Affordable transportation.

Transportation needs restrict the families' access to educational resources by limiting their outings. All of the parent participants mention the lack of accessible public transportation. The cost of travel seems to be a significant issue for these families. Only a few of the participants venture regularly out of their immediate neighbourhood. Their main activity is looking after their home and family and any travel that they take is closely linked to the tasks associated with this role, such as shopping or going for medical appointments. Natalie and Jill state that they own a library card, but no longer visit the library. When they lived closer to the library it was convenient for them to use; now that they live at the opposite end of town, they both concur that it is not feasible to get there. Beth indicates that "it's kind of out of the way…it's way down Main Street."

Those with other means of occasional private transportation, such as Lynne, and Beth who relies on her brother to take her family out on a regular basis, have more outings from the neighbourhood than others in the study. Jill's husband has a truck, but it is not reliable and is constantly needing repairs. When it is functioning, her husband takes her son out to fast food restaurants on the weekend. Jill explains that she does not like taking the bus so simply goes to places where she can walk. Similar sentiments are put forth by Lynne when her partner is not available with his vehicle. Andrea and her husband have a van, but "it's not on the road" and they do not have the money for repairs. As a result, Andrea explains, the family really does not have much opportunity to go out.

Even though Jane does not read that often, she has a card for the public library downtown and enjoys the privilege of borrowing library resources about once each month. She travels by bus on her own to the library. She has never taken her children with her, but expresses a desire to do so, "they've never been there so that's ah, something I'm going to work on to bring them, cause we do go on outings…"