Overcoming Transportation Challenges in Rural Regions, Limited Access Leads to Missed Opportunities: Las Cruces Bulletin, 8/10/07

Overcoming Transportation Challenges in Rural Regions

Limited Access Leads to Missed opportunities

8/10/07

BY TERI HOPE

For the Las Cruces Bulletin

               There is a little known aspect of the success of workforce development in Southwestern New Mexico, and that is the number of missed opportunities for success. One of the biggest challenges that the Southwestern Area Workforce Development Board (SAWDB) faces in its efforts to provide workforce training and development throughout the seven-country region, with its varied and mainly rural populations, is transportation.

               One example comes from a previous SAWDB article highlighting the success of students from the Gadsden and Santa Teresa High Schools who had completed a high-tech manufacturing training program. While five of the students found work in the Santa Teresa Industrial Park, with others already enrolled for fall classes at the Doña Ana Community College’s Gadsden campus, and all having decided to continue their education beyond a high school diploma, there was only one drawback.

               Brought up by the Doña Ana Community College’s Technical Bridge Apprenticeship Program Coordinator Vince Thomas, it was noted that Las Cruces Machine, one of the program’s industry sponsors, had been holding well-paying positions for the graduates of the first Workforce Investment Act (WIA)-sponsored program.

               None of the students, however, could take advantage of the opportunity because of a lack of transportation. Because public transportation is limited and even nonexistent in highly rural regions, there are programs and partnerships that the SAWDB seeks to build up in order to reach more of the population.

               This is where the Job Access Reverse Commute Program (JARC) comes in, which is administered by more than 20 agencies statewide for the Federal Transit Administration to connect low-income persons to jobs and other employment related services. JARC plays a major role in the SAWDB’s efforts to provide workforce training and career development.

               Previously, during a seven-county listening tour on the SAWDB’s Five Year Plan, Ann Hale, from former WIA-funded program the local Boys and Girls Club in Socorro, mentioned that two of her participants living at the Alamo Chapter of the Navajo Nation had received work in Socorro but were unable to find transportation. Tony MacRobert, the local JARC coordinator, worked out a plan to provide the transportation, setting up a route to cover the 60-mile distance on a daily basis.

               Working in tandem with the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, one of JARC’s administering entities is the South Central Council of Governments (SCCOG), which also serves as the SAWDB’s administrative entity. It provides more than 600 people in the three south central counties with rides to work, classes, training, day care, substance abuse counseling, medical and dental appointments, and even grocery stores, for as little as a nickel, and on average $2.20.

               JARC also participated in the Hatch Recovery Program after heavy flooding in 2006. The Federal Transportation Administration, however, like many assistance organizations, is facing budgets cuts, reporting that in the coming fiscal year it will be working with a little more than half the funds for JARC that it has had in the past, which could lead to a reduction or even elimination of many of its JARC programs. “If you look at supply and demand, we definitely have the demand,” MacRobert said. “If you give someone the opportunity to move ahead, to move forward on a road to a better life, only for them to find that the bridge is out, there is only one direction for them to go, and that is back to where they came from.”

Teri Hope is the SAWDB Outreach Technical Specialist. She can be reached at (505)744-4857 or by visiting www.swjobconnect.org. Please contact Tony MacRobert with your transportation needs at (505)744-0039 or visit your local office of Workforce Solutions – your One-Stop Career Center—and ask about Workforce Investment Opportunities.

“ The Federal Transportation Administration ... is facing budget cuts.”