New subject: Earn-a-Bike Programs (Nicole Muratore)

12 Jan 2022 · *Nicole Muratore, Shop Manager*

      Wow! Very insightful replies so far and cause for me to pause and think
about how our "everyone that puts something into the collective, gets
something out of it" vibe is preventing us from helping people.  Scott,
you're absolutely right. Third party vetting certainly takes a lot of
skilled work off our shoulders. A hybrid of volunteering, third-party
vetting, and even accepting community work done elsewhere will likely be
where we land.
Nicholas, I'm curious about the pay-what-you-want model and wonder how it
would go over in our shop. We're a bike flipper's mecca and these items are
often used as currency among our unhoused patrons - especially right now
with COVID and folks being unhoused as a result of some major rent hikes.
Is it abused much that you know? Are there limits to the level of
componentry? Is it this way for bikes, too? Thanks again for the thorough
and thoughtful response.
Carlyn, do you usually have enough work trade for someone to earn a bike in
a reasonable amount of time? Do folks come back and complete their hours
most of the time? I love that your program has high utilization! I hope
ours will, too.
Nicole
On Wed, Jan 12, 2022 at 2:03 PM <
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Today's Topics:

Earn-a-Bike Programs (Nicole Muratore)
Re: Earn-a-Bike Programs (Scott Long)
Re: Earn-a-Bike Programs (cyclista@inventati.org)
Re: Earn-a-Bike Programs (Carlyn Arteaga)
Bike!Bike! ?Dondequiera! / Everywhere! 2021 in review / en
revisi?n (Angel York)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Nicole Muratore nicole@bikesaviours.org
To: thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org
Cc:
Bcc:
Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2022 14:54:39 -0700
Subject: [TheThinkTank] Earn-a-Bike Programs
The last iteration of ours required an individual to volunteer 12 hours of
time in exchange for a bike we'd teach them to fix up, a set of lights, and
a lock. These folks are already facing transportation issues and have
difficulty returning to the shop to complete the hours they started.
Separate from earn-a-bike we offer work trade at a rate of $10/hour for
shop credit that can be used for stand time or regular-priced parts needed
to fix one's bike.
If your shop has an earn-a-bike program or similar, how does it work? And
is utilization of the program high? Any input, documentation, etc. is
appreciated!
Cheers,
*Nicole Muratore, Shop Manager* (she/her)
Bike Saviours Bicycle Collective
(602) 429-9369 | bikesaviours.org | @bikesaviours
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Scott Long scott.m.long@gmail.com
To: The Think Tank thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org
Cc:
Bcc:
Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2022 17:34:33 -0500
Subject: Re: [TheThinkTank] Earn-a-Bike Programs
Hi Nicole,
I'm the Executive Director of BikeAthens here in Athens GA. I've been the
administrator for our Earn A Bike Program for over five years. We use
social service partners in our area to refer clients to us that need
transportation.
How do you avoid means testing? You do that by letting it be someone
else's job. In theory, you and the other collective members are a) excited
about bikes and b) have other jobs and responsibilities that don't revolve
around being full-time social workers. I don't decide who gets a bike. I
just decide which one they get. The referring organization does the heavy
lifting by having interviewed and worked with the potential client. Often
they are licensed social workers to some extent or another. They are in a
much better position to make that judgment call. It also gives me an easy
way out of the conversation when a random person shows up telling me that
they heard if they come down here they can get a free bike. I even have a
pamphlet I give them that explains our referral process.
We have a very low threshold for what types of organizations we partner
with. Any reasonably legit third party that is willing to email or call on
behalf of someone they know that needs a bike is in. That is to say, pretty
much any 501c3 non-profit, school or church organization can send a request
on behalf of a client. Our expectations are just that they believe that
having a bike would help their client better find a job, get to school, and
access social services or healthcare. We don't require an MOU unless they
want one. Some partner organizations have their own criteria for whether or
not they will send us a request. For example, the Salvation Army in Athens
will only send a referral if the client already has a job. A local
addiction recovery organization requires the client to sign a contract that
they will take care of the bike, keep it locked, and return it if they are
no longer using it. If the partner organization would like to protect a
client's identity, that's fine. They can make up a client number or send me
initials. As long as they tell me how tall they are, we're good.
You may not have the same community partners over time, there is decent
turnover in a lot of other social service organizations and sometimes new
people aren't aware they can even help their clients find help with bikes.
Let me know if that is helpful or if you have any other questions.
Thanks
Scott
On Tue, Jan 11, 2022 at 4:54 PM Nicole Muratore nicole@bikesaviours.org
wrote:
...
The last iteration of ours required an individual to volunteer 12 hours
of time in exchange for a bike we'd teach them to fix up, a set of lights,
and a lock. These folks are already facing transportation issues and have
difficulty returning to the shop to complete the hours they started.
Separate from earn-a-bike we offer work trade at a rate of $10/hour for
shop credit that can be used for stand time or regular-priced parts needed
to fix one's bike.
If your shop has an earn-a-bike program or similar, how does it work? And
is utilization of the program high? Any input, documentation, etc. is
appreciated!
Cheers,
*Nicole Muratore, Shop Manager* (she/her)
Bike Saviours Bicycle Collective
(602) 429-9369 | bikesaviours.org | @bikesaviours
