Easy Lift Looks to expand services

By By MAX KELLEY -- JULY 30, 2010

With the American Disabilities Act celebrating its 20-year anniversary this week, Easy Lift Transportation has announced a desire to expand its business to provide further help for the community.

Easy Lift, a company that offers rides for the elderly en route to social activities and errands, wants to take its company further by working to develop various new programs for the community, the elderly and other age groups.

“The elderly community is growing at an exponential rate, and right now, the amount of people who need service is exceeding the amount of vans we have,” said Ernesto Paredes, Executive Director of Easy Lift Transportation. “We are trying to fundraise so that we can get more.”

The company is currently turning to the community for donations to increase the amount of service they can provide.

“Most people don’t realize what the company is until they need it,” Paredes said. “We want to show the community that it will benefit them to donate to us now.

Paredes’ fear is that elderly persons who need the service will not be able to get to doctors’ appointments and other necessary outings, forcing family members and others to step in.

The elderly population is not the only demographic that would be aided by donations.

Easy Lift has created a program, Child Accessibility Transportation (CAT), which serves the needs of disabled children.

“There are programs out there for disabled children, but a lot of the time children do not have a means to get to them,” said Paredes. “We currently have a van that will work with children. But, we are seeking to serve the child demographic better.”

Ultimately, Paredes wants to sync the needs of various transportation services in Santa Barbara.

“Easy Lift is looking into types of software that will allow for various companies to work together, so that less vans are used overall,” Paredes said. “Instead of just picking up one passenger, our vans will be able to see that there is a person needing transportation on the same route and be able to provide that person with service as well. This way we will be getting multiple passengers.”

Paredes also is trying to work closely with companies to figure out how vans can be used by others.

“A lot of the time, vans will only be used for short amounts of time, and they will just left in a parking lot for large chunks of the time,” Paredes said. “We want to utilize them for other groups, such as children, so that when the vans are available, they are not being wasted.”.

The idea for combining services has been accepted by other organizations, which often work closely with Easy Lift.

 “Easy Lift has been providing service for us for more than six years,” said Eryn Eckert, the programs and services director of Friendships Adult Day Service. “They are wonderful. They provide great service to our patrons. They also provide help for the entire process of transportation, which is an important aspect of this business.”

As the need for the organization continues to grow, its work with the community has remained on par.

“I have been using Easy Lift since 2007,” said Mary Rebeles a Santa Barbara resident. “I use it to get to the doctor or go get groceries. This service is easily the best . . . I have no idea what I would do without it.”

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Easy Lift should expand their Driver Safety Program first : 7/30/2010

This new children accessibility van ran a stop street on Olive at Haley 2 days ago and I had to hit my brakes, hard, to avoid a collision. Way to go Easy Lift!

Should expand your safety

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