Archive: Around Town

The School Success Transportation Coalition (SSTC) has been notified that it is receiving grants from Sustainable Tompkins and the Service League to support its work helping families with solutions to transportation problems.  The grants will help fund stipends for Transportation Liaisons in each Ithaca City School District (ICSD) building.  These staff members serve as turn-key trainers assisting community members to find ways to get to events held at schools.

Sustainable Tompkins supports the use of ride-sharing (also called car-pooling) and other energy- efficient transportation options as part of its effort to reduce unnecessary fuel consumption in our community.

The Service League supports the effort to help families who have limited resources get where they need to go.  They raise the funds that they distribute into the community as grants by selling gently- used clothes in the lower level of the Woman's Community Building.

The SSTC is a group of community members who collaborate working on its mission making transportation available for parents and families to attend events held at school during school hours (such as teacher-parent conferences, concerts, important meetings), and for students to attend after school programs or events.  The group includes professionals from various agencies who, for the past 3 years, have been working on the need for more school related transportation.  Way2Go, Ithaca Public Education Initiative, Department of Social Services, and the Ithaca-Tompkins County Transportation Council are all represented. 

SSTC has a working affiliation with RSVP and the Way2Go program of Cornell Cooperative Extension, and it supports Transportation Liaisons in each ICSD school (staff trained to understand and inform families about community transportation resources). SSTC has also created RED (Retired Educators Drive), a new volunteer driver network that offers rides to important events at school when parents have no other way to get there.

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