Coordination Program History and Background

Statewide Transportation Coordination Task Force History and Background

May 2002

In February 1996 the Chicago Regional Offices of the US DOT Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) co- sponsored a workshop on coordinated transportation and human service delivery. At the Federal level, USDOT and DHHS formed a Joint Coordinating Council in 1986 to coordinate and enhance service delivery of their respective agencies by focusing on barriers to coordination; establishing a State coordinating mechanism, and information dissemination. Although FTA Regional Councils were formed several years ago to help facilitate the State component, the February meeting was the first real effort in Ohio’s region to actually bring this about.

Representatives of the Departments of Transportation, Aging, Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, and Human Services (now Job and Family Services) traveled to Chicago for the conference. After a general presentation by the Federal agencies, participants were guided through an exercise to develop an action plan that could be brought back to each State and serve as a tool for developing a coordinated transportation network among the state agencies.

Ohio’s plan consisted of a number of action steps, including formation of a state agency task force to develop interagency agreements and address interagency barriers, holding a state transportation coordination conference, and developing a demonstration project to address locally the issues of state agency barriers to coordination.

In July 1996 these four agencies along with the Governor’s Family and Children First Initiative representative met and formally formed the Statewide Transportation Coordination Task Force.

Many of Ohio’s state agencies actually serve the same populations and provide services and issue policies and regulations which should complement, but sometimes conflict with, one another. At a time when human service agency and transit system budgets are under severe pressure, the better use of resources is not only critical, it is mandatory.

These five agencies continued to meet for the remainder of 1996 and to refine and implement the Action Plan developed in Chicago. In November of that year the Task Force held a statewide Transportation Coordination Conference, showcasing six transportation coordination projects and coordination best practices and featuring representatives from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Federal Transit Administration. Over 135 participants from across the State participated in the conference. Comments and feedback from the conference were clear: transportation coordination ranked high on local communities’ priority lists, and they welcomed direction and support from the State. In January 1997 building on the Conference’s success, invitations were extended to increase the membership of the Task Force. To date, the Task Force is comprised of the following member agencies:

1. Ohio Department of Transportation 2. Ohio Department of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities 3. Ohio Department of Aging 4. Ohio Department of Job and Family Services 5. Family and Children First Initiative 6. Ohio Department of Development 7. Ohio Department of Mental Health 8. Ohio Department of Education 9. Ohio Rehabilitation Services Commission 10. Head Start 11. Governor's Council on People with Disabilities 12. Ohio Developmental Disabilities Planning Council

Task Force members wasted no time in developing strategies to continue their State action plan. Richland County was chosen as a demonstration site to address state regulations and policies which were barriers to local coordination. Information was shared among the member agencies concerning regulatory free zones and waiver processes, reporting requirements and funding distribution. Experts in various fields were invited to address the task force including representatives from the Tennessee Departments of Transportation and Human Services concerning Tennessee’s efforts in transportation coordination, and the Ellis Insurance Agency, an agency specialized in community transportation systems, regarding insurance and liability issues faced by coordination projects.

In November 1997, the Task Force sponsored its second State Coordination Conference. Response to the conference was so great that over 100 persons were turned away. An encore presentation of the conference was presented in March 1998.

The Task Force was actively involved in implementation of H.B. 408 and Ohio Works First, Ohio’s welfare reform effort. In addition, the Task Force received a National Governor’s Association grant. One product of this grant was the development of a series of coordination briefs to communicate information to the customers of the various task force members on a variety of topics including insurance, MR/DD self-determination, confidentiality, and ODOT’s Specialized Transportation Program and overviews of programs each of the participating state departments administers.

In 1999, Task Force members developed a Powerpoint presentation, "The Top 5 Myths on Why Coordinated Transportation Won’t Work in My Community." The presentation was specifically aimed at local decision-makers whose understanding and support of transportation coordination is essential to any project’s success. Several members of the task force have used all or a portion of the presentation in various forums; the program is also designed to involve a representative of a local coordination project.

Over the last several years, Task Force members have become involved in the individual coordination projects. Representatives of a majority of the Ohio Coordination Program projects have attended task force meetings and described their efforts to the members. When specific issues involving one of the member departments has arisen, the Task Force representative has accompanied the ODOT liaison to local meetings. Many of the members have participated in the application review each year as communities apply for funding. Members are also invited to attend the bi-monthly roundtables for Ohio Coordination Program project representatives.

Feedback from the local coordination projects continued to site conflicting or duplicative record-keeping and reporting requirements by various state departments as a barrier to success. As one of the primary goals of the Task Force is to remove barriers to transportation coordination at the local level, ODOT funded a study, "Standard Transportation Program Reporting and Reimbursement Requirements." The study was finalized late in 2001, and implementation of the recommendations will continue through 2002.