About ATWIC: A Bit Of History

To help support implementation of welfare reform legislation by the Allegheny County Assistance Office, The Pittsburgh Foundation formed the Access to Work Task Force in 1997.  The objective of this Task Force was to improve mobility and economic opportunity for welfare recipients and other low income people in Allegheny and surrounding counties through the provision of new or enhanced public transportation services.

 The Pittsburgh Foundation continued to spear-head regional job access efforts until 2005 when Port Authority of Allegheny County, Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, and the Three Rivers Workforce Investment Board (TRWIB) came together to collectively coordinate all access to work initiatives for the SW PA region through a newly formed entity called the Access to Work Interagency Cooperative (ATWIC).

A year later, after adding to its field of endeavor “access to jobs/services for people with disabilities”, ATWIC was renamed Accessible Transportation and Workforce Interagency Cooperative.  Its overall role is to:

• Build strong regional support for an integrated transportation system.
• Fully understand the many transportation barriers facing our region’s poor and disabled populations.
• Facilitate the development and implementation of solutions designed to alleviate transportation barriers.
• Coordinate FTA’s Job Access and Reverse Commute (JARC) and New Freedom (NF) grant application review and approval processes for Pittsburgh’s Urbanized Areas.

[ top ]