MEOC Program Worthy of Praise

If you see a turtle on a fence post, you know two facts – he didn’t get there by himself, and he isn’t getting down without help.

That’s how Dennis Horton explains the cooperative success of Mountain Empire Older Citizens, the agency that coordinates a plethora of services for older residents in far Southwest Virginia’s Planning District One. Horton is the deputy director of the agency based in Big Stone Gap, Va., and traveled to Washington, D.C., last week to accept a national “United We Ride” transportation award for its transit program – one of only five programs recognized for developing a high-quality, coordinated health and human services transportation system.

MEOC got well-deserved recognition for its program: U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray La Hood presented the award to Horton and MEOC’s transit director, Mike Wampler.

The United We Ride leadership award recognizes innovators in coordinating health and human services and public transportation services to provide transportation for older adults, people with disabilities, children and people with lower incomes.

The local program is noteworthy for a variety of reasons.

Although managed by the agency for aging, it is a transit program for all ages and provides more than 125,000 trips to individuals each year. It also carries passengers more than 1.5 million miles each year. Horton said the agency operates an average of 34 passenger vehicles each day, including vans and buses.

The strength of MEOC’s application is that its program meets various needs in the same trip. “Many people still have the perception that this is for senior citizens, but it is public transit and for everyone,” he said. “And on the same vehicle, headed in the same direction, you have numerous people with varying needs – differing ages, differing abilities.”

It’s a notable program because it addresses core transportation problems – cost, geography, social barriers. Many of the riders have never learned to drive or have had to give up their cars. Others cannot afford to maintain a vehicle.

Simply put, the transit program breaks down social and physical isolation.

“A substantial majority of our riders would never see their own property line without this program,” Horton stressed. “Instead, they are active and engaged in the community. They are able to go to the doctor, to the store, to other public places. It changes lives.”

MEOC started helping older citizens in 1974 and by the mid-1980s was developing a transit program.

“I guess it started with an old van and a station wagon to pick up people and take them to congregate meal sites,” he said. “We saw different agencies were trying to get the same people to the same places. So we asked, ‘How can we swap passengers and get them there?’ ”

They started out leasing vehicles, then later got into a funding stream that helped buy vehicles.

Passage of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act in 1991 helped tremendously, too. It allowed them to get funding for wheelchair-lift equipped vans, giving real mobility to people who otherwise might not have had that freedom.

“We are justifiably proud of another accomplishment for the transit program and appreciative to have our work recognized,” Horton said about the national award. “All of this is on behalf of the employees, supporters and partners.”

Horton laughed over his “turtle on the fence post” comparison, but maintained the agency could not have attained any of its notable milestones without its longtime supporters.

This group of innovative thinkers, led by Director Marilyn Pace Maxwell, has achieved great things for more than 30 years because they put the needs of citizens first, then build smart, efficient plans to meet those needs.

We look forward to seeing what they come up with next.