I am an Indigenous father based in Tiohtià:ke/ Montreal raising funds from the local community for some necessities: over the past few years, I have worked very hard to acquire more stability, solid work, and community connections in order to provide my children with a stable, safe, and warm environment. Through this work, I have gotten to the point in my life where I now have an apartment with enough space for my kids, and they can now spend weekends and even weekly stays with me.

While we are overjoyed that we can now spend more time together as a family, getting to this point has not been without its costs; already, I've had to put a down payment on 2 bedroom sets (one for my son and one for my daughter) and have had to pay a deposit so that we could lease transfer into this bigger apartment. These apartment costs are on top of my existing housing costs (hydro/electricity, groceries, etc). As you can imagine, these bigger, set-up expenses have limited me financially. I'm asking for $3900 (breakdown below) to help us with these expenses so that I can make sure that I am staying afloat financially while I continue to build us up to even more stability and longer-term goals.

Meegwech mistee to everyone for helping an Indigenous father and his children get a jump start on their new life together. This $3900 is the amount of money that will give my family and I a true "head start" to set us up for success (and to allow us to start our new lives without additional debt), and would have an extremely positive impact on our future, allowing us to stay together and continue setting family goals for the long-term.

Budget

$840 - deposit for children's room furniture

$1360 - remainder left to pay on children's room furniture

$500 - apartment deposit + lease transfer fee

$738 - bill payments (electricity, hydro)

$400 - one time groceries shop to fill up my cupboards and fridge for the kids

$3838 - TOTAL, rounding up to account for fees etc: $3900

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This fundraiser is being organized by Marcela Huerta to protect the anonymity of the family.