Placing Control in Our Hands

RSA PROJECT REPORT

NATIONAL DEMONSTRATION OF A RURAL EMPLOYMENT TRANSPORTATION VOUCHER MODEL:

“PLACING CONTROL IN OUR HANDS”

As part of our transportation initiative APRIL has received a major grant to demonstrate the effectiveness of a voucher model to provide transportation for people with disabilities living in rural areas. The grant is funded by RSA (U. S. Department of Education) for $1,494,218 over a five-year period (2001-2006).

Linda Gonzales serves as Project Director, Dr. Tom Seekins (RTC: Rural) and Dr. Devva Kasnitz are Co-Principal Investigators and Dr. Dennis Stombaugh is our Project Manager. The following report highlights our progress at the end of our first year (September 30, 2002).

OVERVIEW AND PROJECT OBJECTIVES

The goal of our project is to demonstrate the effectiveness of a voucher model to provide employment related transportation for people with disabilities who live in rural areas. It is projected that each of the ten demonstration sites will provide up to 40,000 miles of transportation to approximately 50 individuals for vocational and related independent living trips.

Objectives for the initial period of this project included the following:

Select ten sites to provide diversity in geographical location, disability population served, availability of transportation resources and population density.
Develop operational strategies and resource materials and provide ongoing technical assistance to the sites.
Implement the voucher model at each of the ten sites and evaluate the effectiveness of the model.

TARGET POPULATION AND GEOGRAPHIC AREA SERVED

The target population is individuals with disabilities in rural areas throughout the United States. Four sites were pre-selected and a request for proposals was widely distributed to select an additional six sites. Fifty excellent proposals were received and the ten sites were selected to achieve as much diversity as possible. TABLE I lists the ten sites and highlights important characteristics for each site.

TABLE I. TEN DEMONSTRATION SITES AND THEIR CHARACTERISTICS.

SITE	CHARACTERISTICS
ILC Homer, Alaska	Low population density; experience with a transportation voucher program.
BAIN, Inc. Bainbridge, Georgia	No transportation experience; 10% of county population has a visual impairment; large black minority population.
DSNWK Hays, Kansas	Transportation provider is the lead organization; transportation experience; very large rural service area.
Southern Illinois CIL Carbondale, Illinois	Large rural service area; high unemployment; large black minority population.
South East CIL Fall River, Mass.	High population density, but many remote rural areas; partnership of three CIL’s
Southwestern CIL Marshall, Minnesota	Very large, very rural area; upper Midwest; no transportation available.
Salish and Kootenai Tribes Pablo, Montana	Section 121 VR program; high unemployment (49%); limited transportation experience.
Zuni Entrepreneurial Enterprises Zuni, New Mexico	Section 121 VR program; high unemployment (67%); transportation experience.
CIL of Central Pennsylvania Camp Hill, Pennsylvania	Rural area; several counties; transportation experience.
Active Re-Entry Price, Utah	Very rural area with population density of 5 people per square mile; no transportation experience.

PROGRAM OPERATION: ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

At each site, five major participants in the Traveler’s Cheque Program each play a major role. The five participants include the sponsoring organization, the community transportation coordinator (CTC), the bookkeeper, the transportation providers and the consumers. Each has significant roles and responsibilities as follows:

Sponsoring organization

Establishes eligibility criteria and mileage allocation policies.
Ensures that the organization has appropriate liability insurance.
Develops mechanisms to pay transportation providers in a timely manner.

Community Transportation Coordinator (site program manager)

Establishes a Transportation Interest Network, which includes local providers, service organizations, consumers, and other community leaders to provide coordination and advocacy.
Locates and negotiates rates and the acceptance of the vouchers with public and private transportation providers. Also assists consumers in locating volunteer drivers who are reimbursed at a rate of 34.5 cents per mile.
Locates and works with consumers to establish an Individual Transportation Plan, makes mileage allocations to each consumer and trains consumers to use the vouchers (traveler’s cheques) effectively.
Coordinates and communicates with all participants in the program and with the national site (APRIL).

Bookkeeper

Records all trips and associated data and makes payments to providers.
Invoices APRIL for reimbursements and transmits data forms for record keeping.

Providers

May be individual volunteers (paid at 34.5 cents per mile) or may be any public or private provider willing to accept the vouchers at the rate negotiated with the Community Transportation Coordinator.
Public and private providers should be able to document appropriate insurance coverage.
Accept vouchers, provide transportation and submit the vouchers to the site for payment.

Consumers

Work with the CTC to complete all forms and develop an Individual Transportation Plan.
Carefully select providers and consider safety and insurance coverage when using individual volunteers.
Pay providers with the Traveler’s Cheques and submit the duplicate vouchers to the bookkeeper.
Maintain an accurate mileage balance.

