Emily, Job Corps Graduate

My name is Emily, and am 17 years old. My whole life, schooling has been very difficult for me, and I’m not sure why. I don’t have any learning disabilities that would prevent me from going to and doing it. In 2020 when the pandemic hit, I was a high school freshman with straight D’s… Read more »

Mark, Peer Recovery Specialist

I am excited to share my success in Peer Recovery with you. Taking this class has completely changed my life and outlook on recovery. Thanks to your support, I am able to share my experience with others and help them walk through recovery to the path of peace and freedom. After a successful 20 year… Read more »

Buddy, Long Haul Truck Driver

One of the best things that ever happened to me was being incarcerated. Bad decisions and substance use led to an arrest that forced me to hit rock bottom. While I was in jail, I met a man named Greg Lee. He was serving time for the same things. We both had families that we… Read more »

Candace, Peer Recovery Specialist

I wasn’t raised by abusive parents or addicts. My biological father was an alcoholic, but I wasn’t around him to be influenced enough for my issues in life. I smoked my first joint when I was probably 14, and soon thereafter I also experienced getting high on cocaine. At the time I was already smoking… Read more »

Antonio, Lineman

My mother and father divorced when I was young. My mother had different men whom I lived with throughout my adolescent years. My father wasn’t really around. He remarried and had another family and my mother had another child as well. I always felt like the outsider because I felt as if I didn’t belong… Read more »

Peer Recovery Specialist Video

This video shows the stories of our participants in their own words, where they were before the program and now.  

Dawn, Registered Nurse

Transitions from one stage of development to another are critical in life. Watching this process may challenge our confidence, patience, and faith, but witnessing such a transition leaves an impression not soon forgotten. Just such a transition occurred in the Pathways to the American Dream project as one participant, Dawn Thorne, transitioned from student to… Read more »

April, LPN

April K. came to our program in May of 2016 as an Out of School Youth looking for training to help her reach self-sufficient employment. She is a single mother with two young children receiving SNAP and was struggling to make ends meet. We helped her to build her first resume, and had her take… Read more »

Tierra, Teacher Assistant/Bus Aide

Tierra B. was referred to the WIOA adult program internally by the People Incorporated Head Start program where she was working as a Teacher’s Assistant/Bus Aide with the Head Start program. As a condition of her employment, Tierra was required to obtain her Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) within 90 days of hire. She had attempted… Read more »

Cheri, Machine Operator

Cheri H. was referred to Goodwill by the Radford Virginia Employment Commission office in late November 2017. Cheri had decided to re-enter the workforce because of a downturn in her husband’s income, after being a stay at home mother for several years. She had just been let go from a job that she had just… Read more »