REGION — United Way of the Tri-Valley Area has cooked up various ways to assist the community over the years. In their latest effort, the Farmington-based organization is assisting locals with funds to repair their cars.
People from Livermore Falls, Livermore or Franklin County can apply for $1,000 in the “Don’t Despair Car Repair Program” and then receive repair at one of 13 participating garages in Farmington, Livermore Falls, Wilton, Kingfield, Jay, Rangeley, Strong, Oquossoc and New Sharon.
UWTVA Director of Marketing and Communications Nichole Ernest said in an interview the car repair program is “designed to help folks who have the vehicle but can’t drive again … because the car is not either not drivable, or not safe or legal.”
“It’s not a typical approach to transportation,” she said.
Ernest said the idea for the program came from a realignment of focus in the new strategic goals, which seeks to address things like transportation.
Transportation is one of those goals because it is “a barrier for a lot of people” – to get to work, buy groceries, attend medical appointments, etc. Ernest said.
It’s a barrier, she said, because there aren’t many public transportation options in the region and purchasing a car or gas is expensive.
Ernest said the cost of living is also increasing overall, which makes it difficult to prioritize transportation when there are other immediate needs like paying for food, rent or heat.
“We are aware … that a lot of people may have a vehicle, but not have the means to fix it or to make it so it’s safe to drive,” Ernest said. “So rather than have them become part of the population that doesn’t have reliable transportation when they could, we decided to kind of chomp at this issue from two sides.”
Those two sides are a community rides program and the car repair program.
Ernest said the process for the car repair program is “very simple” without complicated paperwork.
Those interested can fill out a two-page application online at www.uwtva.org, at a participating garage, or at the United Way office located at 218 Fairbanks Road in Farmington.
The selected garage will then fill out an estimate, which is sent to a five-person United Way committee for final approval.
“It’s not a long drawn out process because [of the] understanding that transportation is critical sometimes,” Ernest said.
Following approval, participants must commit to funding the rest of the repair costs, at which point UWTVA will then send the $1,000 check.
“We just want to make sure that we are being paid, fiscally responsible with the money that we have and helping as many people as we can,” Ernest said.
The car repair program is funded by UWTVA’s $15,000 in seed money set aside after the organization decided transportation would be one of its strategic goals.
UWTVA has received grants from Maine Community Foundation and private donations.
The organization is also working on a text-to-give campaign to raise more funds through donations, and is continuing to apply for grants.
Additionally, UWTVA is partnering with the Foster Career and Technical Education Center to decrease costs of repairs while also giving students “real-life experience fixing cars,” she said.
“People around here know that transportation is a problem,” Ernest said. “We’ve heard it from the medical-care facilities, we’ve heard it from mental-health facilities, we’ve heard it from food banks, we’ve heard it from a lot of different people.
“We hear all the time people missing appointments, because … they didn’t have a ride, or because their ride they had scheduled didn’t come, whatever reason. So if people don’t have a vehicle in their driveway, and they still can’t make it to their appointments, because every vehicle is not running, hopefully this will help those people.”
Ernest feels overall that this is a strong program because of its “unique and creative” approach, which can be “more fundable.”
As of Sept. 1, UWTVA had funded 15 applications for car repairs, about half of the $26,000 thus raised.
Those interested in applying for the program or donating can learn more at https://www.uwtva.org/what-we-do/projects/don-t-despair-car-repair-program.
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