To implement the program effectively at all ten sites and to adequately document the program’s effectiveness we have developed the following tools, forms and reporting documents:

The initial training manual for the sites and CTC’s
The vouchers and cheque registers. These are very similar to a duplicate checkbook. The consumer fills in the date, mileage, and provider, circles the trip purpose and signs the cheque. The checkbook is also available in a large print version.
A three-day trip diary and a satisfaction questionnaire that are used to help assess the transportation needs of each consumer. The trip diary records both the trips actually taken and the trips desired by the consumer.
An enrollment form and a form used to develop the Individual Transportation Plan.
An Excel workbook for each site to maintain records and to collect and analyze data.

PROJECT OUTCOMES

As of September 30, 2002, each of the ten sites has been in operation between two and four months depending on individual site constraints and the methods chosen to implement the program. TABLE II provides average values for all ten sites and shows the range of data for a number of variables. The very large ranges in the performance criteria were due to the fact that some sites were one to two months ahead of the other sites in program implementation.

TABLE II. PERFORMANCE CRITERIA AT EACH SITE AS OF SEPTEMBER 30, 2002.

PERFORMANCE CRITERIA	SITE AVERAGE	RANGE
Number of consumers	17.3	2 – 50
Miles allocated to consumers	21,054	1,710 – 81,356
Miles provided	5,352	470 – 16,584
Trips provided	410	64 – 1,091
Payments to providers, $	1,971	162 – 6,199
Average cost per trip, $	4.81	1.13 – 8.87
Average cost per mile, $	0.37	0.23 – 0.72
Average miles per trip	13.1	3.1 – 25.7

The purpose of each trip was categorized by the consumer as WORK, MEDICAL, SOCIAL/RELIGIOUS, SCHOOL, or SHOPPING. TABLE III indicates that most of the trips were for transportation to work (73%). Trips for other purposes were all used, but at much lower percentages.

TABLE III. TRIP PURPOSES. 4097 TOTAL TRIPS WERE PROVIDED.

PURPOSE	PERCENTAGE
WORK	73
MEDICAL	6
SOCIAL/RELIGIOUS	9
SCHOOL	5
SHOPPING	8

An analysis of consumer demographic data did not quantify a “typical consumer”; rather it indicated a very large diversity in the population served. Of the 174 consumers enrolled in the Traveler’s Cheque Program on September 30, 2002, 54% were male, the average age was 48 and 40% reported multiple disability diagnoses. Sixty-seven percent were white, 12% were black and 18% were American Indian, Alaskan Native, or Native Hawaiian. At the time of enrollment 41% of the consumers were employed either full time (23%) or part time (17%). Twenty-three percent of the consumers reported that they were unemployed and 6% indicated that they were retired. Annual household income was reported to be below $10,000 by 64% of the consumers and only 11% reported that they had medical insurance from their employer. Fifty-six percent of the consumers were VR clients and another 31% were VR clients in the past. In 59% of the households no one owned a vehicle.

At the ten sites 31 consumers were able to obtain employment (20 full-time and 11 part-time) as a result of the Traveler’s Cheque Program. Anecdotally a similar number of consumers either improved their employment options or were able to maintain their current positions due to the Traveler’s Cheque Program. For example, two young women who required a lift-equipped van to transport them found jobs and are currently successfully employed and using the Traveler’s Cheque Program for transportation. Each plans to purchase her own lift-equipped vehicle in the near future. One of the young women is taking driver’s education classes in order to drive her own vehicle.

In another case, a 56 year-old male with a brain injury and severe diabetes was able to live independently in his home and pay for transportation to and from kidney dialysis, shop for his own groceries and go on an occasional fishing trip to the Ohio River with his fishing buddies. Without the Traveler’s Cheque Program, this gentleman would have had no alternative but to reside in a nursing home.

Three OVR/BVS consumers were referred to the project because they needed transportation to a job on Saturday. Previously, each consumer was receiving para-transit through a fixed route provider. However, the Saturday route was eliminated, and there were no affordable transportation options to their jobs on Saturday. The voucher program was able to serve these three individuals, and they were able to maintain their employment due to the availability of the voucher program.

Another person who is using the service is a woman in her sixties who had to give up going to church because there was no transportation available on weekends. This program has provided the option for her to become involved again in the life of her congregation, both through church services and additional ministries she participates in and she has expressed her extreme satisfaction for this development in her life.

PROJECT REPLICATION

One of the objectives of this project is to evaluate which policies and procedures are most appropriate for different local communities. A second objective is to develop materials that will enable diverse communities throughout the country to replicate the Traveler’s Cheque Program. We will be developing a “replication kit” which will include the following items:

Policy and program guidelines that are sensitive to local community values
Training manuals for

Sponsoring organizations
Community Transportation Coordinators
Bookkeepers
Providers
Consumers

Record keeping strategies and spreadsheets
Voucher printing guidelines and procedures

PRODUCTS OF THE PROJECT

The following products are currently available from APRIL in electronic formats:

Training manual
Brochures
Rider Forms

Trip diaries and satisfaction questionnaires
Enrollment forms and Individual Transportation Plan forms

Sample vouchers and check registers
Excel workbooks to record and manage consumer trip data

For additional information please contact the APRIL office.