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Before I came to work at Goodwill® of the Greater East Bay, my life wasn’t exactly easy.
I became addicted to drugs at a young age, and I used them off and on for many years.
Despite my struggles, I was able to get some good job skills, including some management experience.
That didn’t stop me from hitting rock bottom — that happened after getting arrested for drug sales and possession.
Prison, the three years I spent in a maximum security prison for women were probably the best thing that ever happened to me. Though I did not think so at the time.
I don't think it would take me 3 years to get it. But we do not get to choose the punishment.
Drugs and alcohol are readily available in prison for those who want them. Instead, I chose to immerse myself in a vocational course and every self-help course I could get. 8 00:00:50 --> 00:01:04 I was given a list of resources to take with me when I got out of prison that included information as to where to get a driver’s license, a social security card and only a couple of places of where a person could potentially find work. Goodwill was one of the names on the list. 9 00:01:04 --> 00:01:18 I had been out of prison for about a week, and I was driving down the road with my stepmother. We passed a Goodwill store and she said, why don’t you go in there and try and get a job? I said "no no I can't do that I am wearing jeans and you can't get a job while wearing jeans" 10 00:01:18 --> 00:01:26 But she encourage me to go in anyway and I am glad I did. Because it was there I met the manager of the Vacaville Goodwill store and she took me up to her office.
She said to just calm down, I was exactly what Goodwill looks for, so she sent me to apply at the Goodwill Academy in Fairfield, CA, and within a week I was accepted into the program, which gives paid training and case management. 13 00:01:49 --> 01:56: Within 15 days of being released from prison, I was a trainee in the Vacaville Goodwill store. 14 00:01:57 --> 02:07: I was so happy to be working I would have done anything to prove myself including working long hours. If they would of asked me to scrub the floor with my toothbrush I would of happily done it. 15 00:02:08 --> 02:16: After all my past experiences I know two things: I need sobriety and I need to work. 16 00:02:16 --> 02:22: I did both of those things and now I am a self-supporting member of society. 17 00:02:23 --> 02:32: Goodwill is all about giving second chances and that is what Goodwill did for me, they gave me a second chance. They don’t give a hand out, they give a hand up. 18 00:02:32 --> 02:42: Here I am five years later, five promotions later, Kelle Wright, director of sales and operations for Goodwill of the Greater East Bay.