Transportation is rated "extremely important" to many of the charities TFT serves.
 
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News, Status and Articles
In this Tasks for Transit Newsletter for August 2017 we feature our latest news, publish some basic statistics and share some  examples of recipients’  bus pass usage as reported by our [do not use this hyphen]] partner charities.  We will use the abbreviation TFT for Tasks for Transit throughout this newsletter.

Brian Manning, Co-editor

Steve McClure, Co-editor
News
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Tasks for Transit is in a growth spurt! In 2017, we plan to more than double the number of bus day passes we distributed in 2017.

  • We are now serving 17 partner charities, on track to increase the number of partner charities to 21 by year's end,  adding at least one new partner charity every month. 
  •  In July we added both Visitation House and Planned Parenthood.
  • In August we added the Multicultural Wellness Center Inc. as a partner charity.
  • The WRTA recently raised prices for bus day passes [put numbers here]. They also discontinued the generous discount  previously given to Tasks for Transit. . We will have to double our budget going forward because the price increase from our perspective is 143%.
Status

From March 2015 to August 2017 
Number of charities supported = 17
WRTA day passes dispensed = 1740
TFT Partner Charities
What is a Partner Charity?

TFT's Partner Charities distribute the WRTA individual bus day passes. Since TFT is trying to assist the economically disadvantaged, TFT chooses partners that service this type of client on a daily basis. Partner Charities have the  understanding and experience necessary to recognize a person and his or her situation that justifies dispensing a free individual day pass. These Partners Charities are typically 501(c)(3) organizations,  not able to provide transportation to their clients.. TFT enables them to do that.

The seventeen organizations  currently TFT Partners Charities are:

  • ·        South Worcester Neighborhood Center
  • ·        Standup for Kids (homeless youth)
  • ·        Safe Homes (LGBT youth)
  • ·        Parent/Professional Advocacy League (youth mental health)
  • ·        Straight Ahead Ministries (Felons coming out of prisons)
  • ·        Clemente Courses in the Humanities
  • ·        Interfaith Hospitality Network of Greater Worcester (families in crisis)
  • ·        Hope Coalition (troubled youth)
  • ·        Woodland Academy (homeless families)
  • ·        YWCA Domestic Violence Services (abused families in crisis)
  • ·        Worcester Homeless Shelter at SMOC (the primary shelter for homeless adults)
  • ·        Eliot Community Human Services (mental health services)
  • ·        Friendly House (neighborhood center, homeless shelters)
  • ·        Veterans Inc. (homeless shelters for veterans and associated services)
  • ·        Visitation House (adult homeless pregnant women)
  • ·        Planned Parenthood
  • ·        Multicultural Wellness Center



   What we are doing is fundamental. We hope you feel the same way. 

If your organization would like to become one of TFT's partner charities, please take our on-line survey.


