Statements

Mission

Our mission is to raise awareness and build support for funding improved multimodal regional transit and mobility.

Background

In April 2009, a group of leaders from Nashville and Middle Tennessee visited Denver, Colorado, as a part of an inter-city visit arranged by the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce. A focus of that visit was mass transit in the Denver region including a look at the Denver region's Transit Alliance, a model for similar groups around the nation. Parallel to the creation of the Transit Alliance was the creation of a Denver region Mayors Caucus bringing together for the first time the elected leaders of the counties and cities of the Denver area to seek consensus on regional issues, including the development of mass transit options.Upon returning to Nashville, the elected officials and other leaders on the Denver visit quickly committed to the creation of both a Mayors Caucus and a Transit Alliance for Middle Tennessee. Mayor Jo Ann Graves, City of Gallatin, became the first chair of the Mayors Caucus. Charles Bone from Sumner County was the first chair and Ed Cole from Davidson County was the first executive director of the Transit Alliance of Middle Tennessee. In late 2009, the Transit Alliance of Middle Tennessee was formally established as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.Since 2009, the Transit Alliance has been working to build support for funding regional transit by educating and empowering communities to efficiently and effectively make policy decisions that serve their local purpose and fit within the context of the region.

Impact

Since 2009: The Transit Alliance has held 23 Transit Citizen Leadership Academies, bringing the total number of regional TCLA Alumni to 532. In 2018: The Transit Alliance partnered with the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) and Cumberland Region Tomorrow (CRT) to continue community outreach in Middle TN focusing on the results of the nMotion plan, the adopted strategic plan for the RTA. Including, but not limited to what it says and what that means and/or could mean for their communities. Through these county 'mini-summits' TAMT reached over 3,000 middle Tennesseans.

TAMT also joined the Transit for Nashville Coalition to help bring awareness to Nashville's transit referendum. The work was to speak to community members and answer questions both one-to-one and as a presenter at community meetings. Though that effort failed, the Transit Alliance has remained central to the ongoing discussions of a new transportation plan for Nashville and, by extension, the region. By re-forming the Transit for Nashville Coalition into Connect MidTN, the Transit Alliance and several other organizations and businesses have worked to keep the momentum of funding transit.

Throughout COVID, TAMT has been on the lookout for new opportunities to keep up with the demand for transit information. Transit has become a most essential public asset during the pandemic.

Beginning in April 2020, the TAMT piloted several new programs. The starting point was a community fundraiser to provide frontline workforce lunches for bus operators at WeGo and Franklin Transit. Combined, we raised over $4,000 to provide 500 lunches to Middle Tennessee bus operators. Then, we hosted a free, four-part speaker series in May to help people understand the complexity and essential nature of transit during the pandemic. There were 80 attendees. TAMT collaborated with Neighbor 2 Neighbor (N2N) and the Greater Nashville Realtors to host a 3-week Neighborhood Transit Institute (NTI). It was free to attend and participants spent 3-hours for 3 consecutive Saturdays learning about transit and their neighborhoods. The last new program added in 2020 was the collaboration with Urban Fellows intern. This intern, from Vanderbilt's Peabody College of Education, and supervised by Jessica Dauphin, developed an 11-hour STEM curriculum for high school 10th graders at Hillsboro High School.

The strategic plan, funded by the FRIST Foundation, began in the Spring and its final phase.

The Alliance created a transit advocate training and toolkit on the website that anyone can access. This is to ensure those who truly believe transit is essential will be able to tell their story publicly when and where it counts.

Goals for 2022 include hosting three TCLA, collaborating with N2N for the third NTI, training at least 60 transit advocates online, beginning work on identified goals of the strategic plan, finding innovative and more creative ways to communicate with our communities, and more.

The Transit Alliance is pleased to say we've met our goals from last year: Host 2 TCLA, Host 1 NTI, Host 4, one-hour webinars, and find ways to more effectively utilize and engage TCLA alumni.

Individual freedoms are directly tied to mobility. We believe it is time that Nashville turn its attention to safety and mobility. We hope to embark on a robust and ambitious community outreach campaign to reach thousands of Nashvillians to hear their concerns about transportation and mobility for them. Attentive listening and public participation are the main ingredients to building a better future for all. We are ready to get started. We will need partners--lots of partners. Please consider joining us by enrolling in one of our programs and giving generously to our efforts to co-create a Nashville we can all be proud of.

Needs

$70,000 - Funding for adding staff to help manage new programs.
$15,000 - Funding for Transit Citizen Leadership Academies - each TCLA costs approximately $7,500.
$10,000 - Funding for technology updates and effective database/software access to support better reports and communication with partners.
$10,000 - Nashville Transit Institute
Communications Campaign
Community Outreach and Engagement
Coalition-Building efforts

CEO Statement

TAMT is the only 501(c)3 in middle Tennessee working to raise awareness and build support for a regional transit system with a dedicated funding source. Our reputation is impeccable. Our award-winning programs are unparalleled. Our ability to bring in speakers from the local, state and national level gives participants a real-world view of transportation and how it affects our lives and our region. We work to inform not only citizens but also elected and appointed leaders. These leaders then have the tools they need to develop good public policy and planning for the future.

Business, community, and elected leaders need support in making good policy decisions. That's why the Alliance is now focused on an ambitious and robust plan for grassroots organizing and community outreach. Nashville has the opportunity to define itself as a forward-thinking city that prioritizes equitable investments and access to opportunities for all, but the communities need to be involved in what decisions are made. The best and only way to find consensus is to attentively listen to concerns from residents and diligently work with them to find solutions.

At the end of the day, this is the issue that will define the Nashville region for generations. Are we going to step up and invest in our communities? Are we going to invest in making strides toward becoming an equitable city? Are we going to be competitive for the billions of dollars in new infrastructure funding over the next five years from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law? Together, we can move forward. Will you join us?

Service Categories
Primary Category:	Public & Societal Benefit  - Public Transportations Systems
Secondary Category:	Public & Societal Benefit  - Leadership Development
Tertiary Category:	Community Improvement, Capacity Building  - Alliances & Advocacy

Areas Served

The Middle Tennessee 10-county region.

TN - Davidson

TN

TN - Dickson

TN - Maury

TN - Montgomery

TN - Robertson

TN - Rutherford

TN - Sumner

TN - Williamson

TN - Wilson

TN - Cheatham