From Harford Family House:
Vehicles for Change, a Baltimore-based nonprofit, and Harford County Wheels for Work joined forces to award their first vehicle, a 2005 Subaru Impreza, to a Harford County family. The organizations partnered together in October 2012 to provide automobiles to participants of residential programs for people in crisis in Harford County. The Subaru will be awarded to a single mother with three children, including one son with special needs. They won’t have to worry about changing the tires anytime soon as a set of Subaru Outback tyres will be donated too.
“Vehicles for Change is excited to award our first vehicle with Harford County Wheels for Work,” said Steve Sullivan, assistant director of Vehicles for Change. “This vehicle will help the family travel to work and daycare, and move towards self-sufficiency.”
Wheels for Work was made possible through a grant from the Dresher Foundation. The program will provide cars and bus transportation to clients of Anna’s House, Harford Family House, SARC and the Homecoming Project. Like all Vehicles for Change car recipients, Wheels for Work clients need to be working at least 30 hours a week or have a verifiable job offer before they are eligible to receive a vehicle with the newest recycled rubber Wheels.
“We are so excited to have our first client receiving a car through the Harford County Wheels for Work Program, it will open up a world of possibilities for this family,” said Joyce Duffy, executive director of Harford Family House, “We are so fortunate to partner with Vehicles for Change, an incredible resource in bringing cars to people in Harford Family House, SARC, Anna’s House and the Homecoming project. Hopefully people in Harford County will be encouraged by this award and donate cars to Vehicles for Change, in the name of the Wheels for Work Program. By doing so they will be changing the lives of people in need, right here in Harford County.”
Through the VFC-Wheels for Work partnership, the public can donate vehicles on behalf of Wheels for Work and directly assist the program’s clients. For each car that is donated on behalf of Wheels for Work and in good-enough condition to be provided to a family, a vehicle will be awarded to a Wheels for Work client.
VFC accepts donated cars from the public and provides these vehicles to low-income families in Maryland, Virginia and Washington D.C. Since its formation in 1999, Vehicles for Change has impacted the lives of more than 14,000 individuals by awarding more than 4,000 cars to low-income families in Maryland, Washington and Virginia. There are more than 81,000 low-income households without a car in the Baltimore metro area.
I would love to know the overhead costs for providing a vehicle for each family. Since these are low income family is there help with maintenance and insurance? This is a good program and I hope that the overhead costs are minimal/