Giving Compass' Take:

· To help those without transportation for crucial events like doctor appointments, Fast Company reports that Lyft is teaming up with United Way to help those in need get where they need to be. 

· How will this initiative help people trying to get back into the workforce? What effect will it have on homelessness and poverty? What new opportunities does it provide? 

· Read and learn more about the systemic barriers making it more difficult to exit poverty.

It’s been a tough couple of years for George Zavela. The 77-year-old Houston resident and Vietnam veteran was laid off twice, and has had to depend on Social Security. On top of that, he had back surgery earlier this year. Now on the mend, his doctor wants him in regular physical therapy, but Zavela doesn’t have a car and even if he did, he couldn’t drive himself. He’s in no condition to get to public transportation, either.

“So I did some looking on the internet for senior citizen transportation help,” Zavela says. That led him to the United Way, a large nonprofit network with local offices that help connect people with resources like health services and education. When he called the 211 hotline, the representative, Tonya, told him that through a new partnership with Lyft, they’d be able to send him a car to drive him to and from his PT appointments, free of charge. So far, Zavela’s used Lyft through the United Way around five times, and he says its been very helpful for his recovery.

When Veronica Juarez, Lyft’s VP for social enterprise, and Larissa Rydin, the United Way’s VP of strategic partnerships and innovation, first met in 2017, this was the type of outcome they envisioned if they collaborated. “Lyft has this superpower of transportation, and we, through our 211 hotline, have the superpower of being able to identify people in need of transportation,” Rydin says. This past June, Lyft and Untied Way launched the pilot program that people like Zavela have used in 12 cities, including Houston, Cleveland, and Denver. So far, United Way has dispatched nearly 13,000 Lyft rides through the partnership, Juarez says.

Read the full article about transportation for people in need by Eillie Anzilotti at Fast Company.