Message from Karen Houle, Program Coordinator, M'Wikwedong
Wonderful Women Who Care - January 22, 2025
Today I went over to a car dealership and got to see a van that the Centre can purchase thanks to your most wonderful donation. This amazing gift is likely going to be in use by us in another two weeks.
I mostly work with teens here at the Centre, and we have had to cancel programming at times because we cannot get Youth to the Centre. These Youth are amazing but unfortunately many of them come from homes that don’t have a car and they have to rely on us to get them here. As workers we have to rely on a patchwork of cabs, who can’t always be there when we need, or as in a recent case where the cab company suffers a loss that means they can no longer provide service to us at all, so we have to scramble to find other ways. Recently we have had only around 5% of the Youth be able to come to programs because we didn’t have any way of getting them to and from the Centre.
This is multiplied by the programs here at the Centre as we have the same situation happening with each of the other programs, so our Community can’t be serviced the way it deserves to be because we can’t get the people who need it most here. All the programs here have recently been affected by either not being able to get cabs, or having to put out large sums for Driver’s Seat and other companies, money that comes from our fairly small program budgets.
You have made such a difference in allowing us to purchase this vehicle. This is a powerful, empowering gift to our Centre. As a program Coordinator the issues we face in terms of transportation have been huge, the cost, the time it takes tracking down services, and sometimes the safety of the vulnerable people we work with are all on our minds when trying to navigate getting transportation for our people. Having this in-house option is a game changer for us.
Thank you so much, words cannot express what this gift means to me,
Karen