A particular focus of the Livable Communities Initiative has been developing transportation in Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities—areas often in dire need of access to jobs.