Fort Wayne’s Community Transportation Network is making changes to its efforts for the next 60 days to support community needs amid the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak.
CTN is a private nonprofit that launched in 2000. Its mission is to provide full access to community resources through friendly transportation services for seniors, persons with disabilities, children, youth and the agencies that support them.
A typical ride for medical services on average costs CTN $56, which executive director Justin Clupper says is their largest expense. For residents, that only costs $11, courtesy of community donations, grants and Medicaid.
Now, Clupper says CTN is hoping Medicaid will provide further help.
“We reached out saying, ‘Send us everything you’ve got, and we’ll figure it out.’ We’re opening up our hours a bit more. Typically our medical service is done between ten and one in the middle of the day, so that fits with other trips that we’re doing and we’ve said we’ll take whatever we need,” Clupper said.
He says that community members have always reliably helped support CTN’s mission, and he’s hopeful that holds true now.
“We typically do about 26- to 27,000 medical trips per year, and that’s what that covers. So for us to add more medical, that means we’ve got to fundraise a lot more to fill that gap," said Clupper. "So we’re trying something on Facebook to try and raise some extra dollars there and we’ll see how that goes, but everybody’s tight now, we know.”
Clupper adds that sanitization practices have increased as well, with vehicles being scrubbed down and cleaned after each patient leaves.
A person in need of the service can contact the office at 260-420-3280.
Individuals with symptoms of COVID-19 are asked to speak with a medical provider before confirming a trip using CTN.
