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Hear from Lauren Marks, Executive Director of The Exceptional Foundation of Atlanta, about how a microtransit service in Gwinnett County, GA is providing service for an exceptional group.

I am the Executive Director for a newly established nonprofit called The Exceptional Foundation of Atlanta. Our nonprofit is a private day program for adults with intellectual disabilities. Basically, we are the next step for those with disabilities once they graduate out of the school system. We believe that adults with disabilities should continue to thrive beyond graduation. We also believe that they each have many abilities and should be active members within their local communities. However, these abilities cannot be supported without access to transportation.

Our day program has been using the Snellville Microtransit pilot program regularly since its inaugural week. Microtransit allows our participants to schedule transportation, and then travel as an entire group or break up into separate groups going to different destinations. We have trained our adults with disabilities to use the Microtransit application, and they have been able to do so because of its simple interface and user-friendly format.

unnamed-1-1With the Snellville Microtransit Program, our participants have been able to access the community in which they live! Our participants are able to shop at local grocery stores and shops, dine at local restaurants, access local parks and serve others in need. And this program enables us to shop for grocery items needed to prepare monthly dinner meals for foster families in our area. Because of the Snellville Microtransit program, our participants are able to volunteer at Calvin Cove’s adult respite program. The program gives adults with intellectual disabilities access into the community that they, too, deserve to access.

We are so glad for the opportunity to pilot this program.

I speak on behalf of all of those connected to adults with intellectual disabilities, thank you for creating a public service that can give adults with disabilities a life beyond their own homes.

Learn more about microtransit in our guide to multimodal transportation!