Douglas County RideShare: Providing Alternative Transportation to Residents

Multimodal Transportation Centerb
Douglas County Transportation Center

Gas prices have fallen over the last couple of days, but if you’ve got a long commute to work or school, your commute costs are probably still more than you’d like to pay.  You might want to check out the alternative transportation options you can get through Douglas County’s RideShare program.

Douglas County’s RideShare program provides VanPools, Express Bus Service to major metropolitan destinations, and Carpool matching services to Douglas County residents.  The RideShare program was formulated in 1986 and its offices are located in the Douglas County Transportation Center that is behind the Courthouse.

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CASA: Make a Lifelong Difference in a Child’s Life

You can make a lifelong difference in an abused and neglected child’s life by becoming the child’s voice in the court system as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA).  Pamela Butler, a former CASA recipient who is now a college student, summed up CASA’s role nicely:

“When you’re young, no one listens to you.  To give a child a CASA is to give them a voice.  To give them a voice is to give them hope, and to give them hope is to give them the world.”

A brief history of CASA

CASA was conceived in 1976 by Seattle Superior Court Judge David Soukup after he became frustrated about having to rule on decisions involving abused and neglected children without having sufficient information.  Judge Soukup formulated a program, tapped into social resources, and raised funding to recruit and train a corp of community volunteers to act as the child’s voice by speaking up for the best interests of abused and neglected children in court proceedings.

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