Nobody would have predicted, watching Colin’s teenage years unfold, that his story would become one worth telling.
At 17, his father left. His mother moved on to build a new life. What Colin was left with, for the most part, was a gap where support and direction should have been. The wrong crowd found him before the right opportunities did. School fell away. Drugs became an escape from instability. What followed were years marked by homelessness, broken relationships, and repeated incarcerations. Even when Colin reached for something better, old patterns pulled him back, and the cycle felt like the only version of life available to him.
Then he decided to start over. He moved to Florida carrying that decision like luggage. But fresh starts do not automatically come with fresh beginnings, and the job market confirmed it quickly. Application after application went nowhere. His record followed him into every room before he had a chance to speak.
Then he found a posting on Indeed: a Material Handling position at Goodwill’s Englewood location. He applied with low expectations. That turned out to be the right way to walk into the interview.
The store manager looked at him directly and said his past did not define his future. It was a short statement with a long reach. Colin describes it as the first time in years that someone had genuinely believed in him. He got the job.
What followed was not a single turning point but a steady accumulation of support. A Goodwill Life Coach worked with him consistently, providing guidance that made it possible to face setbacks without collapsing back into old habits. Employment created structure. Structure created stability. Stability made the next step possible, and then the one after that.
“Change is possible, but it starts with a decision,” Colin says. “The support is there. You just have to take that first step and be willing to commit to something better.”
Today, Colin works full-time. He has completed probation. He lives with his father and helps care for him now, rebuilding a relationship that had been broken for a long time. The accomplishment he names with the most pride is not the job or the cleared record. It is the person he has become: someone who did not give up even when giving up would have been easier.
Goodwill’s employment support programs are built on the understanding that for many people navigating life after incarceration, addiction, or extended instability, a job is not the final reward. It is the first step toward everything else. Employment does not resolve the underlying complexity, but it provides the ground to stand on while doing the work of building something lasting.
Colin’s story begins with the exact circumstances that most employers quietly filter out. It ends, for now, with a person who shows up for work, shows up for family, and talks about the future in terms of growth rather than survival.
That outcome is not accidental. It came from one employer willing to look past a record, one Life Coach who stayed consistent, and one person who made a decision and kept it.
