Independent Transportation Network (ITN)

With start-up assistance from the Winter Park Health Foundation and administrative support from the Senior Resource Alliance, ITN for Central Florida was established in fall 2006. The program was later developed into a separate 501(c)3 non-profit organization known as ITNOrlando™. The program is operating to offer door-through-door, arm-through-arm, dignified transportation service to seniors and adults with visual impairments, and peace of mind to their families.

ITN service is available in Eatonville, Maitland, Winter Park and a number of adjacent neighborhoods. Its service area will grow with additional volunteers and private resources. Eventually, the ITN could expand throughout Central Florida.

What are the benefits of ITNOrlando™?
ITNOrlando™ is designed to offer seniors the maximum in choice and freedom and an extra level of assistance:

Transportation 24 hours a day, 7 days a week within the defined service area.
Volunteer and paid drivers providing rides and door-through-door customer assistance.
Community partnerships to help reduce costs for seniors, through programs such as Shop & Ride, Healthy Miles, and Road Scholarships, and gift certificates from family and friends.
Older adults will establish memberships in ITNOrlando™ and maintain personal transportation accounts to pay for their transportation.
ITNOrlando™ will supplement - not replace - existing transportation options for older and visually impaired adults in the communities it serves.

"This program will be one more piece in the effort to solve the puzzle of senior transportation. For many seniors, transportation is a limiting factor and we hope this program will help to reduce that limitation for seniors in Winter Park, Maitland, and Eatonville,"
Dr. Douglas Beach
Secretary of Department of Elder Affairs and Former CEO of The Senior Resource Alliance

How can you help establish this needed resource? Contact ITNOrlando™ to:

Volunteer to drive at least once a month.
Become a member-donor to support ITNOrlando™.
Organize a program information get-together
Become an ambassador for ITNOrlando™ in your community
Donate a car to ITNOrlando™

About Independent Transportation Network (ITN)^®

(ITN)^® is a nonprofit, membership organization dedicated to helping seniors (60 and older) and people with visual impairments with their transportation needs. Using private automobiles and both volunteer and paid drivers, the ITN transports these community members 24 hours a day, seven days a week anywhere within an ITN service area.

The ITN has operated successfully in Portland, Maine for 11 years and is currently being replicated in cities (Lexington, KY, Middletown, CT, North Charleston, SC, Chicago, IL, Cincinnati, OH, Los Angeles, CA, Las Vegas, NV, Windsor, CT, Westbrook, ME, Davenport, IA, San Diego, CA, Sarasota, FL, St. Charles, MO) throughout the United States. It sustains itself through innovative community partnership programs, including:

Gift certificates from adult children
CarTrade--trading in a car for rides
Ride & Shop and Healthy Miles--merchants and health-care providers help pay for rides
Volunteer credits
Community Road Scholarship Program--local towns receive transportation credit for low-income seniors by recruiting volunteer drivers.

ITN uses no taxpayer dollars for on-going operating or capital expenses. The Maine program provides more than 15,000 door-to-door rides a year for approximately 1,000 elders.

Public and private organizations supported ITN's research and development, culminating in a three-phased approach.

Develop of ITN model
Business Plan for the national rollout
National rollout.

For more information, please contact ITNOrlando™