Call A Ride Southlake | CARS | Southlake Seniors Transportation

CARS (Call a Ride of Southlake) seeks to encourage senior citizens to be more independent and active in the various recreational and social functions offered in Southlake and nearby areas by providing safe transportation for Southlake seniors and disabled individuals who live in Southlake.

Volunteer to support your neighbors

Call a Ride of Southlake (CARS) encourages and enables adults to be more independent and active. CARS’ volunteer drivers provide safe transportation for Southlake seniors and disabled individuals who live in Southlake. Our volunteers provide a level of autonomy to our Southlake neighbors that they lost when they stopped driving.

As a volunteer, you will

* Transport a client up to 25 miles for nonemergency medical appointments
- i. Routine doctor visits
- ii. Physical Therapy appointments
- iii. Day surgeries

* Transport a client up to 7 miles for all other requests
- i. Senior Centers
- ii. Markets, stores, etc.
- iii. Salon Appointments
- iv. Social activities and more

CARS’ Volunteers Serve

Southlake seniors and disabled adults

* Our clients no longer drive
* “Transportation is critical to ensuring that older adults maintain their independence and mobility and remain connected to their communities.” The National Center on Senior Transportation.
* CARS serves as an additional resource for families “sandwiched” between caring for young children and aging parents.
- i. CARS cannot fulfill 100% of requests without more volunteers
- ii. CARS typically helps families with 10 – 20 % of their ride requests
* This can mean the difference between a client participating in the community or sitting at home alone.

How CARS’ Volunteers Help

* We are the only agency of this kind to offer free transportation to the residents of Southlake, Texas.
* Because of CARS, seniors and disabled adults can autonomously participate in everyday activities. CARS helps our clients remain a part of the larger community and feel less of a burden to their adult children.
* Volunteers transport for the following:
- i. Shopping
- ii. Community activities
- iii. Medical appointments
- iv. Essential Errands

How It Works (Volunteers):

* Volunteers complete an application (here)
* Volunteers undergo an annual background check for the safety of our clients
* Volunteers provide proof of a valid Texas driver’s license and auto insurance
- - CARS provides supplemental secondary insurance for volunteer drivers
* Volunteers once approved, get a weekly schedule of ride requests
* Volunteers sign up for requests that fit their schedules in coordination with the CARS’ dispatcher
- - While every attempt is made to fill every ride request, it is impossible without additional volunteer drivers.
* Call A Ride of Southlake volunteers use their own cars and gas to take clients to appointments:
- i. Up to 7 miles from Southlake Town Hall to grocery shop, pick up prescriptions, or to attend programs at area senior centers
- ii. Up to 25 miles from Southlake Town Hall for medical appointments
  - -However, the vast majority are within Southlake and surrounding communities.
This is a “curb to curb” service
- i. Volunteers pick up at the curb and drop off at the curb
- ii. Volunteers do not accompany clients into appointments
- iii. Typically, a round trip for a client appointment requires two separate volunteer drivers:
  - * one for the pick-up and another for the return

How It Works (Clients):

* Potential clients complete an application (provided via email or US Postal)
* Potential clients undergo a brief phone interview to confirm any health issues and go over the ride request process

CARS reserves the right to determine eligibility based on our ability to accommodate individuals with certain conditions and circumstances. Applicants with conditions such as Dementia, Alzheimer’s, wheelchair bound and those undergoing treatments for Cancer, may be considered or not (determined by our operations staff). While we’d love to serve everyone, we are a nonprofit utilizing volunteers who are untrained. We’d hate, for example, to have a cancer patient miss treatment because we could not fill a ride due to lack of volunteer availability. In cases like this, CARS would not be a good fit as the primary means of transport. Once approved:

Clients request rides via text, email, or phone
- * A minimum of 72-hour (about 3 days) notice
- * Typically done the Friday of the prior week
- * Receives confirmation of the ride the evening before their ride
  Note: Trip requests are not scheduled on a first-come, first-served basis; the schedules are created to maximize capacity. It may not be possible to accommodate all trip requests, and you will be informed as soon as possible if your trip cannot be scheduled.

Donations support your neighbors

* If volunteers are the “gas in CARS’ engine” then donations help pay for that “gas.”
* Donations cover the cost of insurance, technology, employees and this website, etc.
* CARS’ funding comes primarily from:
- i. The City of Southlake
- ii. Tarrant County
- iii. Southlake Women’s Club Foundation
- iv. Individual donations

Please donate here today or call the CARS office for more information on how you can help keep “our engine revving and the wheels turning.”