After being referred to the You’re Hired program by a local church, David began meeting with staff on a weekly basis. We worked with him to identify his strengths and areas of opportunity, build up his support network, and work toward stability. It took many weeks of relationship-building with David for him to feel comfortable sharing the particulars of his story. He has an amazing work ethic, but he needed some help with interpersonal and social skills, and especially with interview practice.
We spent hours and hours working with David to write a resume based on his work history and the skills he had gained over a long career in diverse fields. Once we captured his information and put it into a resume, we sat with him to practice interviews weekly while applying for jobs. David lacked computer literacy skills, so we sat together at a computer, first demonstrating the techniques used to find job postings, then searching for jobs together, and finally David searched for and applied to jobs on his own.
After three months of dedicated job search, mock interviews, and a whole lot of practice going to interviews, David was hired by a property management company to take care of a local strip mall. David's dedication and work ethic impressed his supervisor so much that one week later he was given more hours and scheduled for his preferred shift.
"You helped me to become an individual again."
David's Story
David was a hard-working family man and homeowner who had a great job as a union worker. In his late thirties he entered a period of instability and started to see the life he had built for himself and his family slip away. He lost his job, his marriage, his relationship with his kids, and his place to live. After living in his truck and on the street for ten years, he found himself homeless in California with no purpose and nowhere to go.
In the year since then he has bought a vehicle and moved into housing which he can afford with his own income. He is also in touch with his family, making child support payments, and has visited his parents in his home state. David's own hard work and dedication led him back to living as a productive member of society, and support from the You’re Hired program allowed him to reach his goals and put him on the path to self-sufficiency.