Community Tools to Improve Transportation Options for Veterans, Military Service Members, and Their Families (2014)

Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

Page 3-1 Community Tools to Improve Transportation Options for Veterans, Military Service Members, and Their Families This chapter addresses the critical role that leadership plays for coordinating and improving community transportation for veterans, military service members, and their families. Step 1: Recognize a Leader Like almost every other community effort, strong local leadership is essential for successful implementation of improved and coordinated community transportation. In fact, the initiation of transportation coordination typically begins because an individual or a small group of individuals determines that community transportation should and can be better. The leader understands that the process of improving services is best started by building on what already exists. Many communities have multiple transportation programs serving speciic client groups, in addition to general public transit service. Such program-speciic services are usually provided by human service agencies, volunteer groups, the local hospital, or the VA Medical Center. Often, these programs and services are not connected; their managers may not understand that developing connections might help them serve more people, ind new funding, or share in new technology. This is what transportation coordination is all about. If you have experience with transportation coordination, you may have found that efforts to include services and organizations that work with veterans and the military were not always successful. There are probably many reasons for that. But what is important now is that communities are recognizing that veterans, military service members, and their families may have transportation needs and these should be a concern of the community. The good news is that there is much that can be done to help meet those needs, using the tools available through transportation coordination and mobility management. But irst, the community needs a leader to take charge. Leadership: “Who’s in Charge?” Chapter 3

Page 3-2 Community Tools to Improve Transportation Options for Veterans, Military Service Members, and Their Families Chapter 3 Leadership: “Who’s in Charge?” Who can be a leader? If you are reading this, you may be the leader. Or there are various others who may be the leader, including, for example, an advocacy group in the community. But if the recognized leader is more than one individual, experience with transportation coordination shows that typically, at the start, one person is the “mover and shaker.” Examples of possible leaders include: • The public transit agency director • The director of a local human service agency • An advocacy group member • The city mayor’s ofƒice • A planner from the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) • An individual from the Chamber of Commerce Leadership may be found in the transportation, business, social services, or political arenas and will vary from community to community. The United Way may play an important role in one community, while the Mayor’s Ofƒice, the Council of Government, or Center for Independent Living may play key roles in other communities. Step 2: What Does Leadership Involve? Effective leadership includes: An understanding and commitment to the objective—improving transportation for veterans, military service members and their families. Standing in the community—someone who is respected, whom others will listen to. Clear and persistent guidance to maintain focus on the objective. Skill in dealing with organizational issues that will likely surface when working with different agencies and organizations that have different missions and interests, which may not include transportation as a primary service. Making a persuasive case for the endeavor. Understanding the issues from the perspective of other organizations involved. o Other organizations may not realize the importance of transportation. Keeping “it”—the process—moving. A “can-do” attitude. Coordination efforts may be more successful when an entity other than the public transit agency is the lead. With the transit agency as an equal partner, rather than the lead, experience shows that the coordination endeavor may “more easily broaden” its support within the community and with decision makers. TCRP Report 105: Strategies to Increase Coordination of Transportation Services for Transportation Disadvantaged.

Page 3-3 Community Tools to Improve Transportation Options for Veterans, Military Service Members, and Their Families Chapter 3 Leadership: “Who’s in Charge?” What happens when the leader moves on? Sometimes it happens that the person or agency that starts leading the coordination process—by applying and winning a grant to pursue coordination, by designation from a higher level of government, or by virtue of his or her position at an agency—does not continue as the leader. What next? Here are some suggestions: Look for an agency that has a logical role in improving transportation for the target groups, emphasize to that agency and senior staff that their organization’s mission overlaps with what you are trying to do; perhaps they will volunteer an individual at the agency who is willing and able to be the leader. Look to the local political leaders and seek their assistance in €inding a leader or a lead agency. Create a “coordinating council” with rotating annual leadership. Create a steering or executive committee to share and divide up the leadership responsibilities. Consider whether a paid executive director might be an option on a full- or part-time basis. Step 3: Find Core Partners at the Outset New initiatives and endeavors may be strengthened with a dedicated core of individuals willing to work at the initiative and its objectives at the leadership level. This means that the leader—whether it’s one individual or a small group—may be more effective if joined by a small number of like-minded individuals. These individuals do not need to come from the same organization; in fact, it may be better if they come from different though aligned organizations. This helps establish a wider reach across the community and will help build support for the transportation improvement efforts. Examples of possible core partners at the outset: • The 2-1-1 provider (2-1-1 is the phone number reserved to provide information on human services available in the community) • The public transit agency • A local elected leader • The county veterans affairs department In western Iowa and eastern Nebraska, a €ive-county MPO is the lead agency for improving transportation for veterans, service members and families, using a Federal grant through the VTCLI program. The MPO’s early efforts were led by the agency’s Mobility Manager, whose outreach to €ind core partners was facilitated by the fact that he was an Army veteran.

