King County Metro Transit has expanded its partnership with a Bellevue human services agency that is both saving money and providing better transportation for the elderly and disabled.
Circle of Friends provides adult day care and health services to primarily Russian-speaking seniors and people with disabilities. The agency serves more than 200 King County residents. About half of the clients live on the Eastside, and the others are concentrated in Seattle and south King County.
All are served at the Circle of Friends center in Bellevue, which is open seven days a week. Some come because they are not able to stay at home during the day while their family members work. Others, who live alone, depend on the center for health services like nurse check-ups and physical therapy. And, all benefit from socializing with other people who speak their language.
Transportation from their homes to the center had previously been provided by the state of Washington through contracted service with private companies. Due to state budget cutbacks, the funding for that program dried up on July 1 – leaving agencies like Circle of Friends scrambling for solutions.
“Many of these agencies began putting their clients on our Access vans because their clients do need accessible transportation,” said Bob Sahm, supervisor of Metro’s Accessible Services program. “Circle of Friends chose instead to work with us and set up their own transportation service with the help of our Community Access Transportation (CAT) program.
“By doing this, Circle of Friends is able to provide a more customized level of service for their clients,” said Sahm. “And, King County benefits because the cost of CAT service is one-eighth the cost of Access transportation.”
King County established the CAT program several years ago to provide services beyond the accessible regular bus service and the Access paratransit service required by the federal Americans with Disabilities Act. CAT is intended to provide service that is more flexible and responsive to unique transportation needs.
Currently, there are 22 agencies participating in the CAT program with more than 60 vans in service. In 2008, these agencies provided approximately 150,000 client trips.
Sofya Fischer, the administrator for Circle of Friends, says the program has been very successful in just two months with “innumerable” benefits. The center previously had two vans and has expanded to five with grant obtained by the CAT program staff.
Instead of sharing rides on Access or private vans with other passengers going to multiple destinations, all trips are now made directly between her clients’ homes and the center in Bellevue. Fischer says one of the biggest benefits is that Circle of Friends was able to hire Russian-speaking drivers.
“It’s so much easier to provide the transportation services when it’s done by drivers who speak the clients’ language,” said Fischer. “The response from our clients has been overwhelmingly positive, and it’s really increased the sense of community here at the center.”
During the month of July alone, the vans operated by Circle of Friends provided 3,900 trips.
“Having these trips provided by Circle of Friends instead of Access has been amazingly successful for them and for us,” said Sahm.
