Via Is Still Serving Our Community

As the country faces the threat from COVID-19, Via is continuing to serve the most vulnerable people in our community: older adults, people with disabilities, and individuals with lower incomes. We’ve also instituted plans for addressing and mitigating the risks posed to our clients and employees. You can find more information about Via’s response here. And we’ve reached out to several other human services providers in our community to help them distribute food to their clients. 

Via also wants to make sure that you, our community of supporters, are getting the care you need. While many of you may not usually feel vulnerable, these volatile times with its economic uncertainty have caused a great deal of anxiety for everyone. The Via team encourages everyone to practice both self-care and social distancing. Please eat and sleep well, exercise, meditate, and spend time unplugged from electronics.

Though Via encourages social distancing, we also recognize the need for people with limited mobility to access food and other resources during a national emergency. So our buses are still rolling, and our dedicated and caring drivers are still behind the wheel. But we are trying to keep our trips to one passenger at a time, and wiping down the bus surfaces with disinfectant between trips. And, we’re waiving the fare through the end of April.

So our buses are still rolling:

• Our dedicated and caring drivers are still behind the wheel.
• We’re limiting our trips to one passenger at a time, when possible.
• We’re wiping down surfaces in the bus with disinfectant between trips.
• We’re waiving the fare through the end of April.

Many of our friends and supporters have asked what they can do during this crisis. 

Do you have a vulnerable neighbor? 

Do they have the resources that they need? 

We urge you to be aware of your neighbors who may live alone and/or are in a high-risk category. Please make sure they have what they need. Neighbors helping neighbors is still an enduring value in our community. We’ve put together a list of resources for our clients and their family and friends.

Help Our Neighbors Fund

Via has established a Help Our Neighbors Fund to keep our mission services going. As many of you know, providing door-through-door, driver-assisted transportation in wheelchair-accessible vehicles is expensive. To subsidize that high cost and keep fares low, we operate under a social enterprise business. As such, we enter public transportation contracts with local government entities and apply the net revenues to our mission services.

With people staying home and businesses and the economy slowing down, Via’s public transportation services are falling to extraordinarily low levels, resulting in a loss of funds to apply to our paratransit services.  

Your donation will help us keep the buses rolling and serving our friends and neighbors who are the most vulnerable during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

And if you feel you can’t give right now, we understand and want to thank you for your past support. (Did you know that you can donate your tax refund to Via? Here’s how at this link.)

Donate to Via’s Help Our Neighbors Fund

Resources

Please take a look at our blog post here with resources to help while you’re maintaining social distancing.

And remember, we can still keep in touch by phone. Please feel free to contact Lisa Curtis, Director of Development & Community Outreach at lcurtis@viacolorado.org or 303-444-3097.