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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: cyclista@inventati.org
To: thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org
Cc:
Bcc:
Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2022 23:22:48 +0000
Subject: Re: [TheThinkTank] Earn-a-Bike Programs
Hi Nicole,
At RIBs, for many years, we had similar requirements to those you
describe for your shop. At one point we also had a different, simpler
system, wherein the applicant was required to fix up one bike for
someone else in order to be allowed to fix up one bike for themselves.
What we found  was exactly what you have found, which was that the
highest need groups found both of these bars too high to reach. In many
cases, the policy was also seen as unfriendly: some people needing the
resource were in an especially high state of life stress, as well as
being subject to social ostracism generally, and being told they must
not only navigate this difficult learning curve, but do work that didn't
further their own immediate (read: urgent) needs was, frankly,
inconsiderate. Even though we at the shop were good people only trying
to help, we just didn't understand.
So the lesson was that higher order concepts like community development
and mutual aid aren't really great to evangelize to people undergoing
crisis. In kind, that we in the shop had bad calibration wrt what
represented crisis. We might have thought of it as extreme things such
as "are you being evicted" or "have you lost housing because your
partner threatened your life and your only other housing options are
with substance abusing people you had been trying to separate yourself
from because you are trying to stay clean to regain legal custody of
your children", but in reality significant states of crisis can be much
more insidious and mundane. Someone can be in a state of significant,
ongoing crisis simply because they are disrespected at their job and
their childcare involves significant emotional burden, and they feel
unloved in their partner relationship. Crisis can be difficult to
recognize for someone not familiar with it, especially where it stems
from conditions such as generational poverty and trauma. And crisis
isn't necessarily a transitory state. It can last for most or all of a
person's life, especiallly where generational effects are involved.
So what we did was entirely remove our requirements for volunteering in
return for use of the space, and replaced them with only a
pay-what-you-want requirement for parts and a polite reminder that we
accept donations.
What we saw was a dramatic reduction in ghosting. Nearly all
participants of every demographic returned to complete their projects. A
rough guess would be that around 2% abandoned projects they started,
most of those being students with busy academic/social schedules or
hobbyists who lost interest in a frivolous idea. Over the four years we
had these relaxed policies, nearly all in-need participants completed
their bikes (or repairs) and left with safe and satisfying wheels under
them.
This higher rate of effectiveness did come at a cost, however. When we
had volunteer requirements, it did force a lot more people to stay and
be part of the environment for longer periods of time, contributing to
shop culture and character. Requirements also forced kids to learn: most
of the street-level kids in our community don't stay and learn unless
they are made to. In these cases the reward-incentive-for-work concept
seems to be something that must be imposed, rather than guided or
facilitated, in order to take root. So though we retained significant
child attendance in the case of those visiting with various guardians,
we also lost a lot (actually most) of our solo child participation by
removing requirements.
In general, I'd say our volunteer community was reduced by about half by
these measures, with only people who volunteered out of passion and joy
remaining. Our shop was small and had never really run on exclusively
volunteer labor except at the beginning (thirty years ago) when it was
even smaller and being run out of random garages, so this wasn't a
lethal change for us. It did create much greater demands/stress on paid
staff and primary volunteers.
I think it's possible to not go entirely one way or another, for
instance to have volunteer requirements for children but not adults
(though it might be painful to justify to kids who noticed the
disparity), or create tiers of service/use some of which would required
volunteering. We just basically treated the shop as a library and the
staff and primary volunteers as librarians, and let the community use
the space so long as they did so without harming it.
An idea for a tier of access that could require volunteer hours might be
keyed off-hours access. This is really only sustainable now with the
advent of [more] affordable electronic locks - in the past people with
keys made copies, kept them essentially forever, and any abuse would
require changing the locks. I'd encourage shop budget to be spent on
this kind of lock, or even the more expensive mechanical versions, even
though it involves significant expense. In retrospect, it was the lack
of this investment that prevented us from exploring options such as the
one suggested above, and eventually we were making enough money that we
could have afforded it. It's so difficult to see every option in every
moment when you're busy af with so many things.
~cyclista Nicholas
On 2022-01-11 21:54, Nicole Muratore wrote:
...
The last iteration of ours required an individual to volunteer 12 hours
of
time in exchange for a bike we'd teach them to fix up, a set of lights,
and
a lock. These folks are already facing transportation issues and have
difficulty returning to the shop to complete the hours they started.
Separate from earn-a-bike we offer work trade at a rate of $10/hour for
shop credit that can be used for stand time or regular-priced parts
needed
to fix one's bike.
If your shop has an earn-a-bike program or similar, how does it work?
And
is utilization of the program high? Any input, documentation, etc. is
appreciated!
Cheers,
*Nicole Muratore, Shop Manager* (she/her)
Bike Saviours Bicycle Collective
(602) 429-9369 | bikesaviours.org | @bikesaviours

