Northwest Valley Connect has announced the appointment of Brian Bell as its new executive director.

Bell is a Glendale resident and has worked with Joni and Friends, an international disability center that provides outreach to thousands of families impacted by disabilities around the world, according to a news release. During Covid 19, an Arizona team vested funds and time that created a respite program for caretakers of those with disabilities while tripling the program's capacity.

NVC is located between the boundaries of Sun City and Peoria, and for nine years served an increasing number of seniors 65 years and older, those with disabilities, and veterans with a higher level of transit mobility.

NVC's volunteers represent family members, friends, and neighbors who assist mobility center callers with rides, case management, and driver services that yielded 14,390 trips this past year with an average of eight miles per trip.

Volunteer drivers use personal vehicles or NVC's 12-14 passenger buses with lifts for wheelchairs and accommodations for walkers. Community members become clients for rider requests that, in some situations, need door-to-door or door-through-door service. All trips are monitored for safety.

Over the years, a special relationship with the communities and residents has developed for those needing a ride at any one time to health and social assistance, therapies, dialysis, cancer treatments, or a lunch program, the release said.

Today NVC serves a client base of 4,000 individuals, or 40% of the 8,500 residents identified by the US 2010 Census who lack access to transit in the area.

Because of community members, funders, and donors' support and compassion by staff and volunteers, NVC assumes leadership among regional public transportation services as a valued connective transit service.