The Metro Grant – what this means for our community partnerships
By Melinda Musser, Communications & Marketing Manager
On April 10th, great news arrived at the Community Cycling Center – we received a Metro Regional Transportation Options Grant!
This funding gives us the opportunity to continue our collaborative work with our partner agencies in Cully and Portsmouth over the next two years. We will be able build on the work that we have already begun with Hacienda, the Native American Youth & Family Center (NAYA), and New Columbia by:
- Training
Community Bike Educators at Hacienda and New Columbia to complete basic bike maintenance, while they pass on these skills to their friends, families, and neighbors. - Teaching Community Bike Educators at Hacienda and New Columbia to lead rides, including how to
- access safe routes to school, errands, and work
- travel at night and in
weather - travel with kids
- plan routes
Distributing maps, lights, and helmets – transportation and safety accessories that are needed in these communities.- Hosting two open forums for community members and local decision makers to examine the challenges and promise of increased active transportation in underserved neighborhoods. Remember our Bikes for All community conversation at New Columbia in 2010? We’ll be reprising this event to ensure that community voices are amplified in a forum where planners and decision-makers are listening.
- Providing bikes to adults through Create a Commuter workshops at NAYA, Hacienda, and New Columbia
We could not be more excited to continue addressing the barriers to bicycling experienced by these communities, while working together to empower community bicycle champions at Hacienda, New Columbia, and NAYA.