Safety and Mental Health Resources card to be placed on light rail cars and buses by the end of August

Public transportation plays a critical role in the health of the communities it serves. RTD connects customers to family, jobs, childcare, medical appointments and more. The agency’s dedicated team of transit professionals encounter customers who may be experiencing a personal crisis on any given day. As the conversation around mental health awareness and personal safety continues, RTD is doing its part to help those who need help the most, and the latest tactic the agency is using is the Safety and Mental Health Resources card.

The idea for these cards began back in 2021. Technical Training Instructor and Supervisor Jon Paul Mitchell created a card for bus operators and Transit Police that contained a list of resources one could access in the event of a crisis. The cards, called HOPE cards, were handed out by operators and Transit Police officers to those who needed access to potentially lifesaving, and life changing, resources.

The cards soon expanded into a trifold resource guide developed by the Homeless Outreach Program, an RTD-led initiative that provides resources to unhoused individuals who interact with RTD’s system. These new guides contained contacts for vetted vendors and shelters to assist with the growing unhoused population that spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Eventually, the success of these trifolds led to yet another evolution, this time containing contacts for emergency overnight, day and domestic violence shelters, in addition to contacts for mental health services. These handouts were given to frontline employees to stock on their buses and trains. Mitchell and Deputy Chief Steve Martingano eventually teamed up to create a training course for operators, which takes place during new operator training, that helps operators empathize with the unhoused and identify signs of a mental health crisis in customers.

Now, the project receives its largest makeover yet, and Betsy Hinojosa, Business Program Manager and leader of the agency’s Impact Team initiative, is leading the charge.

“When Communications and Engagement reviewed the brochure, we wanted to find a way to make it more sustainable in the long term,” Hinojosa said.

In the years since the pandemic, changes were needed to the brochure to ensure customers had the best possible resources available at their fingertips.

“When reviewing the brochure, there were organizations that had outdated information or no longer had the capacity to reliably assist,” Hinojosa said.

Hinojosa collaborated with Mitchell, and sought the help of team members from Customer Care, Marketing and Transit Equity to revise the card and make it available in Spanish to help more customers.

“The purpose of revising the card was to ensure contact information was accurate for the original organizations listed, but also that those organizations still had capacity to accept new referrals.,” Hinojosa said. “It was important to us that when we refer a customer to an organization, the customer would be received with care and, if eligible, access.”

The Colorado Human Trafficking Hotline was added, as well as Mile High United Way’s 2-1-1 Help Center.

“We did not want anyone to be turned away if we could help it,” Hinojosa said. “We also wanted to streamline the card to ensure it could last for years to come, without the consistent need for verification.”

The new cards are expected to be added to light rail trains and fixed route buses by the end of August, near the paper schedules and maps. Additionally, the cards are now available digitally online on the RTD website, found on both the “How to Ride” and “Transit Police” webpages, underneath the “Partners in Safety” subpage.

Alongside the digital and print versions, Impact Team members, Transit Police officers and bus operators will have copies of these cards available to hand out to customers who may need them.