The National Center for Mobility Management’s (NCMM) vision is for all community members to have access to a seamless network of transportation services that support them in integrating into their community and pursuing their goals. To achieve this vision, NCMM facilitates mobility management practitioners and their community partners in adopting a customer-centered approach in the design and coordination of transportation services.
Mobility management practitioners are active in many community sectors, whether they serve job seekers, students, veterans, people with disabilities, patients with chronic conditions, rural residents, older adults, or individuals with limited income. Their job titles could be case manager, care coordinator, patient advocate, life coach, and so forth. Indeed, anyone who assists individuals in solving transportation difficulties and/or contributes to the development of improved transportation services in their community’s region can be considered a practitioner of mobility management. Often, these practitioners work in isolation from each other, even though there may be some overlap in the populations they serve.
In February 2020, NCMM will facilitate Issue-Focused Mobility Meetings in three communities that will give mobility management practitioners within a “mobility region” the opportunity to meet, network, and together begin to develop potential solutions to the identified issue. NCMM will work closely with the three selected regions to co-design these one-day meetings to ensure they effectively addresses the goals the community sets for the meeting.
The chosen communities and stated goals are:
- Topeka, Kansas – Establish accessible, affordable, and timely transportation for patients of all ages, abilities, and incomes to improve overall health the Topeka/Shawnee County region
- Quaboag Region, Massachusetts – Plan and develop a sustainable, scalable model for rural transportation to improve health outcomes for high priority populations
- Durham, North Carolina – Address the tools and techniques needed to proactively and collaboratively manage curb space and improve multimodal mobility
Below is more information on the meetings, and how we selected the chosen communities.
All submitted questions and their answers were posted on our FAQs page.
Purpose
The Issue-Focused Mobility Meetings will be designed to offer networking, training, and information sharing opportunities to develop and deepen mobility management practices in your mobility region. The meetings aim to support and strengthen mobility through the following:
- Enable learning, discussion, and problem solving regarding a specific "regional" mobility issue with involved stakeholders
- Strengthen connections between mobility management practitioners and their partners from other sectors (e.g., veterans care, health care, employment access, transportation, aging services, human service agencies) who are trying to address transportation issues
- Enable the adoption of transportation coordination and mobility management in federal, state, and local transportation programs that are responsive to the mobility needs of older adults, people with disabilities, low-income individuals and families, and other community members
Eligibility and Timeline
A “mobility region” can encompass a single or partial municipality, a single or partial county, or a multi-county region (but not an entire state). The main criteria for defining a mobility region is that it reflects travel patterns and needs of the region. For example, in rural areas, residents may routinely travel across counties for jobs and services, whereas in small urban areas residents may mostly travel within the city boundaries. NCMM will look to the applying community to define its mobility region.
The lead agency(ies) for this opportunity will be one or more nonprofit or publicly funded agencies, who will serve as the local partners with NCMM in designing this meeting. In total, NCMM will choose three mobility regions for this opportunity for three separate meetings, one for each region. The meetings must take place in February 2020.
Logistical Arrangements and Expenses
Once chosen, NCMM will work with the local partners in the three regions to solicit participation from relevant community members and to design meeting activities. NCMM will also assist communities with administrative details (meeting logistics, travel arrangements, and funding for approved travel).
For the three chosen regions, NCMM will provide stipends of up to $500 per person for up to 20 attendees each. These stipends will cover travel costs and lodging; NCMM will cover costs for group meals and general meeting costs (e.g., room rental, meeting materials). Additional attendees may join at their own cost.
Community Selection
NCMM will review the submitted Letters of Interest and schedule follow-up phone calls with up to five communities to further discuss their vision for the Issue-Focused Mobility Meeting, as well as potential dates and venues. Shortly thereafter, NCMM will make its final selections and move forward to co-design the meeting with local partners.
Criteria for selection include the following:
- Vision of issue and outcomes of the meeting as reflected in the following:
- Definition of issue to be addressed
- Clearly stated goal and outcomes for the meeting
- Clear description of the opportunity that will be created or the local problem that will be addressed in the region
- Strong indications that a good cross-section of mobility management practitioners will attend the meeting, as evidenced by the following:
- Identification of the types of agencies that should be represented at the meeting in the context of the local opportunity or problem identified
- A clearly defined outreach strategy to engage mobility management practitioners from other sectors
- Description of results of preliminary outreach to mobility management practitioners from other sectors to gauge interest in the meeting
- Choice of a co-lead for the project from a different sector
- Descriptions of any relevant past or current cross-sector partnerships or relationships that would help promote the event
The timing of activities is as follows:
- Mid-December: Issue-Focused Mobility Meeting opportunity is announced.
- January 9: Deadline for potential communities to submit a Letter of Interest
- January 11-15: NCMM will hold follow-up calls with communities who have submitted a Letter of Interest
- January 16: Selected communities announced
- February: NCMM hosts three Issue-Focused Mobility Meetings
Questions?
Please direct all questions regarding the Issue-Focused Mobility Meeting opportunity to king@ctaa.org. All submitted questions and their answers will be posted on our FAQs page.
For a PDF version of this announcement, click here.