Page 3-4 Community Tools to Improve Transportation Options for Veterans, Military Service Members, and Their Families Chapter 3 Leadership: “Who’s in Charge?” Step 4: Identify Other Transportation Planning Efforts That May Be Related and Consider Linkage The process of improving transportation through coordination may gain traction if you can link it to other transportation planning processes in your community. This is something the leader or core leadership group should consider early in the process. Some possibilities to investigate: The Coordinated Public Transit-Human Services Transportation Plan: This plan and its process are important! The plan is required before a community can receive certain funds from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). Speci�ically, the FTA requires that each state, or entity it so designates (e.g., MPOs, counties, etc.), develop a plan to improve transportation for specialized groups (seniors, people with disabilities, those with lower incomes) through a coordinated process. A coordinated process means the plan must include input and participation from different perspectives in the community—public, private, and non-pro�it transportation and human service providers, members of the public, and transportation services funded by other Federal departments. This includes services for veterans and those funded by the VA! This plan can play a signi�icant role in your efforts to improve transportation for veterans, service members and their families, and you will hear more about this plan in later chapters of this report. Formal transportation plans developed in urban and rural areas: Urban areas (those with 50,000 population or greater) must have a Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) that is responsible for preparing speci�ic transportation plans required for Federal funding. The MPO may be called something else—the Council of Governments or Regional Planning Agency—but importantly, one of its functions is to involve the public. It might be worth investigating whether your MPO is involved with any planning that overlaps with your efforts to improve transportation for veterans and the military community. MPOs can be found through this website: http://www.planning.dot.gov/mpo.asp Unlike urban areas with a Federal requirement for an MPO, rural areas (those areas under 50,000 population) have no similar requirement. Rural transportation planning is undertaken by a variety of organizations, such as regional planning organizations (RPOs), county entities, and sometimes through state departments of transportation. States have different structures for rural planning, for example: Virginia has Planning District Commissions (PDCs); Colorado has established Transportation Planning Regions (TPRs); and, in Ohio, rural transportation planning is conducted by the state DOT district of�ices.

Page 3-5 Community Tools to Improve Transportation Options for Veterans, Military Service Members, and Their Families Chapter 3 Leadership: “Who’s in Charge?” These planning organizations also have public involvement requirements, and it may be useful to see if any rural planning efforts relate to your coordination initiative. If you are located in a rural area, one way to �ind out about your rural transportation planning entity is to contact your state’s department of transportation. Step 5: Identify Your “Community” for Purposes of Improving Community Transportation Your local city and county have of�icial jurisdictional boundaries, but, for the purposes of transportation, your “community” may extend beyond these. For example, the veterans who live in your city or town and use VA healthcare services will have transportation needs that extend to the VA Medical Center or other VA facility where they receive healthcare. This facility may be in the next town or it may be many miles away; because it’s a location where veterans need access, that VA facility falls within your “community” for purposes of improving transportation. And, if there is a military installation near you, there may be military families living in your community that have transportation needs to the base. Thus, “community” for purposes of improving transportation extends to include those destinations to which veterans, service members and their families need access. At this initial stage—with formation of the leadership the focus of your efforts—you will likely have some sense of how to de�ine community for purposes of improving transportation. But the extent of this should become clearer with outreach, described in Chapter 4, and with planning efforts, discussed in Chapter 5. Step 6: Sustain Leadership and Momentum Sustaining leadership as well as participants will help strengthen your efforts and will add stability and continuity. Experience with community groups suggests the following can help in this regard: Be sure your mission and objectives are clear and articulated to all participants. As participants will likely change over time, reiterate and re�ine the mission and objectives regularly to maintain focus. Create an agenda for every meeting and distribute to participants before the meeting.