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Carlyn Arteaga carlyn.arteaga@bicas.org
To: The Think Tank thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org
Cc:
Bcc:
Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2022 16:49:11 -0700
Subject: Re: [TheThinkTank] Earn-a-Bike Programs
Hi Nicole,
Carlyn from BICAS in Tucson, AZ here. Our Earn-a-Bike program is
encapsulated into our Work Trade Program -- Folks earn $12/hr to help us
out around the shop and they can use that credit towards 1 bike per year,
used parts, and Community Tools (stand time) to fix it up. All the bikes in
our shop are priced, so folks just calculate how much work they need to do
to earn whichever bike they like. It is a very heavily-used program and we
get referrals from social services orgs all over the county. We currently
have a cap of $200 per person per year, although we are currently
evaluating that cap as well as the Work Trade rate. Feel free to reach out
if you have any other questions.
Sincerely,
~Carlyn
On Tue, Jan 11, 2022 at 3:34 PM Scott Long scott.m.long@gmail.com wrote:
...
Hi Nicole,
I'm the Executive Director of BikeAthens here in Athens GA. I've been the
administrator for our Earn A Bike Program for over five years. We use
social service partners in our area to refer clients to us that need
transportation.
How do you avoid means testing? You do that by letting it be someone
else's job. In theory, you and the other collective members are a) excited
about bikes and b) have other jobs and responsibilities that don't revolve
around being full-time social workers. I don't decide who gets a bike. I
just decide which one they get. The referring organization does the heavy
lifting by having interviewed and worked with the potential client. Often
they are licensed social workers to some extent or another. They are in a
much better position to make that judgment call. It also gives me an easy
way out of the conversation when a random person shows up telling me that
they heard if they come down here they can get a free bike. I even have a
pamphlet I give them that explains our referral process.
We have a very low threshold for what types of organizations we partner
with. Any reasonably legit third party that is willing to email or call on
behalf of someone they know that needs a bike is in. That is to say, pretty
much any 501c3 non-profit, school or church organization can send a request
on behalf of a client. Our expectations are just that they believe that
having a bike would help their client better find a job, get to school, and
access social services or healthcare. We don't require an MOU unless they
want one. Some partner organizations have their own criteria for whether or
not they will send us a request. For example, the Salvation Army in Athens
will only send a referral if the client already has a job. A local
addiction recovery organization requires the client to sign a contract that
they will take care of the bike, keep it locked, and return it if they are
no longer using it. If the partner organization would like to protect a
client's identity, that's fine. They can make up a client number or send me
initials. As long as they tell me how tall they are, we're good.
You may not have the same community partners over time, there is decent
turnover in a lot of other social service organizations and sometimes new
people aren't aware they can even help their clients find help with bikes.
Let me know if that is helpful or if you have any other questions.
Thanks
Scott
On Tue, Jan 11, 2022 at 4:54 PM Nicole Muratore nicole@bikesaviours.org
wrote:
...
The last iteration of ours required an individual to volunteer 12 hours
of time in exchange for a bike we'd teach them to fix up, a set of lights,
and a lock. These folks are already facing transportation issues and have
difficulty returning to the shop to complete the hours they started.
Separate from earn-a-bike we offer work trade at a rate of $10/hour for
shop credit that can be used for stand time or regular-priced parts needed
to fix one's bike.
If your shop has an earn-a-bike program or similar, how does it work?
And is utilization of the program high? Any input, documentation, etc. is
appreciated!
Cheers,
*Nicole Muratore, Shop Manager* (she/her)
Bike Saviours Bicycle Collective
(602) 429-9369 | bikesaviours.org | @bikesaviours
____________________________________
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--
*Carlyn Arteaga*
*pronouns: they/them/theirs*
Youth Program Coordinator
*BICAS*
2001 N. 7th Ave. | Tucson, AZ 85701 | Shop: 520-628-7950
carlyn.arteaga@bicas.org | www.bicas.org | Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/bicascollective/ | Instagram
http://www.instagram.com/bicastucson/
*Through advocacy and bicycle salvage, our mission is to participate in
affordable bicycle transportation, education, and creative recycling with
our greater Tucson community.*
https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail&utm_term=icon Virus-free.
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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Angel York aniola@gmail.com
To: The Think Tank thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org
Cc:
Bcc:
Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2022 20:03:14 -0800
Subject: [TheThinkTank] Bike!Bike! ¡Dondequiera! / Everywhere! 2021 in
review / en revisión
*Español abajo*
Hi everyone,
Thanks for helping make Bike!Bike! Everywhere! 2021 such a hoppin' weekend!
*OVERVIEW*