Featured Article
Limited Insight into Bus Pass Usage
This month we  present examples of our Partner Charities’ comments about the use of the free day passes we provide each month. By its nature, bus pass usage tends to meet  fundamental needs. e.g., a trip to a job interview or medical appointment. For most of us transportation is available, a regular expense for an owned vehicle, which we are usually able to  take for granted. For  these individuals, getting somewhere has important consequences.  These - reports are presented as we received them.
  • Participant was living in shelter and had no income or access to money; her  only means of transportation was walking. The Participant had several doctors' appointments that were quite far for her to walk. She used the bus passes to get back and forth from her medical appointments. The participant also is in recovery and benefits greatly from attending AA meetings. The bus passes allowed her to attend the meetings safely and not have to worry about getting to and from meetings in inclement weather. Source: YWCA
  • The bus passes also assisted a participant who had very limited income and no access to transportation. She had several appointments with housing agencies and had to go back and forth between  several government offices to obtain documents. The bus passes allowed the participant to do this stress -free so she could focus on her goals instead of trying to find transportation. Source: WYCA
  •  A 17 year old Ethiopian refugee was employed at Walmart full time. Her hours were reduced and she started working part time.  After paying her program fees she was low on cash and decided to skip an important medical appointment. The bus pass allowed her to go to work and also to go to her medical appointment which was required for her citizen application. Source: WYCA
  • Mark, age 19, would have been unable to attend behavioral health appointments without the use of  day passes for transportation. Source: Project Hope
  • One of our GED/HISET students is very high risk, in both her pregnancy and personal background. She is 20 years old and a year ago lost a daughter due to a homicide. She is currently expecting another child. She is struggling with significant depression; we were able to assist her to get to her therapy by using the day passes. This has been extremely important in her treatment.  Source: YWCA
  • ·One of our GED/HISET graduates has started working and is in the process of applying to a local community college. The day pass allowed for this 21- year- old mother to get her financial aid paperwork completed, as well as to bring the necessary paperwork to her new employer. Source: YWCA
  • The day passes enabled one of our clients to do an employment search and get to job interviews. He got the job and will start work on July 5th. Source: SMOC
  • One of our clients who does not have any income at the moment was able to attend a psychology appointment he would have missed otherwise.  Source: SMOC
  • We serve young people, mostly male, ages 17 to 24. One of our young people relies heavily on these bus passes to be able to secure reliable transportation to attend work on a regular basis. Source: Project Hope
  • We had one young mother living in a housing shelter with her children. Her wallet,  stolen by her roommate,   held her newly purchased bus pass and the last of her cash benefits for the month. She was extremely distressed. These bus passes allowed her to get to school, to a medical appointment for her children and to a housing meeting regarding this theft. She was extremely appreciative of the assistance, as these meetings were critical for herself and her children. Source: YWCA
  • ·A 16- year- old male, a participant in  one of Friendly House's programs, needed transportation to complete employment paperwork. The bus pass allowed him to do that and return home without walking a long distance. Source: Friendly House
  • One of our young people attends the Gateway to Success Program and uses their transportation passes to attend regularly. Source: Project Hope
  • One of our client's aunt passed away. The funeral was in a surrounding town. Without the day pass he would have been unable to attend.  Source: Eliot Human Services
  • ·A man we met from Webster was homeless here after being stranded in Worcester.  We found him under a bridge, sleeping. We gave him a bus pass and he went home to his family in Webster. Source: Eliot Human Services
  • ·An unsheltered homeless person staying in the Lincoln Street area was able to get to the Dept. of Transitional Assistance to apply for SNAP benefits. Source: Eliot Human Services
Multiple -Charity Yard Sale Planned for September 9th
Tasks for Transit will host a flea-market style yard sale at 379 Greenwood Street in Millbury on Saturday, September 9 th . TFT has invited all of its partner charities and a few other charities to participate. There is ample parking available at this site, which physically abuts Exit 10A of the Mass Pike. All of the vendors will be raising money for the economically disadvantaged. There will be “bargains galore!” as we try to sell out before the day is over. The sale will run from 9AM to 4PM. If the weather is "iffy," check  worcester.craigslist.org  to see if we have postponed it to the following Saturday. 
Financial Support
Tasks for Transit must raise considerably more funds to stay on our plan for 2017 and to continue to expand our operations in 2018. We will have more specific numbers to clarify what is necessary in next month’s newsletter. In addition to encouraging  personal and corporate donations, we plan to put much more emphasis on applications for competitive grants. We have compiled a list of 48 potential organizations making such grants, that have expressed an interest in human services for the economically disadvantaged..

More information about Tasks for Transit may be found at our  website.
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Please support our donor organizations. They are listed in the sponsors page on our website.
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Donations
Walking in snow mother and child
We Need Your Support!
We see Tasks for Transit as a fundamental charity trying to meet one essential need of the economically disadvantaged:  safe and dependable transportation for persons who would otherwise have to walk. While walking is an alternative, it is a burden for the handicapped, a daunting  alternative for everyone in foul weather and an unsafe alternative at night. 
 
We are hoping you will support our efforts with a generous donation. One way to do that is to go to our Crowd Funding page on youcaring.com.

 
We continue to be an all- volunteer organization with no employee costs and no office costs. You can be confident  that almost all of your donations will go directly to purchase day passes.


Sincerely,
Brian Manning and Steve McClure
Tasks for Transit
379 Greenwood Street, Suite 4
Millbury, MA 01527
617-851-0313
  We also have a Post Office Box
Tasks for Transit
PO Box 70544
Worcester, MA 01607

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Contact | Tasks for Transit | 617-851-0313 | | contact @tasksfortransit org |www.tasksfortransit.org