Health & Transit Buddy

Background

Nurses & Neighbors Collaborative is leading the Health & Transit Buddy initiative as part of its broader Health & Mobility work to improve access to care for older adults and underserved Delawareans.

Drawing from frontline experience with transportation barriers—including missed appointments, dependence on informal caregivers for rides, digital navigation challenges, and mobility-related isolation, Nurses & Neighbors is developing a practical, community-based model that combines transportation literacy, intergenerational engagement, and volunteer support.

Mission & Vision

Health & Transit Buddy is a collaborative initiative designed to improve transportation confidence, health access, and independence for Delawareans—particularly older adults and other communities facing barriers to care. This intergenerational pilot combines community engagement, health literacy, transportation education, and practical problem-solving to address transportation as a social driver of health.

This work is made possible through collaboration among community, academic, and statewide health partners.

Our vision is to create a scalable intergenerational transportation literacy model for older adults.

Our mission is to increase ride options for older adults in Delaware.

Partners

Nurses & Neighbors Collaborative (NNC)

Community Host Organization | Program Design | Community Implementation
Bet Key Wong, MSN, RN, CFCS, CNORe
Christine Moses, APRN, MSN, CRNA

🏛 Delaware State Health Improvement Plan (DE SHIP)

Statewide Public Health Framework | Strategic Alignment
Alexandra Wynn, PhD

🎓 University of Delaware Partnership for Healthy Communities (PHC)

Academic Partner | Community-Engaged Learning | Innovation Support
Katlyn Culhane-Suluai
Zion Brockington-Davis

Funding

This project is funded by donors of the Nursing-Transportation Partnership, a Nurses & Neighbors project.

Scholarship supporting our summer scholar is provided by the University of Delaware Partnership for Healthy Communities (PHC).

Meet Summer Health Scholar: Zion Brockington-Davis

Nurses & Neighbors Collaborative is pleased to welcome Zion Brockington-Davis as our inaugural Health & Transit Buddy Summer Scholar in partnership with the University of Delaware Partnership for Healthy Communities.

Zion is a rising sophomore in the University of Delaware School of Nursing, pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Nursing with a minor in Global Health. She also serves as a Community Engagement Scholar, reflecting her commitment to service, advocacy, and health equity.

Zion brings a unique intergenerational perspective to this work through her involvement with Lori’s Hands, where she has supported older adults navigating health-related needs and the challenges that can threaten independence and well-being.

Her passion for improving transportation access is also deeply personal. Growing up in Philadelphia, Zion saw firsthand how essential public transportation can be to maintaining independence. Her grandmother, who does not drive, relied on SEPTA to attend medical appointments independently. After relocating to Delaware, transportation became far more complicated, requiring special arrangements rather than accessible, reliable public options. That experience helped Zion recognize how transportation barriers can directly affect health, access to care, and quality of life for older adults.

Through Health & Transit Buddy, Zion will help explore practical, community-based solutions to improve transportation literacy and access to care for Delawareans. Her summer work will include helping develop transportation education tools, assessing community understanding of transit options such as DART, and supporting outreach that empowers older adults and underserved residents to navigate transportation with greater confidence.

Zion represents the next generation of nurse leaders who understand that improving health means addressing the real-world barriers people face every day.