RIDING INFORMATION: (513) 621-4455

CONTACT US

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 14, 2009

EVERYBODY RIDES METRO FOUNDATION AWARDED $18,101 WOMEN’S FUND GRANT
Grant will subsidize public transportation for women working toward economic self-sufficiency

CINCINNATI – Everybody Rides Metro (ERM) foundation has been awarded the Economic Security Grant of the Women’s Fund of The Greater Cincinnati Foundation and the Charlotte R. Schmidlapp Foundation.

The $18,101 Women’s Fund grant will allow Everybody Rides Metro and four partner agencies to work together to develop a local strategy to help address long-term, comprehensive transportation needs of women with children. The grant will fund six months of transportation for a pilot group of 55 women, all of whom are working to achieve economic self-sufficiency through employment. The program, set to begin in June, also will help participants develop budgeting skills to set aside financial resources to ensure access to public transportation.

“Metro’s vision of assisting women with their transportation needs dovetails directly with our study of the status of women and girls in Greater Cincinnati,” said Vanessa Freytag, Executive Director of The Women's Fund of The Greater Cincinnati Foundation. “We found transportation was one of the major hurdles to economic self-sufficiency for low-income women. Metro’s well thought out program, which provides both financial assistance and incentives to move forward on the self-sufficiency path, is a plan we are very excited about!”

“Our hope is that this program will provide a model for addressing this need broadly in our community,” said Ted Bergh, executive director for Everybody Rides Metro.

ERM is the first and only charity in the nation to subsidize public transportation for low-income riders.

Metro is a non-profit public service of the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority, providing about 22 million rides per year.