Arlington Grant Will Fund Medical Trips For Underserved Seniors

ARLINGTON, MA — The Arlington Council on Aging recently received a grant through the Lahey Hospital & Medical Center Community Benefits Program allowing the town to provide free curb-to-curb transportation to in-person medical appointments for underserved senior populations.

The Council on Aging (COA) will use its accessible passenger vans as well as partner with a local taxi/livery company to provide the rides. The project aims to schedule and complete 100 round trip medical rides for older Arlington residents who identify as a member of a minority population.

As part of the project, the COA will also recruit 10 volunteers to assist with outreach about the available free transportation options within the targeted underserved senior populations. The volunteers will reflect the populations they will serve. Long-term, the program hopes to create new relationships with riders so that they are aware of discounted taxi programs and options to use COA transportation for their transportation needs in the future.

"We're excited to have received this grant and are thankful to the Lahey Hospital & Medical Center for their generosity," COA Director Kristine Shah said. "Part of our mission at the COA is to provide services and programs to help support the senior residents of Arlington and address their needs. Access to transportation has been shown to be one of the barriers minority populations encounter that keep them from accessing healthcare. Though we already have a well-established transportation program, we hope that this program will help to provide additional access through free rides and new relationships between seniors and the COA."