RALFAEL’S STORY

Ralfael is a current Manufacturing Operator at one of Growing Home’s best employer partners, Freedman Seating.  He is a hard working and growth-focused employee, supporting himself and his family – but it hasn’t always been an easy journey for Ralfael.

Ralfeal believes that at age 14 in the eighth grade, his life started going in the wrong direction. Growing up, Ralfeal and his sister were raised by his mother, who worked at a cereal manufacturing company while his father was in and out of his life due to being incarcerated.  At 14, Ralfael moved to a different neighborhood and started hanging around friends that stole cars, and he started doing the same things that they were doing. He was first arrested at the age of 15 for a stolen radio. Since that time, Ralfeal has been arrested for trespassing, gambling, traffic violations, drug possession & selling drugs.

After serving a year-long sentence in 2015 he started to make different decisions – positive decisions. Ralfeal has always worked on cars, and he ventured to start his own mobile mechanic business.  And then he joined Growing Home.  Since being at Growing Home, Ralfeal has obtained his Food Handlers license, completed training in professional interviewing skills, self-awareness training, and resilience training. While in the program, Ralfeal leaned on the support of case managers and staff to be resilient through continued challenges due to house arrest. Because of the way the house arrest system currently works, Ralfael was on a tight schedule until his upcoming court dates, making even off-campus interviews and job fairs difficult to coordinate. The job search process was difficult because some jobs will not hire candidates who have a pending case.

In the end, Ralfael landed at a great opportunity with opportunities to learn and grow at Freedman Seating. Growing Home and their partnerships with RiseKit and Freedman Seating was an instrumental part of that:  “Growing Home and RiseKit gave me all the access, resources and tools for where to search and find jobs. They showed me jobs that we’re looking for people like me.”

We are proud of Ralfael and his classmates for the hard work they’ve cultivated throughout this program.  We thank you for making their stop at Growing Home possible.