There were a couple dozen events over 3-4 days (depending on how you
   count time zones).

About 175 people registered. Or maybe 198! Anyway, lots of people came.

About 1400 US dollars were donated and are being distributed as a
   stipend to the interpreters (minus fees).

Piles of people volunteered in one way or another.

New connections have formed.

Friends were made.

100% of all germs stayed local.
*ARCHIVED VIDEOS*
Workshops are nearly all posted in English and are still going up in
Spanish. Here's the link to the *archived videos:*
*https://archive.org/details/@bikebikeeverywhere*
https://archive.org/details/@bikebikeeverywhere . If you want to help
organize the archive data, please send an email to
bikebikeeverywhere@gmail.com.
*SURVEY RESULTS*
Results from the survey were overwhelmingly positive. Suggestions were
mostly things we know we need to work on, and we're working on them.
They'll happen faster with more committed volunteers, so come join us! We
can find a place for you for a wide range of roles/interests and at every
skill level.
*GET INVOLVED WITH BIKE!BIKE! EVERYWHERE!*
*If you've tried to reach out and get involved before* and didn't get to
put your awesome skills to their best use, *please try again. We'd love
to have you.* We have a better sense of what needs doing. There's more
work than volunteers, we're all having a lot of fun, and we'd love your
company.
*If there is enough core volunteer availability, there will probably be
another B!B!E! in early November 2022. We need you to help make it happen!
Here's how:*

Join the new *planning email list* at
   http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/bikebike-everywhere-bikecollec...
   and start *attending meetings* (
   https://www.bikecollectives.org/wiki/Meetings_and_minutes).

Find something to do the *volunteer roles* list at
   https://www.bikecollectives.org/wiki/Bike!Bike!_Everywhere!_Volunteer_Roles
   and email bikebikeeverywhere@gmail.com.
*BIKE!BIKE! MEXICO CITY 2022*
Mujerxs al Pedal (mujerxsalpedal@gmail.com) is hosting an in-person
Bike!Bike! in Mexico City (CDMX) June or July 2022. They are planning to do
a partial hybrid with online streaming. B!B!E! and B!B!CDMX are in contact
and working together to share resources. *Stay tuned at* *bikebike.org*
http://bikebike.org *for B!B!CDMX sign-ups (coming soon).*
Hola a todxs,
Gracias por ayudarnos a que Bike!Bike! En todas partes! 2021 fuera un fin
de semana tan animado.
*INFORMACIÓN GENERAL*

Hubo dos docenas de eventos a lo largo de 3 o 4 días (dependiendo de
   cómo cuentes los husos horarios).

