Participant Stories

Jerel is part of a new advanced training opportunity through the Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO). Through this program, CEO financially supports participants through information technology (IT) training that should lead to a well-paid career.

Once coming home, Walter had researched organizations that could help him gain employment. This is when he came across Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO), and began to feel excited and hopeful about the next phases of his life.

This holiday season, Ras has an extra reason to celebrate: he recently achieved a year of employment post-incarceration.

Stacey is an advocacy fellow for the Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO). He says this position has opened the door for him to tackle issues he cares deeply about.

Rodney, a new trucker, not only drives a long way in a short time for his routes but has come a long way in life in a short time.

This past July, around the time many Americans were celebrating the anniversary of the nation’s founding, Ohio resident Brian celebrated a personal milestone: 365 days of employment post-incarceration.

I’ve been an information technology support specialist in Detroit for half a year now, and I consider myself lucky because I love my job helping other people solve problems. But it wasn’t easy getting here.

Venitra loves her job as a picker at a warehouse in Oklahoma City, OK. She gets excellent benefits and uses the forklift skills she trained for. However, there was a long period when she was fearful about finding a good position. She was incarcerated during the pandemic and was unsure what work she would be able to do after her release, especially because before being in prison, she and her husband had only worked fast-food jobs.

Shannon has made a career turning struggling businesses into winning operations. But his biggest success has been his ability to turn his own life around in a way that positively influences many.

Konrad was born and raised in the rough streets of Detroit, Michigan. As a promising student in school, he had hopes of one day attending college. However, due to an abusive father, he found himself homeless and living on the streets at age 13. This unfortunate and dangerous turn of events caused his life to go in a very different direction. After a drug deal gone bad left two men fatally shot, Konrad decided to turn himself in to the police.

“A jail is a lockdown, but prison is a community,” says Charles, citing the work of famed prison reform advocate, penologist, and longtime warden of Sing Sing Correctional Facility, Lewis E. Lawes. Over the 40 years of his incarceration, Sing Sing was just one of the many institutions where Charles was held, in fact, he was there twice. After all of those years, he says that what he ultimately found was a sense of community.