Lack of transportation has a profound impact on an older adult’s well-being and can lead to social disconnection. The National Council on Aging (NCOA) and Lyft are partnering to pilot a senior center outreach and education program to test older adult willingness to learn ridesharing, and to determine the positive impact ridesharing can have on a person’s well-being.
NCOA and Lyft are looking for three senior centers to creatively implement a Lyft ridesharing pilot into a current transportation program. The site would work with NCOA and Lyft to engage, educate, and encourage center members and socially isolated community members to try out ridesharing options. The partners have identified 20 cities with strong Lyft teams and will choose three centers from these cities for the pilot.
Each selected site will:
– Be trained by Lyft staff on technical implementation of Lyft features.
– Host educational sessions on the use of Lyft Ridesharing.
– Engage 150 participants to participate.
– Market transportation option to site participants.
– Add innovative methods to successfully implement the transportation program in a senior center setting. For example, during educational sessions include social activities and discussions.
– Staff will collect stories and photos to illustrate the impact.
– Staff and participants will complete pre- and post-class evaluations to inform national outreach.
Each selected site will be within one of these 29 Cities/areas: Albany / Schenectady, NY; Bergen / Passaic, NJ; Boston; Buffalo / Niagara, NY; Detroit; Ft. Lauderdale, FL; Hartford, CT; Honolulu; Jersey City, NJ; Las Vegas; Los Angeles; Miami; Monmouth / Ocean, NJ; Nassau / Suffolk, NY; New Haven / Meriden, CT; New Orleans; Orlando, FL; Philadelphia; Pittsburgh, PA; Portland, OR; Providence, RI; Rochester, NY; Sacramento, CA; San Diego, CA; Sarasota, FL; Syracuse, NY; Tampa, FL; Tucson, AZ; West Palm, FL
Funding for Participating Centers
Selected sites will be awarded $10,000 for implementation of this program, which can be allocated to costs related to: personnel, programmatic, transportation, and/or consultants and meetings. A simple line item budget will be required during the RFP process.
Grant Timeline:
Request for Proposals Released: February 25, 2019
Informational Sessions Scheduled: March 1, 2019 at 2 p.m. ET/1 p.m. CT/noon MT/11 a.m. PT
Grant Submission Deadline: March 15, 2019, end of day
Applicants Notified: March 29, 2019
More information and application are available here.