Local nonprofit thinks bus liaison contract in Columbia is a step in the right direction

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Public buses in the City of Columbia will soon have liaisons, but people will have to wait roughly a month to 90 days before they see them in full swing.

The Columbia City Council unanimously approved a $99,840 contract to Powerhouse Community Development on Monday night. The city's Office of Violence Prevention had planned to award the fund to the group to help deescalate situations on the city's buses. The money is coming from funds that were set aside for the office.

According to Chief Executive Officer of Powerhouse Community Development Charles Stephenson, the nonprofit is planning to have one woman and man ride the buses within the city to help keep the buses safe.

"We've seen so much community violence and negativity happening in the city. It's a positive city, but there's so much happening in the city and so many people are restless," Stephenson said. "Some of the experiences that we've encountered have really shook up the community and so Powerhouse is always trying to be involved to improve quality of life and creating a safe, healthy environment for people."

Stephenson said it isn't clear right now which routes the liaisons will be on, or during which hours, as the logistics of the plan are still being worked out. However, he said the city has conducted research to see which routes are a priority and when the peak times are that see the most issues occur.

Stephenson said the group plans to meet sometime next week to go over data.

The city began to have discussions on how to improve safety within buses after several people reported issues of fights, threats and drunk passengers. That led to Columbia's Office of Violence Prevention leader D'Markus Thomas-Brown looking to step in.

The liaisons are trained in de-escalation and HEAT training, which refers to people who are able to help people who have experienced adversity, violence, poverty and discrimination. Stephenson said the liaisons are also trained in conflict resolution and said they plan to continue training as time goes along and they evaluate how things are going.

Stephenson said it's also important the liaisons are there to help guide people in the right direction and turn a negative situation into a positive one.

"People are going through a lot in this society right now. We've got a lot of tension in society, a lot of division, a lot of anger and frustration with gas prices, prices of food, people are depressed. So, these navigators not only have been trained how to deescalate, but how to give guidance and assistance so that we can connect people to the resources they may need," Stephenson said.

Stephenson said details mattered when planning, even down to the color the liaisons will wear on the bus.

"When you think of orange, you think of a lot of convicts coming out of prison...when you think of yellow, you think of policemen at stop signs directing traffic and some of them can be traumatic and triggering," Stephenson said. "We wanted to have a neutral color that was more of an engaging color...we don't want to look like security guards or police men. We want to look like navigators. The role of the navigator is to assist everyone on the bus. We want to create a safe environment."

City of Columbia Transit Manager Shannon Hemenway said the city manager's office proposed the idea of liaisons as a trial the city believed would be good to start within the transportation department.

Hemenway said most of the issues they're seeing on buses recently stems from overcrowding due to a lack of bus drivers.

"That makes tensions higher when people are stuffed in there together. That's one of the main things we have. People also can't get to where they need to go as quickly as they need to go, so that makes them a little more irate as well," Hemenway said. "We're just hoping to take the temperatures down on things and make people have an enjoyable ride while we provide the transit we can."

Hemenway also said she believes the liaisons will be beneficial to the city because it allows city leaders to see other areas within the city that they could be useful.

Stephenson said Powerhouse plans to conduct a study over a period of time that looks to see how effective the liaisons are in preventing disturbances and situations alike. However, he said he wants to remind people that doing this is a process that will take time to get everything laid out and evaluated.

Stephenson said the impact that he saw combining bus routes had on the city years ago, along with a personal connection he has to single mothers who ride the bus allows him to see how important buses are in the city, which is why he felt inspired to help.

"I think it's a step in the right direction. We might put community navigators in the park... a lot of different places," Stephenson said. "There's a lot of visibility on this and I think with it being here with transportation, I think we'll get a larger snapshot at it being mobile at many, many sites versus just one location."