Access to Health and Wellbeing StoryMap Project
The Access to Health and Wellbeing Workgroup, a program of the King County Mobility Coalition (KCMC), is developing this interactive StoryMap that highlights the real transportation challenges community members face when accessing healthcare and other essential services throughout the region.
This project centers the lived experiences of people who encounter the greatest barriers to meeting their transportation needs. Through personal stories, we aim to better understand both the successes and challenges individuals experience when traveling to medical appointments, wellness services, and other destinations that support healthy, independent lives.
The StoryMap will feature stories from across King County and surrounding areas, demonstrating how transportation gaps can affect access to healthcare and other social determinants of health. These stories illustrate issues such as:
- Traveling long distances across county lines to receive medical care
- Transportation barriers following procedures that involve sedation or anesthesia
- Limited first-mile and last-mile connections when using public transit
- Transportation challenges in rural and underserved communities
- Accessing Veterans Affairs (VA) medical facilities
- The impacts of state and federal transportation funding decisions on healthcare access
By combining personal experiences with transportation and health access data, this project seeks to humanize the challenges behind the statistics and provide decision-makers with a deeper understanding of community needs. The findings will help inform policies, programs, and investments that support more equitable, coordinated, and accessible transportation systems.
Through elevating the voices of community members, we hope to drive meaningful improvements in mobility, healthcare access, and overall wellbeing throughout the region.
For questions or feedback about the project, please contact:
Lyn McCarthy
KCMC Program Supervisor
📧 emccarthy@hopelink.org
📞 425-466-3442