Live Well at Home Grant Story - A "Hop Scott” and a Jump

SHAKOPEE, MINN.??When given the chance to apply for a Live Well at Home (LWAH) grant Alan Herrmann from Scott County jumped at the opportunity to help transportation disadvantaged older adults in the rural parts of Scott County.?Mr. Herrmann is a mobility manager for Smartlink; a?transportation coalition that operates in Scott and Carver counties. Smartlink coordinates dial-a-rides, a volunteer driver program, non-emergency medical transportation and shared vehicle programs.?

To inform the LWAH?project, through a community survey, Mr. Herrmann, his colleagues and county staff identified gaps in their transportation services in Scott County. What they learned was older people in rural areas like Belle Plaine, New Prague, and Elko/New Market faced transportation challenges.?Smartlink was also keenly aware that scheduling volunteer drivers between distant towns in Scott County created big commitments for the volunteer drivers along with expensive fuel costs. And to compound the barriers faced by Smartlink, COVID-19 put a substantial dent in the number of volunteer drivers.

So how does an organization combat rural transportation challenges??

Through a?LWAH grant, Smartlink purchased three accessible vans parked in three rural communities: Belle Plaine, Elko/New Market and Jordan.?With the localized vehicle a trained volunteer driver can pick-up the parked van to give older people rides to the store, non-emergency medical appointments?or even a veterinary?appointment.?The benefit of a local van for a?transportation program is the ability to?nimbly meet the needs of a community. Moreover, like most LWAH?projects during the height of COVID-19, adjustments were needed. As such Smartlink partnered with food-shelves in Jordan and Belle Plaine to deliver food to older residents in rural communities. In fact, the food delivery service is still provided.

Despite fuel costs, and challenges buying a van the project was a success. So successful, Mr. Hermann and staff are asked to present their mobility management coordination to similar organizations around Minnesota.?There are even discussions to duplicate a community circulator framework in Carver County.