Driving your local community
Flexibus and Meath Volunteer Centre have developed and launched together an exciting new transport scheme - Meath Community Car scheme. This is a volunteer initiative aimed at improving transport access to hospitals for older people. A panel of volunteers will be established to drive patients to clinics, using the volunteers car.
The scheme will cover any additional insurance costs, petrol costs and training so that no volunteer is out of pocket for participating in the initiative.The Community Car scheme itself will start in early 2012 with the time between now and then being spent recruiting volunteers from around the county.
Miriam McKenna, Manager at Flexibus explains,
“Access to affordable transport is regularly quoted as one of the major reasons for social exclusion for older peopleparticularly in rural areas. Currently, Flexibus is able to provide a limited hospital service particularly for people with mobility difficulties. However there are occasions where we can’t provide the service which can cause great distress or great cost for an older person” Specifically, in the case of hospital visits, given the downgrading of services in Meath, many people face longer and more expensive journeys to hospitals in Dublin, Cavan or Drogheda.”
Stephen Cousins, Manager at Meath Volunteer Centre, adds “as part of our strategy launch for 2012-2015, Meath Volunteer Centre is currently promoting its ‘Leave your Mark on Meath’ campaign to encourage people throughout Meath to get involved in volunteering and make a difference in their local communities. The Community car scheme is a perfect example of how people can leave their mark and benefit others and themselves”.
The Community car scheme will create a panel of volunteers in each local community throughout Meath. These volunteers will indicate times they are on call and available to volunteer. When a person in their local community needs transport, Flexibus will contact volunteers on the local panel, and if a volunteer is available at the required time, they can then bring that older person to their hospital visit. “But the real value of this volunteer service is the personal contact and support the volunteer driver can give to an older person preparing for a hospital visit. It’s a practical way of helping and befriending people in need in your local community – and because Flexibus cover the costs, the volunteer won’t be out of pocket for doing a good deed”
If you would like to participate in the scheme or for further information about the scheme or open day, contact Meath Volunteer Centre (Community car scheme) at 046-9280790 or Flexibus at 046 907 4830 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. You can also register with the scheme on this site by selecting the register now button.
