The fundamental power of advocacy

MCIL wants to work with you to develop your self-advocacy

By Timothy Redd
Here at MCIL we fundamentally believe in the power of advocacy and teach that the most effective type of advocacy is self-advocacy.  

When it comes to being a person with a disability, accessibility matters. Last month you may have read my blog piece about accessing SNAP benefits for people with disabilities. As a panelist I raised concerns about the barriers that exists for people with disabilities.  By speaking up I garnered the attention of Lisa Cowell, TN State director of SNAP. She contacted Yolanda Shegog-Wright the County Director of Human Services here in Shelby County to make her aware of the issues I raised.

Yesterday I got an email from Ms. Shegog-Wright stating:

“We are lowering the counter top at the Customer Service Booth to make it wheelchair accessible. I am happy to report that we are tentatively scheduled to have that process complete by 10/25/17, Jackson Ave and the Third Street locations.” 

I am not much of a public speaker and this was actually my first time being a part of any panel discussion. The take away in all of this for me is that there truly is power in advocacy and change can start with one voice and one person. 

It also underscores the importance of advocating for our needs and speaking up when we see things that are not right. We have to celebrate victories in the name of disability rights and be emblazoned to fight for our seat at the table. I am in the process of setting up a meeting with Ms. Shegog-Wright to discuss additional concerns.

If you are interested in advocating or becoming and advocate I would suggest the following tips:

1. Be informed on the issues, and keep all documentation
2. Speak Up when you have the chance
3. Know who your targets are, these are the people who can give you want you want. They have the authority to say yes.
4. Have supporters
5. Be persistent
   

If you would like to learn more about effective advocacy we here at MCIL are always here to help.

Do MATA’s plans for the future include people with disabilities?

Help make MATA accountable

By Allison Donald
Innovate Memphis and the Transit and Demand Committee are working to include the disability community in the conversation on the future of transportation in Memphis.  MATAplus riders still have to deal with the uncertainty of leadership and continued inconsistent service while plans are being made to improve the system.

In a thirty-five minute podcast interview with Ryan Poe reporter from the Commercial Appeal new MATA CEO Gary Rosenfeld spoke about the current state of public transit in Memphis.  He also talked openly about his priorities and choices that have to be considered in order to improve the system as a whole.  He did not mention any improvements he saw for MATAplus in terms of on time performance, improving the phone system or training staff to interact with people with disabilities on both the regular fixed route side and MATAplus.

Under Rosenfeld’s leadership MATA has been working to become a transit system that is desirable to use instead of one that is seen as a last choice by its riders.  Over a span of a year and a half the on-time performance has improved from the mid-forties percent of rides on-time to the mid-seventies.  He is also working to continue to upgrade the fleet.  

If the improvement with on-time performance continues and the expansion of the fleet goes as planned, then more access to employment opportunities will be available to people in the city.  He also discussed the ongoing plans to get the trolleys running again.  MATA still plans to have the trolleys running again by the end of the year and the main priority during these test runs have been safety.

Rosenfeld talked about what a community values in regards to public transit. 

“It is a matter of coverage versus frequency,” said Gary Rosenfeld, “Do you want to wait where you are and have the bus come once an hour or do you want to walk fifteen minutes and have the bus come every fifteen minutes?” 

These are the questions that are being asked and answered as part of the transit vision exercise will affect people with disabilities and how we use public transit both MATA fixed-route and MATAplus. 

After listening to the interview initially I was upset that he did not make an effort to include the improvement of service of MATAplus in his overall vision for a functioning transit system.  As a person with a disability who wants to use public transit around the Memphis instead of MATAplus. 

In other cities that I travel, I am able to use the fixed-route system rather than paratransit. The differences that I have seen here in Memphis are that the community of people with disabilities are informed about the issue of transportation and are more persistent about what they will and won’t accept. 

It is up to us to hold MATA accountable and to voice our opinion during this process. It is time to be a part of the change we want to see and one way we can do that as a community is by clicking on the link below and taking this five minute survey about what we value in transportation and what improvements we would like to see.  

