Video Recorded Before COVID-19

Rosa Mass picks lives in Hartford, Connecticut. She has three beautiful children. Her life is good now, but not long ago, she was in a tough situation.

“When you are at home, a full-time parent, and you can’t provide for your kids and you have nothing to back you up, nothing to fall upon—you feel like you’re in the middle of nowhere, like you’re drowning.”

The father of her children was in jail and she was living with her three young children in one tiny bedroom.

“I had nothing going on for me. I had no high school diploma. I had no degree. I had nothing, no job, nothing at all.”

She learned about Hartford Job Corps and decided to go for it studying insurance and finance.

“My whole life turned around. I had something to do. I was going to school, coming home, seeing my kids. It was working for me. It was giving me motivation to get somewhere in my life.”

After graduating from Hartford Job Corps in 2017, she was connected with Journey Home, a nonprofit organization that helps low-income individuals with housing and employment. They helped Rosa get a job with Belcan, a leading aerospace company. She’s worked there for a year and a half and loves it.

“I have a good job. I have a good car. I live in a great home. My kids are perfectly fine. If I want to go by something, I could. Belcan and Job Corps, I would say, it’s kind of cliché, but they saved my life. Because before them, I was nobody.”

In part II of this story, we introduce you to a Belcan consultant who now volunteers with Journey Home helping people like Rosa succeed in life. He explains why he’s such a strong supporter of the Job Corps program.