Virginia Dize  0:00  
So I want to start by introducing the other folks who are going to be speaking this afternoon. But I have to say thank you, Charlie for doing the introductions, because clearly, we've got some expertise on the call. And I really, really appreciate everyone being here. So I hope we can have a little few minutes anyway for dialogue at the end. So we've got two speakers. I'm going to kind of set the stage and then turn it over to Kate Morley, who's the Deputy General Manager for the Northern Arizona intergovernmental public transportation authority or nape dock mountain line in Flagstaff, Arizona, and Kate oversees the agency's Planning and Development functions and provides leadership on state and federal transit issues. She says she has a passion for creating policies and programs that support healthy and sustainable communities a very laudable goal. She's originally from Flagstaff. She has a Master of Science in planning from the University of Arizona, which was granted in 2010. And she's a member of the American Institute of Certified planners. Our additional speaker, I'm happy to say is Lindsey steep Lindsey teal. Lindsey is a policy advisor for the US Department of Transportation's I'm sorry, Department of Labor's Office of Disability Employment Policy, or ODEP, where she works to address the barrier of employment, barriers to employment caused by a lack of access to transportation, and adapt, she created the initiative on autonomous vehicles, driving employment for people with disabilities and continues to lead that effort. Last year, she had a one of those great opportunities that federal employees get to do a detail in another agency. And she worked with the Department of Transportation in two areas, with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and the Office of the Secretary of Transportation for policy, and where she worked on accessibility on the department's accessibility strategic plan, as well as the plans to honor the anniversary of the ADEA. Lindsay has a Bachelor of Arts degree and sociology from the University of North Texas, which she received in 2010. And she is passionate about expanding access to transportation and employment for people with disabilities and other marginalized agreements. So other marginalized communities. So as you can see, we've got a great panel this afternoon. I don't want to spend a whole lot of time but I want to remind everybody, and I know that you all are familiar with the definitions that were in the RFP, I'm sure you pored over them and study them as you were developing your grant applications. But I wanted to remind you, and of these definitions of three really critical ones, without going into a lot of detail. So I shortened these a little bit. I'm inclusive planning is a process whereby all stakeholders and for us, especially participants, by which we mean older adults, people with disabilities, caregivers, riders and potential riders, as well as your very important coordinated transportation partners to be actively and meaningfully involved in developing the plan. And for purposes of this project throughout the project. There's also human centered design, which is a creative approach to problem solving that begins with the people you are designing for. And frankly, I'd rather say designing with and ends with new solutions that are tailor made to suit their needs. And finally, and we'll be talking a little bit more under the leadership of David half later this afternoon, about mobility on demand, which is Mo to multimodal, integrated, automated and innovative and is a user focused approach. And I really want to emphasize that for purposes of our discussion right now, to provide improved mobility for all users. So this is my not very artistic Venn diagram. That brings it all together and what I want to emphasized by bringing the diagram to your attention is that all three of these parts really play an equal share equal importance in these 18 month projects. And I put inclusion at the top, because in my opinion, inclusion is the foundation that we start from, it weaves through all of the activities that happen. It's not just something that you do at the beginning during your planning phase. But it's something that informs your work throughout this process.

A couple of slides to talk about what we've learned so far, because as you know, we all have been involved in inclusion for quite a number of years. So a couple of things. Steering Committees are very important. But it's important that they're not static, that they evolve over time. And as the people who are on your steering committee and guide your work, get to know one another and get increasingly involved in the project. Hopefully, that not just the membership involved evolves, but their roles evolve. And they began to take on leadership roles, such as, for example, something that we have encountered in past projects, which is Participant led focus groups. But there are other ways in which members of the steering committee or those that are intimately involved in your project can take on leadership roles. And we encourage you to do that. I know that David Bernstein will be talking about our pathway to inclusion tomorrow. And he'll probably mentioned many of these things. Again, it's also important to engage the community, townhomes and community meetings are one way to do it. But it's really critical not just to inform folks about what you're doing, but also to emphasize to ensure that people understand and appreciate this work, that's really critical. If you're going to be able to continue this work passes grant. And ultimately, we really want this work to be sustained, long term. To engage people throughout your community, it's really important to be flexible, about how you do that, and to use different sources of media, to engage folks, and to ensure that over time, as the stakeholders and participants get involved and more familiar with your project, that they understand their roles, and that you are open to being flexible about expanding those roles. This is my final slide. And I just want to say a couple of things that we have learned that I think are critical. Education is important for all of us. These are highly technical projects. So we all have things to learn about mo D, and about how to realize the promise of mobility on demand in your communities. But it's also critical to understand that the consumers, the riders, the potential riders who come to the table, in your project, have something to offer to you need to learn from them what their lived experiences as writers and users of this service, and to ensure that everyone respects the knowledge and experience that people bring to the table. And the question is, do you have all the right people sitting at the table? Does your steering committee look like your community? are you ensuring that underserved populations and a range of people are engaged, it's important to be open and to recognize and seize opportunities. Finally, the resource there that's on our transit planning for all website is a tip sheet for planning meetings that was developed by our really fantastic expert panel and was the brainchild of one of the consumers who sits on that panel. I highly recommend it to everyone. And with that, it's my great pleasure to turn it over to Kate

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