WGC Emergency Response Network Request - $1,000 - We Did It!

The Women’s Giving Circle of Howard County received a request to help with an immediate need in the community through our Emergency Response Network (ERN).

Our partners at Bridges to Housing Stability  requested $1,000 to help a woman in need of a car, and in a short period of time you collectively took action and donated $1,000 to help this woman right here in our community.

Thank you all!

Here is the story of the woman you just helped:

A brave mother of three recently fled her home in the Midwest, and left her partner after she feared for her life and the safety of her children due to domestic abuse. She has some friends here in Howard County and hoped to restart her life quietly here without her partner finding her. After living in her car with her children for a while, her Bridges to Housing Stability Housing Advocate worked quickly to help her find a place to live and she recently moved in. 

She found a job with a church in Montgomery County where she feels safe every day and is surrounded by supportive people that care. The children are happy in their new schools here in Howard County, and all seemed to be going well until this week when the transmission in her car stopped working altogether. The mechanics told her it would be $3,800 to fix it and she shouldn’t drive it at all because it will likely lurch and cut out which will cause an accident.

 Her co-workers at her job told her it might be better to find a new car. She has low credit which makes purchasing a car difficult and very expensive. She is taking Uber to work, since public transportation between Howard and Montgomery County is almost non-existent. This daily cost of $50+ per day is unsustainable. Vehicles for Change told her there is at least a six-month waiting list for a discounted vehicle through their program. 
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She has found an inexpensive car that seems to be in good shape for $2,000 and put together some other funds through friends and family and her church to come up with half of the money needed to purchase it. She needs another $1,000.