Commitment to Community Health in Idaho

The National Aging and Disability Transportation Center (NADTC) recently recognized Ride United as one of fourteen innovative transportation practices selected from a nationwide competition. Ride United is a collaborative project funded by Get Healthy Idaho, a community-driven, placed-based health initiative striving to improve health outcomes, lower healthcare costs, reduce health disparities, and improve health and wellbeing across Idaho.

Ride United, a first-of-its-kind initiative in Idaho, offers free transportation for health-related activities for community members who are patients of the local free clinic, crisis and recovery centers, and mental health providers. This program recognizes that transportation plays a crucial role in accessing essential services, education, employment, healthcare, and other opportunities. Ride United is operated by the United Way of Southeastern Idaho in partnership with participating agencies to offer free transportation solutions to community members in need, especially members of the ALICE (Asset-Limited, Income-Constrained, Employed) population.

The idea for Ride United was developed in close collaboration with Professor Shin Kue Ryu, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Idaho State University, who was the lead author of the Community Action Plan. This report summarizes the findings of a mixed-methods community needs assessment that documents health disparities in Bannock County.

“This is a multi-year grant to pilot new initiatives to address health inequity in Bannock County,” Ryu says. “We were specifically interested in the social determinants of health, which are the factors that drive health outcomes but occur outside of traditional clinical settings--these challenges experienced by many community members in Bannock County.” Ryu says that the initiative has saved lives and prevented serious medical costs through early detection.

“Professor Ryu was absolutely instrumental in helping our team to contextualize the findings of the community needs assessment and to design a plan that would seamlessly find into the existing landscape of governmental and nonprofit resources,” says Dr. Amy Wuest, the Director of Health at United Way of Southeastern Idaho. Since the beginning, Ride United has offered over 7,000 miles of free rides, helped community members access life-saving care, and prevented over $200,000 in medical debt among uninsured individuals. 

“This project would not have happened without the amazing collaborative relationships we have fostered with our partners at Idaho State University,” explains Wuest. “In addition to working with Professor Ryu, we were fortunate to have the opportunity to partner with Professor Elisabeth Fore at the Institute of Rural Health and with Dr. Monica Mispireta. These partnerships allow our community to do more than we could ever accomplish alone.”