Transportation Needs
Over and over we learn of difficult family situations made even more complex because of transportation problems.
- How can a family improve its situation when a family member can't get from home to a better job, because he/she has no car?
- What happens when the rent is raised so high that the family needs
to move, but the dad walks to his current job because they have no car?
- How does a family get to the food bank to get food when they have no car? How many times can you ask a neighbor for a ride?
- What happens when a family's car is so old that it is constantly in the shop, which means they have no way to get to work?
- Free medical care is offered at a great clinic in West Chester, but if a family has no car - how do you get there?
Owning
a car in this area is not a luxury - it's a necessity. Public
transportation is not easily available unless you are going to
Philadelphia, and even then you need to get to the train station. To
get to a job - you need a car or you need a ride. While rides and
carpools are the ideal for our environment, we all know they aren't
easy ways to get to work. Your ride has a schedule change - and you
miss work. You miss work, and ....... You know the routine.
For
those families struggling in general, but do own cars - the cars are
often old and seem to need continual (and costly) repairs. Insurance
costs are often prohibitive. General maintenance (oil changes, etc) may
make sense to us, but if you can hardly pay your electric bill, you
aren't likely going to have the money for an oil change.
T&E
Care has a wish list - and that list includes getting help from the
local community of car dealers, auto mechanics, and insurance agents.
This is where YOU come in.
Offering a car
If you have a car that you no longer need and it still works well, let us know if you’d be willing to offer it to a family. We can get you the proper papers for tax purposes. This can truly be a way to change a family's life. Thanks for considering us!
Help with car repairs
If you know of any local service departments or auto mechanics that
would be willing to offer any kind of help (free service, discounted
service) to families referred from T&E Care - please let us know about them.
At a minimum if we could get free oil changes - then the cars could be
maintained with more regularity and potentially avoid some of these
bigger repairs. Our goal is ONE (just one!!) free oil change per
mechanic per year (just one a year!) ! With dozens of mechanics in the
area - just think of the difference we could make for these families.
Thanks to C&J Automotive in Berwyn for stepping up and helping out with recent offers to help - they are real community contributors!
Help with car insurance
The
same goes for car insurance. This past year T&E Care has learned
of2 families who ran into incredibly difficult situations, indirectly
related to non-payment of car insurance, because they just ran out of
money. Because of confidentiality reasons, the problems can't be explained on this website - but if someone
is willing to help with these expenses - we'd be willing to give you
more details. Again - if YOU can contact your local agent and see if
he/she would be willing to offer some assistance for the car insurance
payments - that would be great. Thanks to Joe Tucker - Allstate agent in Chesterbrook
for doing just this for one of the families who came here after
hurricane Katrina. Joe is a tremendous friend to T&E Care. Can more
local agents help out?
Transportation
is a HUGE problem for many families that, at least here in Tredyffrin
and Easttown, we should be able to address, if not solve!
Please contact us if you can help with any of these requests. THANKS!!!!
|
|