Wheels to Work

How it all began

The Wheels to Work project hires out scooters to individuals living in parts of County Durham who otherwise would not have been able to maintain or take up employment owing to the lack of public transport to their workplace. They applied to the Foundation for a grant of £5,000 to be able to support more clients on the wheels to work programme.

Making a difference

Michelle is 25 years old married with 3 young children aged just 8, 4 and 2. Having stayed at home with the children for the last few years Michelle began her first full time job outside of the home in September 2017 at a fast food chain in Consett.  However there are no buses from her home in Langley Park to Consett so that in the early weeks of work she faced a number of difficult options. She could walk a mile to the nearest bus stop and pay £40 a week in bus fares alone. But shift patterns meant that there was many times during that week that there were simply no buses available so that Michelle could not work the morning shifts at all (11pm-4am and 4am to 9am) unless she took a taxi costing £20 one way. At other times when his own shift pattern would allow Michelle’s husband could collect her from work but this meant that he was then getting the children out of bed at midnight to make that car journey.

With thanks to you

Having a scooter has meant that Michelle is able to spend more time with her family and friends who live 30 miles away in Hartlepool. Previously she would need to take 2 buses to travel from home to Hartlepool and of course 2 buses back so that travel time alone would take well over 4 hours now it is just 45 minutes each way.

“I really enjoy using the moped it has made getting to work and visiting family very easy”