Like other marginalized populations, transportation is a huge barrier to these young people getting to school, getting jobs, getting to counseling appointments, etc. Some of our youth who are still in state care do get monthly passes from DHS, but there are often barriers to get the passes from their workers and they have to be deamed "productive" by DHS supervisor. This means they are working and/or are in school. Those youth who are looking for work or trying to get into school, do not qualify as "productive". Other youth have already been emancipated by DHS so they can't get passes either. A few of our youth qualify as Honored Citizens, but not many and sadly even some of those youth find that label not worth the discount they get. I buy bus passes a couple times a month with our petty cash and hand 1-3 tickets out to youth who are at our office and ask for them, but it isn't enough and the small budget of our non-profit is already stretched (as I am sure you can imagine). Bus ticket donations would be a big help to these youth who are trying to beat the odds.
Programs like this are in such need. Ten books of tickets is just a drop in the bucket, but it's a start. Thanks to all of you who have donated. If you have yet to donate, here's how. And, if you'd like to help any of the individual programs Holiday Fare has helped, I'd be happy to put you in touch with the right folks.
If you've given already, you can continue to help by spreading the word about Holiday Fare, and linking them back to the Holiday Fare blog.
Thanks!
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