Page 3-6 Community Tools to Improve Transportation Options for Veterans, Military Service Members, and Their Families Chapter 3 Leadership: “Who’s in Charge?” This helps participants stay on track and communicates your purpose and intent. Document your work and efforts that are being made. This provides a framework for assessing progress, evaluating decisions, and providing recognition for accomplishments. Share that documentaon with participants, so that they know of and can appreciate the accomplishments, even if they seem small at
irst. This can be done through periodic reports, newsletters, email “blasts,” or a website. Recognize and acknowledge contribuons of the leader and participants as well as signi
icant progress or milestones. Such recognition of participant efforts may help motivate continued, and even increased, efforts. Encourage connectedness among the participants, who share a commitment to the mission. This can be is a key to sustaining the leader. Leaders who develop relationships with like-minded people working towards the mission are more likely to sustain their role. Maintain flexibility. Things may not always go as planned or hoped, so sometimes an adjustment or mid-course correction might be needed. Consider a formal framework. Explore whether establishing a legal or institutional framework for the endeavor might be useful. Experience with transportation coordination has shown that having such a framework can contribute to the sustainability of the effort. This might be accomplished through creation of an of
ice, a county or city ordinance, or a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between lead agencies that speci
ically focuses on or addresses the improvement of community transportation for veterans, service members and families. As your efforts develop, you may wish to broaden the group of participants involved—both individuals and organizations. This may happen naturally as an understanding grows of the group’s objectives and its accomplishments develop. You may also want to be on the “look out” for new partners whose responsibility areas overlap with the transportation needs and resources your leadership group considers. Step 7: Strengthen Leadership with Training, Webinars, and Peer-to-Peer Resources As the leader and members of the core partnership team move forward with the coordination endeavor, they may bene
it from the many training and educational resources available through the transportation industry. Coordination and mobility management are often topics of learning events sponsored by various organizations. Funding for such training events may be found through scholarship opportunities and special funding programs, for example, through your state’s department of transportation or Rural Transit

Page 3-7 Community Tools to Improve Transportation Options for Veterans, Military Service Members, and Their Families Chapter 3 Leadership: “Who’s in Charge?” Assistance Program (RTAP). Also, discussions with leaders in other communities that are actively improving transportation for veterans, service members, and families may be very helpful for your community. Training, webinars, and conferences are provided by various entities. To �ind what’s available, it’s best to check their websites. Community Transportation Association of America (CTAA) www.ctaa.org/ CTAA is dedicated to ensuring effective public and community transportation alternatives, with a broad range of resources, programs, publications, and training opportunities including resources dedicated to veterans’ transportation. Easter Seals Project ACTION www.projectaction.org/ The mission of Easter Seals Project ACTION is the promotion of universal access to transportation for people with disabilities. The organization provides support and assistance through training, technical assistance (including a toll-free hotline), applied research, outreach, and communication. A recent initiative has focused on veterans’ transportation. American Public Transportation Association (APTA) www.apta.com/ APTA’s goal is to strengthen and improve public transportation, and the organization provides training and information sharing, as well as advocacy for the public transit industry. A new APTA task force is working to create stronger ties between APTA’s transit agency members and the military and veterans’ communities. The task force plans to provide a marketing toolkit to support ongoing and new programs of transit agencies that serve veterans and military families. This toolkit is envisioned as an online resource library that will house and share best practices and successful programs used by transit agencies that serve veterans and the military community. National Transit Institute (NTI) www.ntionline.com/ NTI, housed at Rutgers State University in New Jersey, provides training and education programs as well as clearinghouse services for the public transit industry. National Rural Transit Assistance Program (RTAP) http://www.nationalrtap.org/ The RTAP was created in 1987 and is funded through the Federal Section 5311, Formula Grants for Non-Urbanized Areas, to provide support and training for transit systems in communities with populations under 50,000. With a goal of improving mobility for those living in rural communities, the National RTAP develops and distributes training materials, offers technical assistance, publishes best practices, conducts research, and provides peer assistance. State RTAPs can be found on the National RTAP website http://www.nationalrtap.org/State.aspx

