Frick Impact Academy: Bus Pass Update

On April 16, 2018, a team from St. Mary's College and Genesis went to Frick Impact Academy in Oakland, Ca to get updates from the Community School Manager, Ms. Jaymie Lollie, on the Free Youth Bus Pass program. There were many positives that went along with the Bus Pass program. It seemed that the 240 middle school students and families quickly "normalized" having a free youth bus pass into their lives. The students were able to use the bus passes, in the form of a convenient, personalized Clipper card, for events, field trips, and general transportation for school. Though the Free Bus Pass program seemed to be producing a boat-load of positives, there were also some challenges. In rare instances there seemed to be malfunctions using the Clipper card. In other instances the Clipper card was lost by the student. In both cases the cards had to be replaced, and the replacement process was a little hard for these families. Many did not have credit cards to purchase new ones. Overall, in addition to the challenges, there is the overshadowing fear that these Bus Passes will be taken away as the funding stops. We left the meeting hopeful and with a renewed commitment to monitor the funding. Genesis hopes to continue our relationship building with Frick so that students and families will be able to stand up and protect this program.