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/MemphisTransitVision1. 

Help MATA with bus service and frequency

Transportation decisions are not easy

By Christina Clift

In a town called Prairieville around fifty individuals were invited to create a public transportation system.  Although the town is home to 250,000 residence, Prairieville is home to a university, several schools, shopping centers, a medical center, and housing for senior citizens. 

The further north you travel in the town, the area is more prosperous.  The downtown is thriving. Unfortunately like most cities Prairieville has a limited budget to spend on its public transportation system.  So to maximize ideas ten groups were formed to demonstrate their thoughts on what and how the fixed route bus system would work. 

Each group was given an allotted amount of buses with three different colors. Green to represent buses that would run once an hour, blue that represented buses that would run every thirty minutes, and red for buses that would run every fifteen minutes.  Sounds simple right?  Well, it wasn’t. 

During a training on Monday, September 25, 2017, I participated in one of the groups creating a proposed fixed route bus system for Prairieville.  In my group were local advocates from the Memphis Bus Riders Union, Citizens for Better Service, and a representative from MATA’s local union.  So you would think that this would have been a simple learning exercise. 

However we soon learned that compromises had to be made when you don’t have a lot of money to spend on building a public transportation system whether in Prairieville or Memphis.  Some of those compromises included how frequently a bus should operate, how the bus route should run, and where could you cut service. 

Currently 83 percent of Memphians have access to transportation at least some of the time, but the frequency of most buses is greater than thirty minutes.  In other cities less people have access to transportation but their buses run more often.  So, there is often a tradeoff between the amount of people covered by a bus system and the frequency of the buses.
    
In Prairieville our priority was to connect the residents to employment, seniors to the medical center, get children to school, and ensure that the downtown and university had frequent bus service.  We tried to use as many blue and red routes to connect the different areas, but had to rely upon the green routes to funnel people from the residential neighborhoods in the south to opportunities in the north. 

When we applied the same strategy to Memphis, we soon ran out of buses and there were parts of the city that did not have service including the Winchester, Germantown Parkway, and the airport.  However, we brought back former routes like the 31 Crosstown and number 10 Watkins.  All of our routes were either blue or red.  We also made the decision to only create routes that served the city of Memphis and not the suburbs in the county.
    
“I can’t have my people looking at me, if they do not have bus service in their neighborhood,” stated Johny Mosley with Citizens for Better Service.  And that is where the true difficulty lay in planning a public transportation system, who gets served and who doesn’t? Who gets very frequent service and who doesn’t? Who has to walk further to a bus stop and who doesn’t?  Someone has to make those tough decisions and not matter what they decide everyone won’t be satisfied. 
    
Over the next few months Memphians get to provide input on their vision for their public transportation system.  Currently ridership is on the decline and that means less money for MATA.  It also leads to cuts in service.  One solution that could make a difference is by deciding whether or not MATA should put more emphasis on covering even more people or providing more frequent services on existing bus routes.  Also, how far are we willing to walk to catch a bus. 

Are you willing to walk a one-half mile verses one-quarter mile to have more frequent bus service?  Let your opinions be heard in the months ahead and perhaps we can make a positive change in our public transportation system.

Finally, remember for those people who cannot take the fixed route bus due to their disability, paratransit service or MATAplus only runs within a quarter-mile when and where the fixed route runs.  So, whatever decisions are made about the fixed route affects everyone with a disability. 

Please take time to complete the transportation survey by clicking on the link below.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/MemphisTransitVision1
 
The training gave me a more realistic view of what employees at MATA do every time they change a bus route no matter how minor the change.  It’s not as simple as it sounds nor is it as easy.

Holiday Food Drive

Memphis Center for Independent Living Holiday Food Drive 

Through December 15, 2017

Non-perishable donations accepted

Monday to Friday,9:30am to 4:30pm

1633 Madison Ave, Memphis, TN 38104

Monetary donations also welcomed.

Baskets will be distributed December 19 to 21.

For more information:

Contact Christina Clift

(901)726-6404