Hi there. My name is Talicia and I am fundraising for a vehicle for my family, for work and appointments. Some may already know my story but for those who don't here is a small portion of it. My name is Talicia and I am a single mother of 2 children 15 and 7. My youngest who is currently on the waitlist for an autism diagnosis and had already had a previous adhd diagnosis has had many challenges these past few years. He struggles with communication and can become overwhelmed very easy which leads to many meltdowns. Due to challenges he has had limited school hours since kindergarten which made working as a single parent basically impossible due to daycares unable to take him during school hours and no funding for respite due to long waitlists with fscd. Despite the challenges presented to us I managed to start working subcontracting cleaning jobs to work around my sons schedule. Even with out a car I continued to work, hauling cleaning supplies, mops, buckets etc with me on the bus, doing whatever I could to pay the bills. Just when things were starting to look up, the school EA's went on strike. Once again work had been affected as my son was out of school for over 10 weeks and zero options. As I continued to lose more contracts due to no childcare support options and limited family or friends to help, my debt increased, bills grew larger. Then finally after many weeks my son was finally able to go back to school, meaning I could finally get back to work. But with very few cleaning contracts and a pay wage that barely covered the cost of supplies and transportation there was no way subcontracting could get me out of debt. Thats is when I made the big step to start my own cleaning business. Out of all the odds my business actually started to grow. I have now been independently working for the past 5 months slowly but steadily adding new clients to the schedule. Even though most clients are completely unaware that I am completely reliant on public transportation I still arrive on time for work. But with clients all over the city and unpaid travel times between jobs and I have limited workable hours due to 1 hr +plus bus rides and only limited to work during my sons school schedule. So getting a vehicle would not only help haul supplies to jobs, but would also give more opportunities to work longer hours, access more jobs around the city, help get to my sons appointments, I would be able to drive my oldest to school instead of long busses on public transit and less waiting in the cold for unpredictable busses. Especially with living in Edmonton with a cold winter fast approaching.

So as you can see a vehicle would help us so much but with still debts to be paid I am unable to afford a vehicle that we desperately need. So any help we can get will be very much appreciated. I just need a a bit of help so I can keep providing for my children. Big Thank you from Talicia, Skyy and Caylum