​I learned that T had visited a phone store with his brothers, and on the way out was approached by an undercover police officer with his weapon drawn. T got in the car and took off. He’d fled the police before and this time they weren’t happy about it. Cook County Jail is where he ended up healing from his surgery.

I went to the jail to visit him. I wanted answers. You don’t just go from making changes in your life to being back in jail. When I got there I was surprised to see that he was still in pretty good spirits. Something he told me during the visit has stuck with me. He said that God was looking out for him, and that was why he was in jail. Remember I said the streets are a drug too? He had been back in his old neighborhood and had a feeling that he wanted to cause trouble that night. Before he could do anything the officer approached him. He didn’t know what he might have ended up doing, but if he had not gotten caught when he did, he might be locked up for a worse crime.

The odds of T getting bail were slim but I went to court with him in hopes that the judge would recognize he was not all bad. Maybe they would take mercy on him and let him out. He did get bail, but it was steep. It was going to be a challenge to come up with all $7000. I went to see him again while we were waiting to get it all together, but now Covid hit and things at the Cook County Jail were getting scary. It took some time but I helped T’s family collect the money. Once they had it all together I went with his mom to pay the bail and finally get him out again. This time T had to have learned his lesson. But now he was on house arrest and that brings a whole new set of issues. In order for T to work he had to get approval from the judge and this wasn’t so easy. Not only did he have to get approval to work, he had to get it every month, which was a struggle. Most of the time he only got movement about one week each month. The sheriff’s office makes it very difficult for inmates on house arrest to get movement and work. Not to mention, things at home were making it harder and harder for T to keep working. He was letting things get in the way of what was most important. Slowly, I felt he was slipping away and wasn’t sure that things were ever going to change for this kid.

Before I continue on with the next part of the story we will hear from T about that day that I gave him a drug test...

This day was the worst but also what I needed to get me back on track a little. Yes, I kinda was getting caught up in my thoughts to the point I saw that the drugs were the only way to help me forget things and get over things. The drugs helped for the moment but also made me do other things such as run the streets and be careless again. Not caring bout others but what made me feel happy and ok which was the stuff that got me here now.

And how the shooting changed him this time. He had been shot several times before, this wasn't the first but sure hope that it is the last.

Getting shot this time changed me in so many ways it made me start thinking a lil better. I had to grow up in so many ways, I had to let a lot of people go, and I had to start asking myself did I want to end up a memory?  I had to at least move or at least try and change my ways so that I can still be here today. That last time getting shot told me exactly what I needed to know and that was nobody's your friend. If they don't want positive for you once they get what they need out of you, then you are useless. That made me want to come more and more closer to being at work. But the thought of having to come back into the environment after work, it hurt my heart to the point I would rather stay inside and try to stay safe from things. It traumatized me for a while but once I started to focus more with working I came out of that stage of shock but the streets called me again.

 We will call him “T”, as I don’t want to reveal his real name.  Slowly it became a problem for T to show up on time or even at all.  I generally kept in touch with him every day but then sometimes he would just disappear for days at a time with no communication at all.  I am not used to this, and I didn’t know how to even deal with it.  Did something happen?  Is he hurt?  Dead?  I just wasn’t sure.  Eventually he always checked back in and came back to work.  This started to happen more and more frequently and I was getting frustrated with him. Did he want to change or was this all for his PO?  Every time I would see him or talk to him he would tell me how much he appreciated me and that he was going to keep working on being a better person.  By this time I was extremely invested in T and seeing him through to a new life.  This went on for about a year on and off and I just began to not count on him for working but I still talked to him daily and tried to listen and guide him in the right direction.  

It was near the end of the year and T was in a working mode. He was coming in fairly regularly but he wasn’t the same as was before.  Then one day he accidentally sent me a text that was meant for someone else and I knew I had lost him.  He was definitely using drugs and that explained a lot of the problems I had been having with him.  I had been having an issue with another employee at that time who was a former heroin addict so I brought them both in and drug tested them both.  They were both using and T was using pills so his drug test came up positive for every drug that it tested for except PCP.  You have no idea what you are taking when you take those pills, it is beyond scary.  I sent them both home and told them both it was time to clean up or don’t come back.  A week later T called me and told me that he went home and he stopped using everything and was going to clean up his act.  He had a court date that day and they had not been drug testing him anymore at his court dates but they decided today was the day they were going to do a surprise drop.  When they did his drop he didn’t have anything in his system and he stayed out of jail, for now.  T told me that he was so grateful to me and that he was changing this time for sure, he wasn’t going backwards anymore.  T managed to stay off the drugs but that was about it, because the streets are a drug too and much harder to kick than anything else. 

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This blog is about what I have learned through my journey with helping people to live a better life through full time employment and taking responsibility for their lives instead of continuing the cycle of incarceration.


It has been over two years since I started this foundation. When I started it I wasn’t sure what was going to happen.  Sometimes I wished I could see into the future so I would have a better idea of what was needed and exactly what I was trying to do. I knew what I wanted to accomplish. I knew there were people who needed guidance, but I wasn’t always sure how I could help them. I wanted to know and I wanted to know right away so I could start helping as soon as possible.  As time went on I began to realize that this is a long process and the answers can’t be found immediately. It takes time to discover what is needed and how to achieve it. Now, years later I feel like I have more answers but I still get very frustrated. I’ve found that I cannot do this on my own, that I need help from others and that together we can change a few lives. So many people have been in and out of my foundation over the years and I feel as though I have only helped a very few of them. But then again, I’m beginning to think that is the norm. A lot of people think they want help but not everyone wants to put the work into getting it.  It’s a lot of effort not only on my part, but also on the part of every person who walks through my door looking for help.  They have to understand, I cannot help you if you don’t want to help yourself.  I’ve decided to share some of my experiences along with experiences of one of my participants in hope that it will inspire those who are looking for a real change in their lives to put that change before everything else. Although it isn’t easy, it is worth it.  That is why I use the tagline “The Time to Change Is Now”.  There will always be next week or next month or whatever excuse you can come up with, but there is no time like the present to make that change.  In this blog I will be sharing a story of one of the individuals that I have been helping and I will also share some of his point of view on the story. I will continue to update this story in real time as it is happening and will also share some other perspectives of other participants.  ​

When I first decided to hire previously incarcerated individuals I met a man who came to me because he was on probation.  I asked him if he could pass a drug test and his answer was no but if I gave him one month he would pass it and come work for me.  I said okay and didn’t give him another thought, he wasn’t calling me back.  Sure enough, a month later he called me and said he would pass now and could he come in and try working.  I gave him a 10 hour OSHA class to take before I let him come in, I wanted to see if he would complete this class and really take things seriously.  He completed it rather quickly and was ready to work.  Of course at the time, I thought this was a slam dunk, this kid wanted to work and already did everything I asked of him and he must really want to change, right?  He started working and I was impressed, he learned quickly, he was so easy to get along with and to teach, I really was proud of myself, this is what I wanted to do and I was doing it.  However things started to get a little off track and I realized that I had no idea what was coming and how I was ever going to fix this kid?