NEWS RELEASE
CAREDOVE
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Five non-profit community agencies have come together to create the Community Transportation (CT) Link project to help fill the gap in transportation services access for vulnerable residents of Simcoe County.
Residents of Simcoe County can now request safe door-to-door transportation from any of these agencies, all from a single website.
Frail older adults and people with disabilities deserve access to reliable transportation, when and where they need it. People who have difficulty accessing public transportation, or those who use mobility aids, need a safe way to get to scheduled medical appointments, social activities and to run essential errands like grocery shopping.
With the rise of the Omicron variant, there is a surge in community members requiring transportation to COVID-19 booster shot appointments. Community transportation providers in Simcoe County have partnered together to better serve these vulnerable populations and provide an easy way to request accessible transportation services online.
When visiting the website, simply click “Request Transportation” and type in your home address. You will be instantly matched with a community transportation provider that can pick you up at home and take you to your destination, whether it’s getting your booster shot at a local vaccine clinic, or a longer trip to a scheduled medical appointment in Toronto.
If a transportation provider cannot accommodate your ride, they will leverage a back-end portal where ride requests are shared across the five partner agencies, making sure that all residents of Simcoe County are provided with equal opportunity to accessible transportation options.
The publicly accessible CT Link launched in March 2021 in order to support the needs of residents requiring transportation to COVID-19 vaccination appointments. Since then, CT Link has provided hundreds of rides in and around Simcoe County, ensuring that residents are getting safely where they need to be.
CT Link agencies include Helping Hands (Orillia), Canadian Red Cross Simcoe Muskoka (Barrie), Community Reach (Midland), BANAC (Ramara) and CHATS (South Simcoe). CT Link is supported by the County of Simcoe and funded by the Government of Ontario through the Community Transportation Grant Program and Caredove, who provides the software platform and ongoing project coordination.
“Our government is pleased to support the CT Link through the Community Transportation Grant Program which is providing funding for transportation services in 38 communities across Ontario,” said Caroline Mulroney, Minister of Transportation. “CT Link is a great example of the essential services the program is providing in communities with limited public transportation services.”
Visit ctlink.ca to learn more and request transportation from a network of trusted local transportation providers.
About CT Link
CT Link is a partnership of non-profit organizations providing door-to-door accessible transportation for medical appointments, and is different from the County of Simcoe's public transit system, Simcoe County LINX, which provides fixed-route bus services between municipalities in Simcoe County.
About the County of Simcoe
County of Simcoe is composed of sixteen member municipalities and provides crucial public services to County residents in addition to providing paramedic and social services to the separated cities of Barrie and Orillia. Visit our website at simcoe.ca.
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