I had heard about the food pantry at CHOICE. It’s just me and my son since my wife took off. It’s been tough. We . I decided to swallow my pride and go get us some food. There was this incredibly nice woman there who asked me if my son had supplies to begin the…
“I hit bottom. I was arrested. I lost my son to a bike accident. I was depressed and pretty much gave up hope for myself. The folks at CHOICE lifted me up. They encouraged me and helped me get trained as a commercial driver. I’m making a good living now. I have a new apartment….
“I thought prison was only about keeping society safe from us. Nobody cared if we rotted away in there. Then came CHOICE. They showed me that the system does care. They lifted me up and gave me the resources to build my life back.” We met Maggie in jail and worked with her to earn…
Tara is a care coordinator at CHOICE. She spends her days helping people. It sounds simple, but it’s not. It requires a tremendous amount of compassion and good nature, all of which Tara has in excess! In this short clip, she tells us what a good day at CHOICE looks like.
Doris came to us recently because she had custody of her three grandchildren and lost everything she had in an apartment fire. They were living in a motel and needed help. We went right to work and with the help of the Westchester Department of Social Services, we were able to find her housing and…
We met Edward during one of our weekly prison workshops on job searches and interviewing. He was paroled soon after that but was afraid he had no chance at a career path because of the mistakes he had made. He continued to attend meetings of our “Ready, Set, Work” groups. With our encouragement, Edward obtained…
We met George about two years ago upon his conditional release from prison. It took us some time to gain his trust, but we finally proved to him that we were on his side when we straightened out some confusion with his probation officer and prevented him from returning to prison. After that, we were…
This month’s blog comes to us from our good friend Janet. We are grateful that she is willing to share it with us. I watch CBS Sunday Morning whenever I am home on the weekends. Last Sunday, they featured a story that is just all too common. 17-year old high school student Alexandra Valoras was…
Brian’s story warms our collective hearts. It’s just an amazing thing when CHOICE just…well…works! One of the things that distinguishes us from other agencies is our ability to go out into the field and address peoples’ needs where they live and where they hang out. If we hadn’t gone out to find Brian, he would…
Thank you Thomasina for sharing this Good Outcome with us! Here’s her story in her own words. It was a year ago, when I visited CHOICE, desperately needing a full time position and more money or I was going to lose my apartment within a week. I met with the Jobs Program Administrator Rudy Borges…