Boston Strive: Prepared to Work / Determined to Succeed

Success Stories

Jovan

Growing up in Roxbury’s Orchard Park projects, Jovan’s potential was suppressed beneath the anger and carelessness for life deemed necessary to survive the streets. Jovan knows the feeling of a gun in his hands. He knows what it is like to shoot at another person - to try to kill rival gang members. He dealt drugs. He was incarcerated. Yet, unlike so many young men on the streets, Jovan was fortunate to have people in his corner who believed there was another road to travel. The Boston Foundation’s StreetSafe initiative worked with Jovan, showing him another way. Employment is essential to ensure a young person has a viable future. STRIVE delivers on this need. Jovan’s youth worker guided him to STRIVE, a StreetSafe Initiative agency partner.

At STRIVE Jovan learned to shed the street mentality and progressed during the intensive five-week program that challenges its clients to learn the soft skills necessary to enter and advance in the work place. He started with the basics. “They taught me how to wear a tie. I had never seen a resume. They taught me how to make a resume…then they taught me to be a man,” says Jovan. Central to this pivotal change was when he learned how to “work together with other people as a team and not to work against everyone.” Jovan graduated in the summer of 2010. He could have looked for a first job presenting less of a challenge; yet, Jovan was also learning to dream. He focused his efforts on a sales position.

Beyond the long shadow cast by a lifetime of social barriers, Jovan needed to overcome the immediate challenge of his prison record, which so often deters employers from hiring otherwise competitive candidates. Applying strategies he learned at STRIVE, Jovan confronted his past with honesty and skillfully articulated a new vision for himself during the interview. For the interview, Jovan printed out his prison record and presented it to the hiring manager. He explained what he had done and efforts made to transform his life. Once a proven-risk young man, Jovan experienced proven-success when Just Energy hired him, a national green energy retailer located in Chelsea, MA. He got the job he wanted.

As he approaches a year on the job, Jovan has advanced within the company. This year he earned a paid-for trip to Europe courtesy of his employer based on his sales production. His next goal: home ownership. “I want to buy a home by my 27th birthday. I think I’ll do it before then.”

Jayson

Something happened to Jayson when he was shot, not long after graduating East Boston High School. Not only had Jayson completed school, he was a member of their highly competitive basketball team. He saw a future for himself. Then he was shot. Wrong place at the wrong time. Jayson was not gang affiliated. However, when one sees himself or herself as a victim, there are a number of personal choices to make in how they respond. Jayson chose to get and carry a gun. He saw a need for protection. Instead of a vision for his future, Jayson chose to live and die by the gun. Instead of resisting the violence on the streets, he was now a contributor. Jayson would be arrested for possession of an illegal firearm. Not long after his release, he was arrested once again for a gun possession charge. Although this case was dismissed, he had violated his parole and was sentenced to three more years in federal prison.

In 2007 Jayson was again returned to the community after serving his time. Jayson’s parole officer connected him to STRIVE. Jayson was 25 years old, had been incarcerated twice and had no education beyond high school and no real skills. He was far away from any vision of a future he once had. This is what STRIVE is for, this is for whom STRIVE exists. For the first time Jayson had a reason to rise early in the morning. He had to or otherwise STRIVE would send him home. He had a reason to wear a shirt and tie each morning. This is the STRIVE way. “They brought back an attitude into my life,” says Jayson. “It’s not always what you know but how you act. STRIVE teaches hard skills but it’s more than that. They brought back this idea of being a professional person back into my life.”

While sharpening his math and writing skills at STRIVE, Jayson’s competence shined. He caught the attention of X-Cel’s executive director who encouraged Jayson to help his peers learn math for their GED test. Jayson successfully completed STRIVE and found employment, too. X-Cel, Inc. hired Jayson to help teach their GED workshops. Three years later Jayson still teaches but his role has expanded. He supports students at BHCC who moved through STRIVE and X-Cel, Inc. programming. He encourages them to push on, helps with math, and makes sure they stay on the right track. Jayson too, is now a college student. He is taking classes part-time and is considering a future in teaching. It was at STRIVE that he realized “when what you’re doing is not working you have to do something different. You have to change your formula in life.”

Kimberly

Kimberly B. tried college for one year. This was back in 1994. That was the year she decided it was more profitable to sell drugs. Kimberly was arrested in 1996. While awaiting arraignment on nine drug charges, Kimberly went on the run. She fled from Boston to Puerto Rico. She was not alone. She was eight months pregnant.
Kimberly was not so much a survivor as a long distance runner. Keep on the run long enough and see if you can outrun your past. Kimberly ran from her drug charges. She ran from her uncle who raped her and a family that would not believe so. She ran from the death of her teenage sister by a drunk driver. But there is no escape. In Puerto Rico, her son is born. In the next few years, two baby sisters join him. The babies’ father lives with them. He beats Kimberly over and over; threatening to turn her in if she ever leaves or presses charges. She raises her children, works when she can, and never stops looking over her shoulder.
Die or risk losing her children? Fearing for her life but even more fearing for her children’s safety, Kimberly ran again. It was 2003. This time, however, she ran to Boston to turn herself in to the police. She also pressed charges against her children’s father. She does not have to serve prison time but is placed on parole. She returns to Puerto Rico, but soon defaults on parole when unable to afford the hundreds of dollars each month for mandatory drug testing. The following year Kimberly returns to Boston to once again turn herself in. Eventually her parole is retired.

A long time ago Kimberly dreamt of becoming a nurse. Home again, she now dreams somehow to just work. It feels impossible. She has an open CORI showing all nine drug charges. Five years later she is seeking emergency shelter to escape violence from her father in-law, in whose house she and her children reside. She is denied subsidized housing because of her CORI. At the Department of Transitional Assistance office, she sees a STRIVE pamphlet. It says in bold letters “LOOKING FOR A JOB? Want to feel better about yourself? Want to hope for a better life for you and children?” She desperately does. The person she might have become is awakened at STRIVE. She was there all along. “STRIVE made me comfortable with the uncomfortable and dealing with my past. They forced me to look at what was on my table,” she says. Kimberly is a star among her cohort (cycle 5, 2010) and graduates the five-week job readiness program.

In her 4th week, she interviews for a job. She is asked about specific experience. She answers that no, she does not have experience but she’ll work for free so she can be trained. She credits STRIVE for her renewal of confidence, for skillfully navigating a tough job interview. She is hired. Her boss is a STRIVE graduate. This city is rich with men and women who have turned their lives around. STRIVE is part of Boston’s biography. Upon graduation she remains at STRIVE for two weeks before her job begins, just to help other participants. She encourages, makes suggestions, filling the building with her voice of optimism. Kimberly reflects upon her new job as a medical assistant and the shiny STRIVE pin affixed on her shirt lapel. “I want my children to know the person I have become and not the person I once was.”

While she may never reach an old dream of becoming a nurse, Kimberly knows she can help people and utilize her spirit. “I used to think someday I’m going to die alone in someone’s apartment. At STRIVE I began to dream of having my own apartment.” And now she does. Her son is earning A’s and B’s in school. He’s a pretty good basketball player. He’s a better brother. Each day after school he walks his sisters to the library and helps them with their homework while Mom works. And then she picks them up and they go home. Together.

On behalf of the STRIVE community, thank you for your past support. Please continue to stand with us as we help women and men like Kimberly, Jayson and Jovan stay safe, contribute to society and realize their dreams.