Local nonprofit organization Easy Lift Transportation received the honor of Top Paratransit for California at the recent statewide California Association of Coordinated Transportation Conference in Lake Tahoe.

This award reveres transit programs focused on serving frail seniors and people living with severe disabilities. This is the first such honor for Easy Lift, now in its 39th year serving south Santa Barbara County.

Easy Lift was recognized for its programmatic efficiency, innovative transit solutions, financial stability, and community collaboration.

Known for its Dial-A-Ride program, started by the local Easter Seals chapter and Community Action Commission, Easy Lift has become a focal community transit resource with multiple services.

Programs such as Children’s Accessible Transportation provide free and low-cost transit to other nonprofit organizations with limited means to offer their own transit options.

This program, in partnership with the Orfalea Foundation and supported by Women’s Fund of Santa Barbara, has provided more than 50,000 rides, saving other nonprofits tens of thousands of dollars which can be put into scholarships and programs expenses.

“We are unbelievably grateful to Ernesto and to the Easy Lift staff,” said Victoria Juarez, executive director at Girls Inc of Carpinteria.

“They helped us launch our EUREKA program providing our girls transportation from Carpinteria to UCSB every day for six weeks each summer, exposing them to the riches of higher education.” she said.

Easy Lift Executive Director Ernesto Paredes, now in his 23rd year with the organization, emphasizes the strength of community partners and supporters, citing the 1990s as a particularly transitional time for the organization.

“The Americans with Disabilities Act had just passed, but fortunately partners like MTD and Montecito Bank and Trust were there, and are still important partners today.” Paredes said.

“Our strength as an organization is our drivers. They have to be some of the most caring and compassionate individuals I have ever met. I would trust any of our drivers to transport my own mother, and they do.”
 
In 2019, Easy Lift will celebrate its 40th anniversary and launch new initiatives, programs and services.

Those will continue to address the developments in transportation, such as Uber, Lyft, driverless cars and drones, to improve access to healthcare and programs serving people who are food insecure.

For more about Easy Lift programs and services, or make a donation, call 681-1181, or visit www.easylift.org.

— Adriana Marroquin for Easy Lift Transportation.