Tanja Ryden directs the work that the EOHHS HST Office does to support mobility management and coordination throughout Massachusetts. Theadora Fisher serves as Mobility Outreach Coordinator, reaching out to encourage organizations to get involved in mobility management and coordination and to identify mobility managers' needs. As Mobility Information Specialist, Rachel Fichtenbaum conducts research and develops materials to provide information and resources to mobility managers around the state. We would love to hear about your mobility management and coordination efforts and needs and invite you to contact us.

Many Massachusetts residents would prefer to live in their communities than in institutions, but community life can be difficult for people who lack transportation. Mobility management can help individuals overcome this barrier and stay in their communities. For example, Maryanne is a young woman with a disability who lives on the North Shore. As her twenty-second birthday approached, she knew that she would be aging out of her educational program and would need to find a job. Prior to graduation, she was offered a position at a restaurant, but the restaurant was in an area that was not served by public transportation. Fortunately, the One-Stop Career Center in her region - the  North Shore Career Center - had already noticed that many jobseekers were having trouble getting to jobs in that area and had applied for funding to operate the Employment Xpress, an employment transportation service for low-income individuals and people with disabilities. Thanks to the Employment Xpress, Maryanne has had the reliable, affordable transportation that she needs to keep her job and enjoy community life.

To read more about the Employment Xpress and how One-Stops can integrate mobility management into their work, check out HST's mobility management resources for workforce development.

The Commission that formed in response to Massachusetts Executive Order 530 has released its recommendations. The final report is available in the External Reports section of the HST website.

On July 6, President Obama signed Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21). This new legislation authorizes federal funding for transportation for 27 months, through September 2014. MAP-21 includes some changes to programs that are important to mobility management: New Freedom was consolidated as part of Section 5310 funding, and Job Access and Reverse Commute projects are consolidated into funding through Sections 5307 and 5311. CTAA has developed a summary and analysis and list of links to commentaries. The FTA also offers more details.

In 2009, Work Without Limits partnered with the Community Transportation Association of America to convene a three-day Transportation Coordination Institute. Multi-sector teams from nine communities across Massachusetts participated and developed action plans to help meet transportation needs in their communities. Six of the teams have remained active and involved in the Work Without Limits network over the intervening three years. In April, nearly fifty people attended the fifth bi-annual meeting of these teams to share updates and discuss travel instruction, vehicle share, advocacy and stakeholder engagement, and online rider tools. The sixth bi-annual meeting is coming up on October 26. Contact us for more information. 

In March, the Center for Workers with Disabilities published  Improving Human Services Transportation: The Massachusetts Brokerage and Coordination Model. This report describes the brokerage model that the EOHHS HST Office uses to manage Medicaid transportation and other state-funded transportation services and also discusses the Massachusetts Institute for Transportation Coordination held in 2009.

HST has launched a calendar of mobility management events and funding opportunities for Massachusetts.

If you have suggestions for news items or topics to cover in future newsletters, please contact us. Comments, questions, and feedback are also welcome.

Please forward this newsletter widely to others who are interested in mobility management, community transportation, or related topics and encourage them to subscribe to receive future newsletters and publications.