Page 3-8 Community Tools to Improve Transportation Options for Veterans, Military Service Members, and Their Families Chapter 3 Leadership: “Who’s in Charge?” Peer-to-peer information is available through formal channels such as the National RTAP peer network, available at: http://www.nationalrtap.org/PeerNetwork.aspx This RTAP network provides a forum for those seeking information on a variety of topics to link to others with knowledge and experience on the speci�ic topic. Peer-to-peer information may also be provided through informal and sidebar discussions with others at conferences and state or regional RTAP sessions. That is why it’s good if the leader or leaders of your community’s coordination effort can attend industry conferences and training events, at least on occasion. Step 8: Recognize the Many Ongoing Efforts to Assist Veterans and the Military—Avoid Adding to the Confusion Research conducted for this project found that there are many programs and services designed to support service members and families, with new ones continuing to emerge, both within the military community and in the community outside. There are also various initiatives emerging to support veterans, and this will continue with the drawdown of the war in Afghanistan and as the Department of Defense reduces its ranks of active military, who will then transition to veteran status. Given these myriad efforts, there is a real challenge of communication—getting information out to the intended target groups about the assistance and support that is available. What does this mean for improving transportation for veterans, service members and their families? It means that your efforts are among many others intended to help the target groups. But that should not diminish your mission. Improving community transportation is probably not a focus of other efforts. So staying clear about your mission—to improve community transportation—is important. It also means improvement efforts should consider centralizing information about community transportation. Given the “challenge of communication” about the many supporting programs and initiatives being started for the target groups, a critical �irst step may be to collect and centralize information about the various community transportation options in one place. This would help veterans, service members and families more easily access available community transportation services and expand their mobility options. The multitude of programs and services may be “an over-abundance” of help, with “more than 40,000 non-pro�its focused on �illing various needs of active-duty troops, veterans and their families……. a mish-mash of helping hands.” NBC News article, November 2012.

Page 3-9 Community Tools to Improve Transportation Options for Veterans, Military Service Members, and Their Families Chapter 3 Leadership: “Who’s in Charge?” Chapter 3: Addional Resources Framework for Action: Building the Fully Coordinated Transportation System, Facilitator’s Guide, U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Transit Administration, Washington, D.C., 2003, http://www.unitedweride.gov/1_81_ENG_HTML.htm. Long Term Volunteer Leaders in Sustained Positions of Continuous Leaders: A Grounded Theory Study, M. Nihart, a dissertation, University of Phoenix, December 2012. Sustaining Members, Volunteers and Leaders in Community Organizations, K. Culp, Cooperative Extension Service, University of Kentucky, http://www.ca.uky.edu/agc/pubs/CLD2/CLD29/CLD29.pdf#page=1&zoom=auto,0,683 TCRP Report 101: Toolkit for Rural Community Coordinated Transportation Services, by J. Burkhardt, C. Nelson, G. Murray and D. Koffman, Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, Washington, D.C. 2004. TCRP Report 105: Strategies to Increase Coordination of Transportation Services for the Transportation Disadvantaged, by Transystems Corp, Center for Urban Transportation Research, Institute for Transportation Research and Education, and Planners Collaborative, Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, Washington, D.C. 2004. Village Blueprint: Building a Community for All Ages, authored by Leslie Marks in collaboration with the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Center, Montgomery County, MD, revised 9/24/2010.