Pilot Stage Awardee: Bikes 4 employees
The Detroit Greenways Coalition received a $180,000 Pilot Stage grant in July 2023
Lead Organization: Detroit Greenways Coalition
Collaborator(s): The Greenway Guy, Impact Detroit
Contact: Tim Springer, Program Manager, Tim@TheGreenwayGuy.com, 612-355-9600
Focus Area: Expense Reduction
Bikes 4 Employees (B4E) is designed to pair Detroiters in need of reliable transportation with high-quality bicycles that help to reduce their daily expenses and improve physical health along the way. The B4E program launched originally in 2020 as “Bikes 4 Essential Workers,” a program which leveraged philanthropic investment to provide bikes to essential workers in need of transportation to work. Now, B4E is exploring an expanded partnership model which will allow employers, social service organizations – and potentially even higher education institutions – to subsidize bicycles on behalf of their employees, clients and students.
Highlights
Pilot Stage Objectives
Bikes 4 Employees joined the Detroit Financial Well-Being Innovation Challenge to redesign their bike giveaway model which relied heavily on philanthropic investment to fuel the program. During the Pilot Stage, B4E will test sustainable revenue models, using partnerships with recruitment partners that will help them serve a higher proportion of the Detroiters in need of this support. They will:
- Provide high-quality bicycles, e-bikes and cargo bikes to 110 residents of Detroit, Hamtramck and Highland Park who do not have reliable transportation to work, school or other daily destinations.
- Work with recruiting partners (City of Detroit, Detroit Employment Solutions Corporation, Development Centers, Flex-N-Gate, The Greening of Detroit, SER Metro, Henry Ford Health, Live6 Alliance, Matrix Human Services, Wayne Metro CAA and Wayne State University) to recruit bike applicants from among their employees, students and clients, and provide bikes, gear and support to those with the greatest need.
- Identify the financial, staffing, client servicing and partner requirements to be able to provide 110 bikes – and extrapolate that to understand what it would take to serve thousands of clients.
Research Questions & Evaluation
As part of their Pilot Stage grant, the Bikes 4 Employees project is participating in a third-party evaluation conducted by University of Michigan’s Poverty Solutions. This evaluation process is designed to help project leaders measure the success of their pilot, consider learnings from the implementation process and apply those learnings to their plans for growth. Among several questions to be explored during the Pilot Stage are:
- What support do recruiting partners need from B4E to recruit bike recipients and find resources to support the program, especially if the program is scaled up?
- How successful are the recruitment materials that B4E provides to recruiting partners in encouraging target audience to apply?
- What types of support are needed to help bike recipients achieve their goals related to using their new bikes as reliable transportation, saving money, improving their health and more?
Findings will be shared at the end of the Pilot Stage (September 2024). Come back soon to check out insights from implementation!
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