This only-of-its kind virtual event is dedicated to transit professionals to best assist in training and certification goals. FIT 2021 is a mix of one-day and two-day sessions that offer content and certification needs for everyone.
PASS Train-the-Trainer
The (PASS) Train-the-Trainer Certification Program ensures that community transportation drivers have current expertise in passenger assistance techniques and sensitivity skills appropriate for serving persons with disabilities. The PASS Train-the-Trainer program certifies trainers who can then train drivers. Some of the advantages of offering the PASS certification program is the ability to reduce organizational liability; comprehensive, up-to-date training on the assistance drivers should be providing to passengers with special needs; intensive emergency situation training; certification oversight provided by national leaders in the community transportation field; and updates for all participants on relevant regulatory changes. The certification is valid for three years and can be renewed online or by attending a PASS workshop.
This class requires all students to take two pre-requisite online classes before starting this course.
Additionally, CTAA upon successful completion of the Virtual PASS Trainer course, all students have to complete a one-on-one session virtual training session to evaluate proficiency with lift-operations and wheelchair securement. The one-on-one session should take each student no more than 60 minutes to complete. A calendar of available dates and times will be made available during the class.
Master Trainer: Joe Seitz, The Learning & Performance Improvement Group, LLC.
Member Fee: $600
Non-member fee: $750
Professional Transportation Grant Development
Successful public and community transportation programs are those that have diversified their funding base, and strategically pursue new funding opportunities that help them advance their mobility mission. Navigating the world of grants and grant development can be daunting and time consuming, but it’s possible to frame your pursuit of grants in ways that are efficient and speak to your strengths and capacities. Whether your transit organization is a public body or a private nonprofit, and no matter what federal or state funding support you receive, you can learn about how to convert your vision, concepts and ideas into fundable projects. The training will address the overall strategic plan for writing grants, including: needs statement, goals and objectives, activities, strategies, evaluation, personnel and budgets. You will also learn about key elements of successful proposals as well as what to avoid in your proposals. Whether you are new to the field of grant development or a seasoned veteran, this course will enhance the skills you need to succeed in your search for funding.
Acquire the skills needed to:
Senior Instructor: Chris Zeilinger, Community Transportation Association of America (CTAA)
Member fee: $300
Non-member fee: $450
Creating Effective Policies, Procedures & Documentation Strategies
Operating policies and procedures, especially those involving ADA Compliance, are challenging to create. While they may sound good on paper, do they actually work for Operators in service? Jess Segovia, ADA Guru, will share best practices for creating (and enhancing) operating policies and procedures for the delivery of accessible public transit services. An extensive discussion on the impacts of COVID-19 and need for comprehensive Federal Facemask Requirement policies will also be held. The session will conclude with a review of approaches for documenting incidents involving passengers with disabilities as a tool for reducing liability.
Master Trainer: Jess Segovia, ADA Guru
Class Size: 12 seats left.
Member fee: $300
Non-member fee: $450
Transit Marketing Tools for This New World
A transit agency’s communications with customers increasingly occur on line. The pandemic has accelerated this trend. This workshop will address the key ways in which transit systems can market their services digitally – with customer focused websites, mobile information apps, effective use of social media and digital advertising and virtual outreach. A transit agency’s website is often the potential customer’s first interaction with the system. It needs to clearly and quickly answer the many questions that a first time rider has, while also meeting the information needs of long time users. During these times of rapidly changing services, it needs to be a source for up to the minute information. Mobile Apps such as Google Maps, Transit and Moovit make using transit as easy as driving and allow potential users to decide when transit is the optimal travel mode. They are the first step in moving towards MaaS (Mobility as a Service). Social media is a tool that allows transit agency’s to engage directly with existing riders, letting them know what to expect from day to day, while digital and social media advertising can be used to reach new audiences. As traditional outreach efforts have become impossible, video meetings and events have become a way to maintain relationships with important stakeholders or rider groups. The workshop will address how each of these tools can be used to maintain and build transit ridership, what they can and can’t do, and how they fit into the overall transit marketing toolkit.
Senior Trainer: Selena Barlow, Transit Marketing, Inc.
Senior Trainer: Tom Craig, CALACT
Member fee: $300
Non-member fee: $450
Passengers with Disabilities: Greater Accessibility through Greater Sensitivity
Creating greater sensitivity to passengers with disabilities, increases the level of full accessibility to transit service. Accessibility is presented in a framework of proactively removing barriers to transportation that arise through discrimination based on disability. Learning how different types of disabilities require different levels of assistance and communication increases both levels of sensitivity and accessibility. All material is presented from the perspective of the awareness of and sensitivity to diverse types of disabilities to include physical, developmental, cognitive, intellectual and hidden disabilities.
Course Objectives:
Senior Trainer: John Cleveland, Cleveland Civil Rights Consulting
Member fee: $550
Non-member fee: $700
Financial Management for Transit Agencies
In today’s financial management you cannot afford to be without top-notch financial management skills. You must know your true costs of providing service and be able to track those costs and manage your cash flow. Learn how to use financial information, operations data, and proven financial strategies to plan, develop, and implement your transit system objectives. Learn what data to collect and monitor to ensure success and to evaluate potential changes in service – whether it is new service, service enhancements, or reductions in service. This two-day session will provide tools that any transit manager or supervisor can use with existing data and financial reports.
Senior Instructor: A.T. Stoddard, LSC Transportation Consultants, Inc.
Member fee: $550
Non-member fee: $700
Class Size: 8 seats left
Certified Community Transit Supervisor (CCTS)
The front-line supervisor has a pivotal role in the transit organization. They are accountable for most of the day-to-day success of its operations. Many supervisors are promoted from within the ranks of the operating staff, while others come from a variety of backgrounds and must learn to effectively supervise. In their supervisory role, these individuals must also understand the overall objectives and mission of the transit organization, and they must be able to convey its practices, principles, and priorities to the operating staff.
There is a prerequisite to be completed of a self-paced online Front Line Supervisor prerequisite course (four-hours).
The class is taught by Senior Instructor Michael Noel and provides comprehensive training in leadership, working effectively within a team, communication skills, coaching skills, performance gap analysis, motivation, use of positive & progressive discipline, dealing with emotional employees and how to use feedback effectively. At the conclusion of this training, class participants are tested in their mastery of these areas. Having successfully passed the exam the certification will be valid for three years.
Senior Instructor: Michael Noel, Noel Training & Consulting
Member Fee: $600
Non-member fee: $750
The Community Transportation Association of America (CTAA) and its members believe that mobility is a basic human right. From work and education to life-sustaining health care and human services programs to shopping and visiting with family and friends, mobility directly impacts quality of life.
