Ryan’s Story: A New Job, A Second Chance

Ryan first heard about EMERGE through his halfway house. He was on work release – which means he was given 2 months to find work. Two weeks before the deadline, he found out about EMERGE and went to an Info Session.

The day after he first met his career coach, she sent him information about a job fair at New French Bakery. At the job fair, he interviewed well and got the job! But, reliable transport was still an issue. Ryan did not have a car, and because he was assigned the second shift and needed to work in the middle of the night, he also could not take the bus. Luckily, he was able to get a ride to work through EMERGE’s van service.

Ryan says he was only scheduled 3 or 4 times a week but would get last-minute shifts. Troy, EMERGE’s lead van driver, was really flexible. He was still able to drive Ryan last minute so that he could pick up these extra shifts and work overtime.

Normally, a worker needs to be with New French Bakery for 6 months before getting a promotion, but after 3 months New French Bakery made an exception for Ryan.Out of 400 overtime hours put in company-wide for the month, 96 of those hours were Ryan. He was promoted to Shipping Manager at 15 dollars per hour.

Ryan said, “I wasn’t sure where my life was going to go. I didn’t know if I would get a job. I got this job and it really changed everything for me. Without EMERGE I wouldn’t be where I’m at now.”

Ryan says he plans to stay with New French Bakery and continue to move up in the company.