Our Name

Ever wonder where the name “OnRamp” comes from?

Sitting in a quiet coffee shop in 2017, our founder Blake Jennings stared through the window at the steady stream of traffic flowing across a nearby overpass. He wasn’t just watching cars, he was searching for the right name for an automotive ministry that had been stirring in his heart.

Blake had recently met several single parents whose stories broke through his comfortable assumptions about poverty. These weren’t people looking for handouts; they were hardworking mothers and fathers whose unreliable vehicles had become barriers to everything that mattered. Jobs slipped away when cars broke down. Housing became unstable without dependable transportation. Doctor visits were missed. Education opportunities vanished. These parents were trying their best to survive in a community where vehicle ownership was as essential as food or clothing.

Looking out that window, Blake suddenly realized that for these families, it was as if they were stuck on the feeder road, while everyone else cruised through life on the highway. These families didn’t need a hand out. They needed an onramp, a way to get from the slow, frustrating side roads of struggle onto the open highway of self-sufficiency and hope.

That’s what this charity would provide: an OnRamp for families to achieve true, long-term self-sufficiency through the provision of a vehicle. From that moment, the name and mission were one: to give families the reliable transportation they need to leave the slow lane of survival and accelerate onto the highway of success.