Wheelchair-Accessible Church Transportation in Decatur & DeKalb County

When getting to church becomes the hard part

For a lot of older adults in DeKalb County, church is not one activity among many — it is the week. It is the people who notice when you are not there. So when a parent starts using a wheelchair, or stops driving, or has a fall that makes the church van's steps impossible, missing Sunday is not a small loss. It is usually the moment the family realizes how isolated things have gotten.

Church transportation solves a narrower problem than most people expect. Your loved one does not need a caregiver or a medical escort. They need a vehicle that fits a wheelchair, a driver who will help them from their living room to the sanctuary, and the same thing to happen next Sunday without anyone making a phone call.

Recurring Sunday rides on a standing schedule

The most common setup is a standing weekly booking: same pickup time, same church, same return, repeating until you tell us otherwise. You set it up once. After that your mother knows a van is coming at 9:40 every Sunday, and you are not the person responsible for remembering it.

Standing schedules also work for Wednesday Bible study, choir rehearsal, women's or men's ministry meetings, and revival weeks. If the service time changes for a fifth Sunday or a holiday, call or message us and we will shift that one week without disturbing the rest of the schedule.

If your loved one rides with us several times a week between church and appointments, ask about membership plans — they bundle a set number of covered rides each month at a lower cost per ride than booking one at a time.

Respectful drivers who understand the occasion

Our drivers are trained for medical transport, which means securement, safe transfers, and patience. For church runs, we also ask for something simpler: dress and behave like a guest at someone's congregation. Arrive early rather than exactly on time. Do not rush a rider who is greeting people after service. Keep the radio off unless the rider wants it on.

Plenty of our Sunday riders like to talk on the way. Plenty prefer quiet before service. The driver takes the cue from the rider, not the other way around.

Door-through-door, sanctuary to living room

• Pickup at the actual front door of the home, with help through the doorway and down any exterior steps.
• Wheelchair securement in a properly equipped van — the rider stays in their own chair.
• Drop-off at the church's accessible entrance, with the driver escorting them inside rather than leaving them at the curb.
• The same assistance in reverse after service, ending with the rider settled inside their home.
• One companion rides free, space permitting — a spouse, a friend from the same street, or a caregiver. Additional companions are $25 each.
• Stretcher transport available for bed-confined members who want to attend a special service, homegoing, or baptism.

Where we run Sunday routes

Our base sits on Candler Road in Decatur, in the middle of the county's densest cluster of congregations. We serve churches and riders in Decatur, Candler-McAfee, Belvedere Park, Avondale Estates, Scottdale, Clarkston, Stone Mountain, Tucker, Kirkwood, East Atlanta, and neighboring parts of the city of Atlanta. Trips to a church outside our standard radius are still available; the calculator adds any distance fee automatically so there are no surprises.

What it costs

Church transportation is private pay. No insurance plan covers a ride to a worship service — not Original Medicare, not Medicare Advantage. Heart2Heart does not accept Medicaid under any circumstances. Heart2Heart bills insurance for medically necessary transports such as dialysis, wound care and emergency-department related trips. Coverage depends on the patient's plan and is never guaranteed, and we do not bill Medicaid.

Because a Sunday round trip is usually short and local, it is one of the more affordable recurring rides we run. Enter the home address and the church address in the trip calculator for the exact round-trip price, then decide between paying per ride and a membership plan if the total adds up across a month. Private-pay trips are paid by card; call dispatch at (678) 696-1583 with payment questions.

A note for churches and ministry leaders

If your congregation coordinates rides for several homebound or wheelchair-using members, we can set up multiple standing schedules and, where the addresses line up, combine riders on a single run. Extra stops on a shared route add one vehicle base fare per stop plus the added mileage. Call the office and ask for recurring scheduling — it is the same team that builds dialysis standing schedules, so they are used to designing routes around a fixed weekly clock.