The success of Project Self-Sufficiency’s Selfpower Model depends on the ability to address the barriers to successful completion of education and training goals. One main barrier for single-parent families is safe and reliable transportation. Participants and their families need safe and reliable transportation to literally stay on the road towards accomplishing their goals.

The impact of the pandemic on transportation for our families has been extreme. Because of supply chain issues and the strength of the used car market, we are receiving considerably fewer donations to award to participants needing replacement vehicles than in the past. Because of this, we are spending much more in repairs and maintenance to keep worn out vehicles safe and operational so that our families can attend school and work and get kids to daycare, school, medical appointments, after-school activities, etc. These expenses have increased more than 70% over the last few years, and we now spend more than $85,000 each year on this specific need.

Project Self-Sufficiency is attempting to bring creative approaches to this large problem. In 2023 budget, our board allocated $40,000 to be used to purchase used vehicles that were given to participants. We expended $39,199 of the $40,000 and have been able to purchase six excellent used vehicles. There are still seven families on our wait list for a new used vehicle, but it feels really good to have been able to help six families with these funds.

We do not expect these challenging trends around increasing transportation needs to improve any time soon given the projected continued strength of the used car market and the continued elevated cost of new vehicles.