About Vehicles For Change

What Does Vehicles for Change Do?

Making a Visible Impact

Since 1999, Vehicles for Change has provided the tools necessary to achieve financial stability for families through our car donation and reentry internship programs. Whether a family needs a car or an individual needs a new job, we promote respect and independence.

Please continue reading to learn more about our services. 

Car Award Program

Laura Final photo

A nonprofit organization, Vehicles for Change receives 99 percent of its car donations from the public. We repair cars that meet our quality standards and award them for $950 to eligible families, who are referred to us by our sponsoring agencies.

Since 1999, VFC has awarded 8,000 cars to low-income families, changing the lives of more than 26,000 people. Car award recipients report that a reliable transportation has led to higher paying jobs and access to better opportunities.

 

Full Circle Training Program

For many men and women, reentry is a time of anxiety. Who will give me a second chance? How can I gain meaningful employment? The lack of the ability to earn a living wage is the number one reason for the 0% national recidivism rate! Full Circle Auto Training Center trains returning citizens to become skilled auto mechanics and ensures reentry is a time of SUCCESS, empowerment and support. Our interns receive Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) classroom, Virtual Reality, well as hands-on training under the supervision of a master mechanic. At the completion of their internship, many of our program graduates are immediately hired within the automotive industry. 

Learn more about the program here

Our Auto Outlet, Freedom Wheels

VFC operates Freedom Wheels, a retail used-car lot that is open to the public so that car prices are kept low for recipients. Some donated
vehicles (such as luxury models or cars with a high book value) are repaired and overseen by our Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) master mechanics and Maryland state certified inspectors, and sold through Freedom Wheels, in order to maximize the donor’s tax
deduction and VFC’s financial return. All proceeds go toward
preparing more vehicles for deserving families.

Freedom Wheels, launched in 2005, enables VFC to act as a social enterprise, funding its own operations and growth.