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  1. Access and outreach program
  2. ORCA Lift partners

ORCA Lift partners

Trainings, guides, print materials and more

ORCA LIFT logo

What is ORCA LIFT?

ORCA LIFT offers reduced transit fares for qualifying adults ages 19-64. With ORCA LIFT, you could save 50% on your transit fare. ORCA LIFT fares are $1.00 on Metro, Sound Transit and Everett Transit services.

How did this begin?

  • In January 2014, the King County Executive proposed an ordinance to increase all existing Metro fares & added a new low-income fare category effective March 1, 2015. The proposal was approved by Council and the new low income fare is now called the "ORCA LIFT Fare Program". Beginning March 1, 2016 Sound Transit Board voted to be part of the ORCA LIFT program.

  • King County's adoption of the ORCA LIFT program for King County residents with low income stemmed from a fundamental commitment to promote fairness and opportunity and to eliminate inequities in King County.

  • The fair and just principle is woven into the King County Strategic Plan and is expected to be incorporated into everything King County does; our One King County.

Subsidized Annual Pass:

King County Metro and Sound Transit have partnered to create a new, subsidized annual pass program. Riders who qualify are issued a free ride pass for 12 calendar months and it’s renewable each year. Learn more to see if you qualify.

When and where we meet

Quarterly meetings via Zoom. For more information contact Jennifer Covert at Jennifer.Covert@kingcounty.gov

Partner agencies

Public Health — Seattle & King County (lead agency)

  • Catholic Community Services
  • Community Health Care (Pierce County)
  • Fare Start (Must be client of agency)
  • Gay City (by appointment only)
  • Global to Local
  • HealthPoint (Must be patient of clinic)
  • ICHS (Must be patient of clinic)
  • International Rescue Committee (Must be client of agency)
  • LETI (Latino Education Training Institute) (must be client of agency)
  • Lutheran Community Services Northwest
  • NAACP Snohomish County (* coming soon)
  • Neighborcare (Must be patient of clinic)
  • North Seattle Family Center (must be client of agency)
  • REWA(Must be client of agency)
  • Trac and Associates(Must be client of agency)
  • Within Reach
  • World Relief Seattle (Must be client of agency)

Become an ORCA LIFT Enrollment Site/Verifying Agency

For consideration to become an ORCA LIFT verifying agency, you must meet one of the following requirements:

  1. Be an existing Navigator Organization through the Washington Health Benefit Exchange.
  2. Must be an existing SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) enrollment location through the Department of Social & Health Services.
  3. Your agency provides one on one application assistance for various public benefit programs that includes maintaining knowledge about eligibility programs: (i.e. Section 8 applications, Financial Aid Applications, Federal Energy Assistance Programs.

In addition to meeting one of the three requirements listed above, your agency must also agree to the following:

  1. Eligibility training for Washington Apple Health – including training on how to verify coverage (if you're already a Navigator agency you won't need this training).
  2. Agencies who don't have a partnership agreement with the Department of Social & Health Services (DSHS) will need to complete a partner agreement and get training on how to verify coverage through the Benefit Verification System.
  3. Agency must agree to maintain confidentiality, maintain files for 7 years and subject to annual audits.
  4. Attend monthly LIFT meetings.
  5. Sign a Memorandum of Understanding with Metro Transit and Public Health Seattle & King County.
  6. Agree to audits of ORCA LIFT records to ensure program compliance.

If you have questions or are interested in becoming and enrollment site/verifying agency, please contact: Jennifer Covert: jennifer.covert@kingcounty.gov

If your agency doesn't meet the requirements above or is not interested in verifying eligibility, Public Health/Metro can create a referral system for your clients in order to get them enrolled on ORCA Lift.

If you have questions or are interested in becoming a referral agency, please contact: Jennifer Covert: jennifer.covert@kingcounty.gov

King County METRO Neighborhood Pop-Up

King County Metro Neighborhood Pop-Up brings Metro information, ORCA card services, and more, to provide customer service at locations throughout King County. Learn more from Metro's website.

Request an ORCA LIFT partner agency at your event to determine eligibility and issue ORCA LIFT cards on site. Complete an online request form to get started.

Resources

About you (in case we have questions about your locations/events):

Contact person
Agency
Email

INSTRUCTIONS
Enter building name or event, full street address, days and times and any special instructions as needed.

Example 1:
Crossroads Shopping Center
15600 NE 8th St, Bellevue, 98008
Mondays, 10:00 am to 1:00 pm
Example 2:
Skyway Library
12601 76th Ave S, Seattle 98178
-- Every 2nd Monday of the month (except holidays): 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm
-- Monday, Dec. 11, 2017, 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm

NOTE: You can manually stretch the size of the form fields below if you need to view more space for your entry by clicking and dragging on the small diagonal lines on the lower right of the field. We will still receive all of your text even if the field partially or entirely hides your text.



*If you have more events to add, press the Submit button to send this first batch of listings to us then return to this page, press Refresh or Reload on your browser's menu to clear the fields then proceed with adding more listings.

King County Metro offers several types of reduced-fare transit cards. Use the Find out more links to learn how each card works.