About us
Technology pointed at a problem worth solving
Via is made by Community Sparx CIC, a community interest company in Cambridge. We build software for the volunteers who keep people moving when the bus no longer comes.
Our mission
Apply new technology to problems that have been around a long time
We are a community interest company, which means we exist to do a job rather than to return money to shareholders. Ours is to take the kind of technology that usually gets pointed at convenience, and point it instead at something durable: rural isolation, the cost of missed hospital appointments, and the slow erosion of local transport.
Getting that right improves lives, saves the NHS money, and makes local volunteering easier to sustain. Those are the same thing, not three different things.
Built with coordinators, not at them
Every part of Via has been shaped by the people who actually run schemes — most of them giving part of their retirement to it.
Priced so small schemes are not excluded
Smaller schemes use Via free, permanently, with every feature a paying scheme gets. That is a decision, not an introductory offer.
Careful with people's details
Schemes trust us with information about people who are often frail or isolated. We are registered with the ICO and we treat that as the floor, not the goal.
Our team
Who you are actually dealing with
Via is a small company. When you ring, one of these people is reasonably likely to answer.
Mia Roulson
Director and co-founder
A Chartered Engineer with ten UK and international patents, who spent her career on high-integrity electronics and software.
More about Mia
Mia spent six years as a technology consultant with PA Consulting at their Cambridge laboratory, and a period as General Manager of the East Anglian Passenger Transport Information Service.
She retired from a senior role in UK Government information security in 2014, and now runs Community Sparx alongside a range of other community projects.
Robert Cassey
Technical lead and co-founder
Coordinates the development of the Via applications, with years of experience across start-ups and commercial ventures.
More about Robert
Robert is also VP of Engineering at Techspert, a Cambridge technology company, and brings that hands-on engineering experience to building Via.
Why this matters
What a community car scheme actually does
A scheme is a group of local volunteers who drive people who cannot drive themselves — to the surgery, the shops, or to see family. Drivers are reimbursed their expenses; passengers pay a modest charge that covers the cost, so it is far cheaper than a taxi and some schemes are cheaper still where a council helps.
Without the car scheme, I would just be cut off, stuck at home all day.
The gap schemes are filling
Loneliness is not only miserable, it is measurably bad for people. The Campaign to End Loneliness links it to taking up smoking, physical inactivity and obesity, and to a materially increased risk of early death. The Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research connects it to depression, sleep problems and Alzheimer's disease.
Meanwhile the bus routes that used to prevent it are disappearing. For many people that just means driving instead. For older and disabled people in rural communities, it can be the difference between getting out and being stuck indoors.
- 9 millionpeople in the UK say they are always or often lonely.
- 3,000+commercial bus services have been reduced, altered or withdrawn in England and Wales since 2010 — 301 of them in a single year.
- 15 millionpassenger trips a year are already provided by more than 2,000 community transport organisations, according to a Government report.
Figures from the Campaign to End Loneliness, the Community Transport Association and published Government research.
Schemes also do more than the journey. Because a driver turns up regularly and is trusted, they are often the person who notices when something is wrong — and that is not a service anyone commissioned.
Via exists so that the volunteers doing this spend their time on the driving and the people, and as little of it as possible on the paperwork.
Accountability
How we are registered
Community Sparx CIC is a community interest company limited by guarantee, registered in England and Wales. A CIC has an asset lock: the assets and profits are committed to the community purpose and cannot simply be paid out to owners.
- Registered office
- 4 Sadlers Close, Hardwick, Cambridge, CB23 7YE
- Company number
- 11128772
- ICO registration
- ZA317197
- Part of
- Nascenta
- Get in touch
- 01223 969459
info@communitysparx.org.uk
Come and talk to us
Whether you run a scheme, are thinking of starting one, or just want to know whether this is for you.