Five Massachusetts community transportation leaders have been selected for a national directory of experts. "Coordination Catalysts" are individuals who have experience and expertise to share with others around the country regarding inclusion of older adults and people with disabilities in creating reliable, affordable, and accessible community transportation services. Congratulations to Doug Halley of the Town of Acton, Linda Shepard Salzer of Ways2Go by SCM, Mary Basilone of Greater Attleboro Taunton Regional Transit Authority, Michael Muehe of the Cambridge Commission for Persons with Disabilities, and Valerie Parker Callahan of Greater Lynn Senior Services. All five are affiliated with transportation coordination teams in their regions.

The Coordination Catalyst directory is part of a federally-funded initiative to promote inclusion of seniors and people with disabilities in designing and implementing coordinated transportation systems. This project - Strengthening Inclusive Coordinated Transportation Partnerships to Promote Community Living - recently awarded grants to seventeen organizations around the country. These grant recipients will have the opportunity to seek technical assistance from the fifty-seven individuals listed in the directory, including the five from Massachusetts.

From June 17 to 19, over 100 educators, para-professionals, and student transportation department staff from the Boston Public Schools (BPS) gathered at Boston English High School for a workshop on transportation education and travel instruction for students with significant disabilities. Travel instruction is the professional activity of teaching individuals how to use public transportation independently to access their environment and community. Transportation education refers to approaches that teachers and schools can use to embed travel training into the curriculum.

BPS received a professional development grant from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and used these funds to hire the Easter Seals transportation group to conduct the training. Travel instruction experts from Boston, Chicago, New York, and Washington DC delivered the workshop. Topics ranged from planning trips and crossing streets to including travel training in students' Individualized Education Programs (IEPs). The MBTA provided a bus for participants to use to learn about the accessibility features available onboard.

To build on this success, BPS and the Easter Seals transportation group are currently working on a strategic plan. They are also planning a follow-up workshop to educate family members of students with disabilities about travel instruction and transportation education.

Educators interested in learning more about these topics may be interested in a newly-released transportation education curriculum from Easter Seals Project ACTION.

On July 16, over 50 people braved high temperatures to attend the formal launch of the Ways2Go travel training program. Travel training is an intensive form of travel instruction, which is the professional activity of teaching individuals with disabilities, seniors, and others how to use public transportation independently to access their environment and community. Ways2Go is a collaborative effort among the City of Cambridge Commission for Persons with Disabilities, Door2Door by SCM, the MBTA, and the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission.

MBTA General Manager Beverly Scott hosted the launch. She emphasized the importance of travel training not only for people with disabilities and seniors but for all residents of the Commonwealth. She referred to travel training as a commonsense solution to make the T - the nation's oldest public transit system - more accessible.

The next speaker was Reed Cochran, Executive Director of SCM. She spoke to the program's mission: "What we are aspiring to do is to make the T - which has spent millions of dollars to become more accessible - more available to people." Following Cochran, travel training participant Mallory Cyr addressed the group. The Youth Program Manager for the National Center on Healthcare Transition, Cyr moved to Boston less than a year ago from rural Maine and has been learning to navigate the urban transportation landscape. She attested to the value that being able to use the fixed route system - not just paratransit - has on her life: "It's being able to go to a movie at the last moment, not needing to book things two days in advance, not being the person who has to turn down opportunities because you don't have transportation."

To learn more about Ways2Go, contact (857) 756-5893. To find travel training programs in other regions, please check out the interactive map of travel instruction programs and our list of travel instruction programs around Massachusetts.

The Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services' (EOHHS) Human Service Transportation (HST) Office has posted an employment opportunity for a Deputy Operations Manager. The HST Office facilitates over six million trips annually for more than 36,000 consumers in six human service agencies through a network of brokers who subcontract with hundreds of transportation providers. The Deputy Operations Manager is responsible for managing the day-to-day oversight of this complex system. Tasks include managing the broker contracts; facilitating operational problem solving and decision-making; evaluating and improving communication processes; and monitoring the progress, quality, and risk of all aspects of the HST brokered services. This position is crucial to ensuring that consumers have reliable, high quality transportation to access the full spectrum of EOHHS services. More details are included in the posting. Applications are due July 24.

To search for other jobs with EOHHS and other state agencies, visit the Commonwealth Employment Opportunities website.

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Check out our calendar of mobility management events and funding opportunities for Massachusetts.

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