Truck to help single-parent families in Oakville, Halton bought through provincial grant

A little truck is going to go a long way to help single-parent families in Oakville and Halton Region.

Home Suite Hope (HSH), a non-profit organization in Oakville dedicated to building a more sustainable future for single-parent families by offering programs with a wraparound service approach, used the $58,000 Capital grant it received from the Oakville Trillium Foundation to purchase a Ford Maverick truck.

The truck provides the non-profit organization with a reliable and cost-effective way to accept donated furniture and house items, move materials for community and program events, pick up and deliver fresh produce from the community garden, transport clients more efficiently to appointments and events and more.

“For many years our community have been looking for ways to help our new family participants set up their new homes but the lack of vehicle has continuously been a barrier,” says HSH Executive Director, Sara Cumming. “Our participants have lost out on access to both furniture and food donations, and we have incurred high costs for truck rentals.

“We are just ecstatic to be able to bring more supports to our families and to divert more furniture away from landfills.”

With its new truck, HSH has begun accepting and transporting donations. The new vehicle has also been wrapped with HSH’s logo, contact information and the tag line “Empowering Single Parent Families” by Wrapt Graphics.

“Through the Ontario Trillium Foundation’s Grant, our government continues to make investments to help support important Oakville organizations like Home Suite Hope (HSH),” said Stephen Crawford, MPP for Oakville. “It gives me great pleasure to know that the $58.8K Capital Grant helped HSH to purchase a pickup truck allowing them to expand their reach to more single parent families and offer a significant helping hand to those in need.”

HSH brings together a network of vital support services in the area to provide programs that support parents and their children and help them move from poverty to stability.

Families in the program usually come from local shelters or the Halton Region’s by-name homelessness list. They often have very little in their possession and are looking for a safe and secure place to call home.

Individual families’ needs are addressed, such as locating and securing apartments in the community, subsidizing a portion of the rent and helping to furnish the new home.