FlexRide Milwaukee offers free rides to qualifying families

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- FlexRide Milwaukee announced the expansion of their services Monday, Sept. 18.

The expansion comes as the program has seen rapid growth over the past several months.

"Here we are, a year and a half later, and we've provided 35,000 rides to Milwaukee residents to job sites in the suburbs," said Dave Steele, executive director of MobiliSE.

The announcement was made at Malaika Early Learning Center in Milwaukee's Harambee neighborhood.

"It's about reducing the barrier, and even overcoming and eliminating the barrier that is transportation," said Steele.

The Milwaukee-based ride sharing service, which is similar to Lyft or Uber, is now offering free rides to eligible working families.

"We hear all the time from these families, they need convenient access to affordable, quality child care and family-sustaining jobs, and often times the jobs are not where they live, said Chytania Brown, president and CEO of Employ Milwaukee.

The program was started in the spring of 2022, using funds from the Wisconsin Workforce Innovation Grant, along with additional federal funds from ARPA.

Brown went on to say those dollars are on a ticking clock.

"That’s why we are kind of moving fast, because we really hope to raise awareness of the need, and to hope to get some additional resources to continue," said Brown.

And while the program looks for new funding sources, they hope for continued success in helping close the workforce divide.

"Some of these issues are so much bigger than what we can do long-term, but we can find some short-term solutions, and this is definitely one of those things," said Brown.

For more information on FlexRide Milwaukee, click the link here.