As we approach FullConTech, we’ve been gathering collaboration stories from a wide variety of sources in an effort to learn more about how people are working together to solve problems and what lessons they’re learning along the way. I recently met with Brooke Steger, general manager of Uber in Seattle (where the company has around 300 employees), to talk with her about how Uber works through community partnerships to support their drivers and build a better company.

In many urban areas, Uber has become a household name, and if you live in Seattle, you’ve probably gotten a ride using the Uber app. The company got its start in San Francisco in 2009 and now helps people get where they need to be in nearly 600 cities around the world. Those of us who regularly use Uber think of it as a transportation company, but it’s technology that sits at the center of the company’s operations and connects people almost instantly with an available Uber driver.

So, it makes sense that Uber is a WTIA member and sponsor of FullConTech. “The tech community needs representation in Seattle and Washington State,” Brooke told me. “Joining multiple tech voices in the city is important. We tend to focus on what’s happening at our own companies, and WTIA helps us pay attention to the industry, and that’s important.” As someone who began her career at startups, Brooke said she’d like to see more growth in the Seattle startup community.

Most of my conversation with Brooke, though, was about collaboration. And she shared with me a few of the ways Uber collaborates with organizations in the Seattle area:

1. To provide services for Uber drivers

Uber is all about its drivers – recruiting, training, retaining, and supporting them. And because the driver community in Seattle is so large (10,000!) and diverse, with many drivers who are immigrants, Brooke and her team work with community centers, like East African Community Services (EACS), to identify driver needs and provide them with important services. Through local community centers, for example, Uber offers driver training on the company’s technology platform and promotes its scholarship program, which supports drivers who want to further their education.

Uber also collaborates with community centers to make sure drivers know about legal services that Uber provides to them. This is an effort Uber has kicked into high gear recently in response to changes in U.S. immigration policy. When the president signed the travel ban, Brooke immediately reached out to the Somali community through EACS to let drivers know that the company would provide legal help and, for drivers who were detained overseas, would pay them what they would have earned had they been able to work.

As an example of how important it is to make drivers aware of Uber’s legal services, Brooke told me a story about a Seattle driver from Somalia whose son and wife were in a refugee camp in Kenya. Although they had obtained visas to enter the U.S., because of the travel ban, they had been stopped from getting on a plane to this country. Uber’s legal team interceded and helped reunite the family in the U.S.

Another way Uber supports its drivers is by work fostering and working through its driver network. Uber promotes peer coaching by connecting drivers who want to improve their performance with the company’s most successful drivers. Uber also uses the driver network to get feedback on what drivers would like to see improved. Currently, there are about 2000 drivers in the Peer Advisor Network, and drivers who participate are enthusiastic about sharing their secrets and helping each other be more successful.

Other community group collaborations: Uber works with Goodwill to provide free ESL classes to drivers and, in an effort to increase the number of women drivers, has built partnerships with women’s advocacy groups. (Women now make up about 20% of Uber’s drivers.)

2. To find creative, win-win solutions

Eastside for Hire is a small cab company in the Seattle area that was struggling to comply with local regulations, obtain taxi licenses, and compete against larger taxi companies. If you go to their website, you’ll find that “this company was born out of a dream of a few people with an entrepreneurial spirit.”  Those few people are immigrants to the U.S. who want to run a different kind of cab service, one that is built on “excellence in customer service, knowledge, exceptional moral values, professional ethics and genuine enjoyment of people.” The entrepreneurs behind Eastside for Hire don’t have dreams of getting rich – they just want to run a business that can support their families and of which they can be proud.

When Brooke heard about Eastside for Hire, she asked to meet with them, to talk about how Uber could work with them so that both companies could benefit. Through their discussions, they discovered that, as different as the two companies looked on the outside, they were great complements to each other. Uber could help Eastside for Hire with compliance and licenses, and Eastside for Hire could provide Uber with high quality drivers. While Eastside for Hire continues to book riders through its own website, its drivers can also find passengers through the Uber platform.

3. To reduce traffic and pollution

This one was a surprise to me, but when Brooke explained it, it made a lot of sense: Uber is starting to collaborate with public transit systems. Why? “Uber sees public transit as complementary, not competitive,” said Brooke. “If you can move large groups of people around efficiently and reliably, people will reduce their reliance on cars.” In other words, a great transit system is good for Uber’s business.

“Uber endorsed Sound Transit 3,” Brooke said. “Because we see public transit as a partner, and working together, we can help more people move away from personal vehicles.”

As Brooke explained, a large percentage of Uber customers also regularly use public transit. Often, they’ll combine a bus and Uber ride in the same trip and will take a bus, for example, to a dinner but then relay on Uber for the late ride home.  Brooke said, “We see lots of Uber connections to public transit stops.”

“Working collaboratively with governments,” she said, “is a must.” And one path to more public sector collaborations could be “Uber Movement,” a platform for logging in to see traffic flows and how they’ve changed over time. Uber Movement could be a great tool for helping cities plan their transit programs, as well as project the impact of public works projects on traffic flow. “We can also help with efficiency,” Brooke said, “and maximizing public transit routes.”

Want to learn more about Uber’s approach to collaborations? Look for Brooke and other members of the Uber team at FullConTech, today at Seattle City Hall.