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Letter received from Jewish Vocational Services

"This month we had the opportunity to help a fellow who has had many issues in his short life, including the inability to find a stable living environment. JVS is his first job, and it seems to be helping him immensely. His living situation is stable. He has some friends now. And, he has some money in his pocket. He has a ways to go, but a few tokens to get him to and from work have been a great boon to him, and now he’s paying for everything independently."

Letters received from The Salvation Army

"A client in our Emergency Assistance program was a veteran. He had been working on his own problems by going to the V.A.’s counseling program. He got to the place where he was ready to help others. He had completed his training and was ready to start a paying job for the first time in years. He came here feeling happy and proud, he made such progress. His last challenge now was getting to work at the V.A. hospital everyday until he actually got a pay check. He came here with both hopes and fears, and because of ERM’s assistance in providing us tokens we were able to help him and he is now steadily working."

"A 56-year-old divorced African-American father of six children was severely physically disabled while under physician’s care. He was hospitalized after infections resulting from knee surgery. The client was provided tokens through ERM that were essential to his following through with Ohio State disability application. This process took months, but, because of ERM, he was given much-needed medical transportation."

Letters received from Stop ) AIDS

"We had a client who was recently evicted from his apartment because he had been laid off from his job and could not pay the rent. The client did not have much money saved up. The client came to us in need of transportation assistance in order for him to go out looking for a new apartment, as well as looking for a new job. The client was able to find an apartment, which he moves into this month, but is still looking for a job. Thanks to our partnership with Everybody Rides Metro, we are able to provide the client with bus tokens for his job search and housing search."

"This month, we had a client diagnosed with severe depression. He was/is having a difficult time dealing with his HIV diagnosis. This client has reported feeling suicidal on a number of occasions. The client currently has no income, and no source of transportation. Thanks to our partnership with Everybody Rides Metro, we were able to provide this client with a monthly bus pass so he could travel to his mental health appointments to secure counseling for his depression."

"A client who was laid off of his job a few months ago is still having a very hard time finding a new job. The client has spent through all of his savings, and is now having difficulty buying food. Our agency has referred him to all the local food pantries in order for him to get the nutrition he needs to stay healthy, but the client does not have access to a car. Thanks to our partnership with Everybody Rides Metro, we were able to provide the client with enough bus tokens for him to go to each food pantry weekly."

Letter from Churches Active in Northside (CAIN)

A significant number of people who “shop” at our food pantry at CAIN use the bus as their primary source of transportation because they cannot afford to own a car and its upkeep. Bus tokens are in high demand in our agency. Our guests are very grateful when we have bus tokens and are disappointed when we do not. Since the Everybody Rides Metro program began, we have been able to offer tokens on a much more regular basis. Our guests often comment on how helpful even a few bus tokens are to them. Recently a young pregnant woman came in to the pantry and asked for bus tokens in order to get to the hospital. She was having some complications with her pregnancy, absolutely needed to get to the hospital, but did not have the bus fare to get there. (We did see her later that week and everything had turned out fine at the hospital). Many times people walk quite a distance to get food at our pantry since they live on the outer edge of the area we serve, and they are very happy to be able to get a bus token so they can catch the bus to get home with their cumbersome bags of food. Many other folks rely on the bus for their transport to and from their jobs. And many other people we see have health issues and they use the bus tokens to be able to get to their medical appointments. Everybody Rides Metro is a wonderful program that helps many people in many ways.

One client applied for and got a job at the mall to start the very next day. She was excited, but didn’t have enough money to get there for the first few days. She received 6 tokens for the next three days of training at her new job. Over the next month, her Home Visitor worked with her on budgeting and planning ahead for this expense. She has now been on the job over six months and has purchased a bus card every month. Everybody Rides Metro was able to help her get to the job and keep it.

One young mother did not have a medical card yet and after submitting her application for Medicaid she was able to make a prenatal appointment but had no money and no other way to get there. Because of the Everybody Rides Metro program, Healthy Moms and Babes was able to provide bus tokens for her first few prenatal appointments before her insurance was approved. If she had not received the bus tokens, she would have missed those appointments, increasing her chances for a poor birth outcome.

Clients at Talbert House get much-needed use out of the bus tokens provided by ERM. With the tokens, they are able to seek jobs and stay employed. Without Talbert House or the JARC Program, most of their clients would have no means of job-hunting or getting to work. Several clients need tokens to get to medical appointments and to attend school. With some of them coming straight out of prison, they have no money and no family here in the city to help them financially. That is why it is so important for Talbert House to provide them with this necessity, so that they don't have to convert back to their old habits of committing crimes to survive. Talbert House has shown a very high success rate of client employment by assisting them with transportation.

William has been struggling with unemployment for a few years. He's been working here and there, doing some paintwork for friends or whoever needed some quick cheap job done. He held various temporary jobs, but nothing permanent for more then three years now. He has no family to rely on and not many friends he can ask for help. Despite his problems, he always puts a smile on his face; he always offers wise advice, a kind word, or a good joke. He comes to our agency, because, he says, "today, I need to take care of William."

He's been working with a job developer for a few months. He worked on his resume, practiced interviewing skills, and learned all about telephone etiquette. One day, this past January, he came to us, more agitated than usual. His voice was trembling, and he seemed in a big rush. "They are hiring for production workers at Frisch's, I have my application ready, but I don't have any transportation." I gave him two bus tokens and fifty cents for him to be able go put the application in, and return. At nine a clock the next morning, he was waiting for me in the lobby, with a bright big smile on his face. "I have an interview scheduled for tomorrow…"

In the month of January, STOP)AIDS had a client who presented himself at the agency and told them he was all out of his HIV medications. The client had no income or medical insurance. The client also had no form of transportation to get him to the pharmacy. Through their partnership with the Everybody Rides Metro Foundation, STOP)AIDS was able to provide the client with bus tokens in order for him to travel to and from the pharmacy so that he could obtain his medications. They were also able to sign him up on the Ohio HIV Drug Assistance Program, so the client was able to pay for the life-saving HIV medications.

Everybody Rides Metro would like to congratulate STOP)AIDS on the good work they do and to thank them for the opportunity to share in their success by helping to provide transportation to their clients.

"Jim came to the Gateway program with absolutely no resources. He was concerned about finding employment because he had no means of transportation. This limitation and the January weather would have limited his search to his neighborhood, with few opportunities. Because of Everyone Rides Metro tokens, he was able to expand his search and got a job that was in his field and had more potential for success."

The Salvation Army has this to say: "A 55 year old woman was laid off for 5 weeks. When called back to work, she had no resources left to transport herself to and from work for 3 weeks, until her first pay check. ERM provided tokens so she can work, get paid and continue to live independently."

Jewish Vocational Services has this to say: "In January 2009, we were able to use tokens from ERM to help a man who has been without employment for five years start in JVS Employment programming. This is a great step for him, which will hopefully lead to bigger and better things. But, for him to get out of the house and start this is huge, and we are appreciative to ERM for token assistance."