Homeless to aspiring entrepreneur
| By John Azoni - May 3, 2010 2:30:49 PM ET |
Today I ran into a former client of 2-1-1 On the Go! - an outreach service through the 2-1-1 call center, which meets face-to-face with people in need and connects them to services that can help them.
James (name changed for privacy) came to us fresh out of prison. He was staying in a three quarter house and was trying to get re-acclimated to normal life. He didn't waste a minute looking for work. When I first met him, he was one of the most motivated and self-driven individuals I had met in this type of work. At the time, 2-1-1 On the Go! was able to help him get connected to some job placement resources and provided him a few months worth of transportation to look for work. Our assistance to him paled in comparison to his own efforts though. In no time he was back to work doing grip work for the film crews that come to Detroit to shoot movies, but I know from time to time since then he had some setbacks with work and permanent housing.
I ran into James in Campus Martius on my lunch break. He was downtown passing out fliers for a new entrepreneurial endeavor he was taking on. He excitedly told me that he had applied for a grant from Pepsi for something like $250,000 to start a dry cleaning business near Campus Martius where he plans on hiring people coming out of the prison system. He told me out of over 1 million entries, his proposal was one of the thousand that got selected. He is now in the running to win this grant, and with the help of people voting online, I'm hoping he get get hooked up with this money. He even met with Dave Bing and got his stamp of approval apparently!
I'm expecting James to stop by our offices here in the next day or so to drop off some fliers for me. He had run out by the time I ran into him. When I get more information on how to vote I will post it here.
I'm so excited to hear this news! It's so great to see that people are seeing their goals come to life who were once struggling with the basics!
John Azoni assists with reducing homelessness in Detroit through United Way for Southeastern Michigan's 2-1-1 service. For more information, check out http://uwsem.org/211, or follow @UnitedWayJohn on Twitter.
James (name changed for privacy) came to us fresh out of prison. He was staying in a three quarter house and was trying to get re-acclimated to normal life. He didn't waste a minute looking for work. When I first met him, he was one of the most motivated and self-driven individuals I had met in this type of work. At the time, 2-1-1 On the Go! was able to help him get connected to some job placement resources and provided him a few months worth of transportation to look for work. Our assistance to him paled in comparison to his own efforts though. In no time he was back to work doing grip work for the film crews that come to Detroit to shoot movies, but I know from time to time since then he had some setbacks with work and permanent housing.
I ran into James in Campus Martius on my lunch break. He was downtown passing out fliers for a new entrepreneurial endeavor he was taking on. He excitedly told me that he had applied for a grant from Pepsi for something like $250,000 to start a dry cleaning business near Campus Martius where he plans on hiring people coming out of the prison system. He told me out of over 1 million entries, his proposal was one of the thousand that got selected. He is now in the running to win this grant, and with the help of people voting online, I'm hoping he get get hooked up with this money. He even met with Dave Bing and got his stamp of approval apparently!
I'm expecting James to stop by our offices here in the next day or so to drop off some fliers for me. He had run out by the time I ran into him. When I get more information on how to vote I will post it here.
I'm so excited to hear this news! It's so great to see that people are seeing their goals come to life who were once struggling with the basics!
John Azoni assists with reducing homelessness in Detroit through United Way for Southeastern Michigan's 2-1-1 service. For more information, check out http://uwsem.org/211, or follow @UnitedWayJohn on Twitter.
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