The facilitators of a ride sharing program received $5,000 from the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank to continue providing rides to people in need.

Rise Up Rides is a collaborative effort between administrators of the Alliance for Nonprofit Resources, the Lighthouse Foundation and Butler Collaborative for Families, and has helped take people to and from food banks, stores and even their jobs.

Cody Slater, director of transportation for ANR, said the Pittsburgh food bank actually offered the program $10,000, but Rise Up Rides coordinators held off on taking the full amount in order to put the money to best use.

“As an organization, we don't want to see funds put to waste, if we're not able to use those funds in the best way,” Slater said. “If we use a certain percentage of that by the end of March, we'll take the other $5,000.”

According to Jayme Steighner, senior programs director with the Lighthouse Foundation, clients of other local nonprofits and agencies refer people to Rise Up Rides, and its coordinators help them schedule their trips. Grant money received by the program pays for ANR’s transportation costs, she said.

The group received a $5,000 grant to start the program from Butler Collaborative for Families, and it was matched by Family Pathways CEO Elan Welter Lewis, so the program ended up with $10,000 to work with.

Slater said the coordinators of the program planned to use the money until it ran out, which is still their mindset with receiving further funding.

“The goal is more to continue than grow,” Slater said. “Let's do the small things right. Stay small, stay local, stay focused on Butler.”

Rise Up Rides takes on clients who are referred to the service by other social service agencies like ANR, the Center for Community Resources and the Lighthouse Foundation, Slater said. Slater also said people who normally would have no method of quick transportation to places of interest have managed to buy their own transportation after being driven by ANR for even as short as a few months.

“We just finished up taking an individual to and from work,” Slater said. “She said she wouldn’t have been able to get a car without Rise Up Rides taking her to work every day.”