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NEWS & EVENTS
What's Happening at Veterans Ride Connect
Veterans Ride Connect Press Release
Oct 23, 2017
Transit Agencies Unite to Serve Veterans in Northeast Oklahoma
Veterans Ride Connect provides veterans with safe, reliable and local transportation services throughout more than 25 counties.
What began as a mission to provide safe and reliable transportation to enhance the quality of life of the more than 118,000 veterans living in northeast Oklahoma has now become a ground-breaking agency that is realizing that goal on a daily basis.
Veterans Ride Connect is a cooperative agency of transit providers working together to get veterans where they need to go. The consortium provides services throughout more than 25 counties, including Adair, Cherokee, Craig, Creek, Delaware, Haskell, Hughes, Kay, Latimer, Le Flore, Mayes, McIntosh, Muskogee, Nowata, Okfuskee, Okmulgee, Osage, Ottawa, Pawnee, Pittsburg, Rogers, part of Seminole, Sequoyah, Tulsa, Wagoner and Washington.
The Veterans Transportation and Community Living Initiative (VTCLI), a program of the U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Transit Administration, awards grants to local transportation providers and other groups so they can better coordinate and deliver important transit information through “one-call” or “one-click” centers.
The Indian Nations Council of Governments (INCOG) was awarded two consecutive VTCLI grants to create a 25-county one-call center coordinating transportation in and around the Tulsa and Muskogee Veterans Administration medical clinics, incorporating urban, rural, tribal, Disabled American Veterans (DAV) and VA transportation.
An invitation to participate in the project went out to transit providers across the region, and six well-known and well-established transit services responded.
The six founding transit providers — Pelivan Transit, KI BOIS Area Transit (KATS), Cimarron Public Transit System, Morton Comprehensive Health Services, Muskogee County Transit Authority and Muscogee (Creek) Nation — saw the need for coordinating transportation resources for veterans and understood the importance such a system would be for the veteran community of northeast Oklahoma. These transit agencies now work together as Veterans Ride Connect.
Pelivan Transit in Big Cabin, Okla., offered to use its Call Center as the central hub for the project. The grants helped facilitate the upgrades needed at the existing location, bringing about a state-of-the-art call center and the technology to support it. The project was completed in late 2015.
Today, veterans with transportation needs anywhere in the service area only have to make one call to the Veterans Ride Connect call center at (855) 735-4826 to learn about transportation options and to schedule a ride.
Veterans Ride Connects services are provided to all veterans, regardless of age or financial status. Any person who has served in a military force is considered to be a veteran.
There are fees for the transportation services but an ongoing goal of the consortium is to bring veterans costs down through donations and grants
All of the Veterans Ride Connect transit agencies use ADA-compliant vehicles, including mini vans and shuttle buses. And, its drivers are highly trained in wheelchair securement and all other aspects of transit safety.
Veterans answered the call of duty and served their country. Veterans Ride Connect is now ready to answer the call and be there for them.
For more information about Veterans Ride Connect, visit its website at www.veteransrideconnect.org or on Facebook at Veterans Ride Connect.
ABOUT VETERANS RIDE CONNECT
Veterans Ride Connect is the first-ever mobility management center in Oklahoma. This ground-breaking agency is the first of its kind with the six founding transit providers working together to provide transportation services to veterans in more than 25 counties. The transit providers who make up the Veterans Ride Connect consortium include Pelivan Transit, KI BOIS Area Transit (KATS), Cimarron Public Transit System, Morton Comprehensive Health Services, Muskogee County Transit Authority and Muscogee (Creek) Nation. All transits are invited to join Veterans Ride Connect in this noble endeavor.
The Cherokee Nation recently partnered with Grand Gateway Community Development Foundation to ensure safe, reliable transit services for Cherokee Nation veterans in northeast Oklahoma.
Veterans Ride Connect BIG CABIN, Okla. , October 23, 2017 (Veterans Ride Connect) — What began as a mission to provide safe and reliable transportation to enhance the quality of life of the more than 118,000 veterans living in northeast Oklahoma has now become a ground-breaking agency that is realizing that goal on a daily basis. Veterans Ride Connect is a cooperative agency of transit providers working together to get veterans where they need to go. The consortium pro...
Governor’s Oklahoma United We Ride Council (Council) members, designees, advisors and friends: Please see the attached October 23, 2017, press release concerning the Veterans Ride Connect. In years past, “… the Indian Nations Council of Governments (INCOG) was awarded two consecutive grants to create a 25-county one-call center coordinating transportation in and around the Tulsa and Muskogee Veterans Administration medical clinics, incorporating urban, rural, tribal, Disabl...
Veterans' Ride Connect is now on social media, make sure and follow the latest on our new Facebook Page.