Se registraron alrededor de 175 personas ¡o tal vez 198! Como sea,
   mucha gente vino.

Fueron donados alrededor de 1400 dólares y están siendo distribuidos
   (menos algunas cuotas) como remuneración entre lxs intérpretes.

Montones de personas voluntariaron de una manera u otra.

Nuevas conexiones han sido formadas.

Amistades han sido hechas.

100% de los gérmenes se quedaron en su lugar.
*VIDEOS ARCHIVADOS*
Casi todos los talleres fueron subidos en inglés y están siendo subidos en
español. Aquí hay un link a los *videos archivados:*
*https://archive.org/details/@bikebikeeverywhere*
https://archive.org/details/@bikebikeeverywhere. Si te interesa ayudar
a organizar la información del archivo, por favor manda un correo a
bikebikeeverywhere@gmail.com.
*RESULTADOS DE LA ENCUESTA*
Los resultados de la encuesta fueron abrumadoramente positivos. Las
sugerencias fueron mayormente cosas que sabemos que tenemos que trabajar, y
estamos trabajando en ellas. Se lograrán más rápidamente con más
voluntarixs dedicadxs, ¡así que únete a nosotrxs! Podemos encontrar un
lugar para ti dentro de un amplio rango de roles/intereses y en cualquier
nivel.
*INVOLÚCRATE CON BIKE!BIKE! EN TODAS PARTES!*
*Si trataste de acercarte e involucrarte antes* y no pudiste aprovechar
tus geniales habilidades, *por favor inténtalo de nuevo. Nos encantaría
tenerte.* Ya tenemos una mejor idea de lo que necesita hacerse. Hay más
trabajo que voluntarixs, todxs nos estamos divirtiendo mucho y nos
encantaría contar con tu compañía.
*Si hay suficiente disponibilidad de voluntarixs, probablemente habrá otro
B!B!E! a principios de noviembre de 2022. Necesitamos de tu ayuda para
hacer que eso suceda! Aquí está cómo apoyar:*

Únete a la nueva *lista de correo de planeación* en
   http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/bikebike-everywhere-bikecollec...
   y empieza a *asistir a las reuniones* (
   https://www.bikecollectives.org/wiki/Meetings_and_minutes).

Encuentra algo que hacer en la *lista de roles para voluntarixs,* en
   https://www.bikecollectives.org/wiki/Bike!Bike!_Everywhere!_Volunteer_Roles/...
   y manda un correo a bikebikeeverywhere@gmail.com.
*BIKE!BIKE! CIUDAD DE MÉXICO 2022*
Mujerxs al Pedal (mujerxsalpedal@gmail.com) serán anfirionxs de un
Bike!Bike! en persona en la Ciudad de México (CDMX) en junio o julio de
2011. Están planeando hacer un evento parcialmente híbrido con
transmisiones en línea. B!B!E! y B!B!CDMX están en contacto y trabajando
juntxs para compartir recursos. *Mantente al pendiente de* *bikebike.org*
http://bikebike.org/ *para los registros para B!B!CDMX (próximamente).*
This was issue #5 of Bike!Bike! Everywhere!.
You can subscribe https://buttondown.email/bikebikeeverywhere or view
this email online
https://buttondown.email/bikebikeeverywhere/subscribers/3651fb41-ae2f-4dbc-ab0a-dba56dbe9880/archive/bikebike-everywhere-2021-in-review
.
http:///api/emails/canary/3651fb41-ae2f-4dbc-ab0a-dba56dbe9880/553bdfb9-9f60-450b-8783-3d9869d48d98/
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Re: [TheThinkTank] Earn-a-Bike Programs (Nicole Muratore)

http://bikebike.org for B!B!CDMX sign-ups (coming soon).

http://bikebike.org/ para los registros para B!B!CDMX (próximamente).

http://bikebike.org for B!B!CDMX sign-ups (coming soon).

http://bikebike.org/ para los registros para B!B!CDMX (próximamente).

http://bikebike.org for B!B!CDMX sign-ups (coming soon).

http://bikebike.org for B!B!CDMX sign-ups (coming soon).

http://bikebike.org for B!B!CDMX sign-ups (coming soon).

http://bikebike.org/ para los registros para B!B!CDMX (próximamente).

http://bikebike.org for B!B!CDMX sign-ups (coming soon).

http://bikebike.org for B!B!CDMX sign-ups (coming soon).