Mpact:LAB focuses on building capacity of local leaders. One of the signature offerings of the LAB is MOVE Roundtables. In 2023, we’re hosting Roundtables in Youngstown, OH; Cleveland, OH; and Orlando, FL. As we expand the program’s reach and launch new locations, we also regularly check back in with Roundtable alumni to hear about their ongoing efforts. We’re learning about the ways that participating in a Roundtable seeds momentum. Read on for what’s happening in three places.
What are MOVE Roundtables?
A six-week program that convenes a small stakeholder group to dig into a local priority issue or framing question through the MOVE lenses: Mobility, Opportunity, Voice and Equity. We facilitate six meetings, bringing in speakers with direct experience related to the core question, to not only share tools or approaches but also to engage the stakeholder group in discussion, ideation and problem-solving. Each stakeholder group concludes with a summary and action plan.
St. Louis, MO: Mpact creates readiness
The St. Louis Roundtable focused on how to help older adults use more transportation options. One of the key recommendations, when the Roundtable wrapped up in August 2022, was to create a statewide database of transit options so that transit users could search for and identify service that meets their needs, whether fixed route bus, on-demand microtransit, rideshare, bikeshare, or shuttles for medical appointments. The Roundtable identified an additional layer of challenge: to decipher the geographic limits of each service. For example, if a passenger in St. Louis County needs to travel into St. Louis city limits, which options are available at which times of day? Stakeholder consensus about next steps did not have to wait long to find a forum for activation. Early this year, the Governor of Missouri signed an executive order establishing the Missouri Master Plan on Aging, with goals to help reduce age and disability discrimination, eliminate barriers to safe and healthy aging and help Missourians age with dignity. Half the members of the Roundtable sit on the subcommittee focused on transportation. They presented the idea of a statewide database to the full group. It is now providing a foundation for developing a framework of recommendations to be presented late in 2023.
Pottstown, PA: Mpact builds momentum
The Pottstown Roundtable convened both a local and regional group to grapple with anticipated impacts from a potential regional rail service connection to Philadelphia. Last fall, a Pottstown delegation of these stakeholders attended the Rail~Volution conference in Miami (starting in 2023, the conference is called Mpact Transit + Community). Having built deeper connections and a shared sense of local needs, the group was well-positioned to apply for – and win – a USDOT Thriving Communities grant. One of the goals: “ensure equitable access to economic development activities.”
Youngstown, OH: Mpact helps overcome inertia
The Youngstown Roundtable convened stakeholders along an aging arterial corridor, Belmont Avenue, to re-imagine it as a destination and point of pride for the Mahoning Valley region. While this is a conversation that has taken place over decades, it has been difficult to sustain traction. Since the Roundtable’s conclusion in early 2023, a local community foundation committed support to continue to convene the group. Already they’ve hosted a Bike Belmont event, which drew community members and elected officials to bike the avenue and share feedback about their experience of the street via bike instead of car. Additional activities are in the works, including community clean ups and beautification efforts and small business stimulus events.
Congratulations to Youngstown, Pottstown, and St. Louis MOVE Roundtables on their forward MOVEment! Thanks again to the Lincoln Institute for Land Policy, Pottstown Area Health and Wellness Foundation, and AARP for sponsoring these Roundtables. Learn more about a MOVE Roundtable for your community – or other offerings from Mpact:LAB – please visit [WEBPAGE] or contact Sarah Rudolf, Associate Director.