Monroe County NOW announces effort to increase parking garage safety and partnership with Bloomington Transit to promote services to Spanish-speaking community members

Monroe County NOW has partnered with Bloomington Transit to promote services to Spanish-speaking community members using money granted by the City of Bloomington’s Violence Reduction Grant in 2023.

The City of Bloomington announced September 1,2023, that it would fund the efforts of the Monroe County NOW “Unite to End Violence” campaign in the amount of $7300 to promote safe night-time transportation and safety in parking garages. Then-Mayor John Hamilton designated $125,000 in funding directly to support community-based efforts to prevent, intervene and reduce violence in Bloomington. The City of Bloomington Community and Family Resources Department administers the new Community-Based Violence Reduction Grants – a project to invest annually in evidence-based violence prevention projects offered by neighborhood-based agencies and organizations in Bloomington.

“We asked residents, from students that lived off-campus to members of our neighborhoods most in need of services, what some of the biggest safety issues they had were. Parking garage safety and late night transportation were some of the biggest concerns. And we have great services, like Bloomington Transit’s Late Nite On-Demand program. I am a city council nerd and heard about the program when it started, but not everyone is aware of it. So Monroe County NOW has made it apriority to make sure as many residents know about it as we can. And having materials available in Spanish is important to us,” Monroe County NOW Vice-President Natalia Galvan said.

In May 2022, Bloomington Transit partnered with Lyft and Uber to provide late night trips within the Late Nite service area between 9:00 pm to 11:59 pm, Monday through Friday. Interested Bloomington residents are asked to use the URL:https://bloomingtontransit.com/bt-late-nite-on-demand/ to access more program details. Riders without smart phones may call BT to book a trip at 812-336-7433.

Monroe County NOW worked with La Casa Latino Cultural Center and Indiana University student, Francisco Garcia-Lopez, to translate key Bloomington Transit materials for Spanish-speaking residents who noted “I love my community and I am proud to be part of it no matter where I am. I’m honored to be able to help my community in Bloomington!”

Monroe County NOW and chapter intern and Indiana University student, Sanjana Iyer, are also working on a survey and flyer to increase safety in our city’s parking garages. “This flyer was created to share and help us with our safety initiatives to ensure the safest possible environment for students and Bloomington residents. The city of Bloomington violence prevention grant could greatly use any and all responses, not only for our work but to help you and your peers too,” said Iyer. The flyers will be dispersed around the city and are available on our MCNOW website at: www.monroecountynow.org and on MCNOW’s social media platforms found by searching for “Monroe County NOW.”

Monroe County NOW will partner with the Monroe County Health Equity Council (MCHEC) to ensure disbursement of materials in the near future and will also send translated flyers to community agencies and leaders in the coming weeks.