United Way

WethanktheUnitedWay foralltheydotostrengthen ourcommunity. wawanesa.com Our future looks brighter because of you Mike and I were never good with money. When we met, I was on social assistance and he was making minimum wage. The house we were renting looked like a shack, with no siding, no insulation and a furnace that hardly worked. The rent was cheap but the utilities were high. We relied regularly on the food bank and we often struggled to pay our bills. That was seven years ago, shortly before I got involved in an asset building program supported by United Way. I was coming off maternity leave with our second son and we were determined to buy our house. We wanted to give our kids a safe place to grow up and the consistency of staying put. We knew our landlord was thinking of selling and we knew we could get the house cheap. The asset building program changed everything for us. We learned to budget, manage our money and build our credit. With the skills we learned in the program, we were able to save enough for the down payment and were approved for a mortgage that included some money to make a few repairs. We put on siding, upgraded the insulation and installed a new furnace. Our monthly payments are cheaper than renting. It sounds like something so trivial but being able to own a house is such a huge deal. Not having to worry about whether a landlord cares enough to make sure our home is okay to live in; being able to rebuild our lives when we didn't know if we could even afford to stay in one place from month to month. So much has changed for us because of one program. It hasn't been easy, especially while raising two boys, but both Mike and I were able to return to school. Now Mike earns twice what he did before and I just graduated with a degree in social work. I had no idea until recently that this program, and the resource centre, was supported by United Way. Or that they support hundreds of programs like it, and families like ours, all over the city. Having these kinds of resources and supports right in your own neighbourhood, that's how you get people taking care of each other. That's how you build a stronger community. 0 4 • U N I T E D W A Y F A L L 2 0 1 4 POVERTY TO POSSIBILITY Mike & Lani POSSIBILITY

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