October 17, 2008
Metro Wins National Award for Foundation
Everybody Rides Metro celebrates 100,000 rides
Above: ERM Partners share in the APTA Innovation award.
CINCINNATI -- Metro is being recognized by the American Public Transit Association (APTA) with the national 2008 Innovation Award. It recognizes the success of Everybody Rides Metro (ERM) -- the first foundation of its kind in the country. Metro announced winning the highly competitive national award at a recognition lunch to honor the social service agencies who partner with ERM to assist low income Metro riders.
APTA is an association of all major USA transit providers that collectively provided a record 10.3 billion public transit rides in 2007. It selected Everybody Rides Metro as the best transit innovation in the past year.
"This foundation started in 2006 and grew from providing 2,000 rides per month in 2007 to 22,000 currently," said Ted Bergh, Executive Director of Everybody Rides Metro. "This is 1% of all Metro rides, and our goal is 3% of all rides in 2009."
Everybody Rides Metro was born to fill a critical need. 33% of Metro riders are below the federal poverty line and 58% don't own cars. 18% have lost jobs and 36% turn down jobs due to not being able to get a ride to work.
Charitable agencies were purchasing 600,000 rides a year with their own funds. We asked those agencies to help develop a foundation for low income riders. The result is the unique and highly successful collaboration.
Right: Ted Bergh, Melody Sawyer Richardson, Lamont Taylor and Marilyn Shazor with the APTA innovation award.
Metro operates transit. It did not want to duplicate the role of agencies. The plan is simple: Everybody Rides Metro raises funds; agencies determine need; and Metro provides rides.
ERM partners with local non-profit agencies who were already helping low-income individuals live more sustainable lives. This collaborative partnership has been successful at raising $1.25 million from governments, charitable foundations and individual contributions. The model's success depends this partnership by:
- Ensuring the most needy receive tokens for Metro rides
- Minimizing administrative costs so that donations go directly to rides
- Eliminating duplication
- Reaching diverse populations of those in need
"We are very proud to of the APTA Innovation Award and of the 100,000 rides ERM has provided. We will continue to look for new and creative ways to serve our community and become a world-class organization," said Marilyn Shazor, Metro CEO.
ERM started with 18 agencies and has grown to over 50 agencies representing a diverse community of needs. ERM hosted a lunch celebration Friday, October 17 for its funders and partner agencies to thank them for working with ERM to provide over 111,000 rides to over 4,000 individuals. There were 64,000 rides to get to jobs or job training; 24,000 rides to health care; 11,000 rides to school or college and 12,000 rides for essential services.
Left: Jim Andrews, Bart Kohler, and Bob Littman with their awards.
Freestore Foodbank, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, and Talbert House were specifically recognized for together distributing 57,000 or 51% of all tokens. The lunch was held at the Bank Street offices of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.
"Rising fuel costs are pushing transportation beyond the reach of the poorest members of our community, blocking access to jobs, education, health care and other services that are generally taken for granted," said Ted Bergh, "We needed a way to sustain the most vulnerable members of our community."
