As Ruben navigated the challenges of a competitive job market, he remained positive, adaptable, and open to new ways of thinking about his career. What ultimately moved him forward was his commitment to not only improving himself but also the lives of others.
Since he first came to Chrysalis two years ago, Ruben was motivated to find a path back toward meaningful work. He worked one-on-one with employment specialists who helped him fine-tune his resume and practice his interviewing skills. Eventually, he was hired as a transitional worker through Chrysalis’ employment social enterprise Safekeeping, where he supported unhoused patrons in safely storing and accessing their personal property. After his one-year term, he jumped at the opportunity to participate in Ladder Up, a paid internship and training program that prepares individuals for jobs in the social services sector.
Chrysalis’ Ladder Up program connected the dots between Ruben’s customer service experience, his lived expertise with unemployment and homelessness, and his passion for seeing others succeed. Alongside a cohort of seven other Chrysalis clients, Ruben participated in weekly workshops, hands-on experience, and personalized career support. The training curriculum covered topics such as trauma-informed care, motivational interviewing, mental health first aid, trauma informed de-escalation, intersectionality and cultural humility, and boundaries and ethics.
Ruben had done some case management work in a previous role, where he helped veterans navigate benefits and services in a large transnational corporate environment. With this background, he already possessed some of the skills he was learning about through Ladder Up: practicing active listening, understanding an individual’s layered circumstances, and assisting with empathy. But the program’s curriculum gave him a deeper understanding of tried and true approaches that are grounded in psychology and sociology.
“Now we know we can apply [these practices] more formally and use techniques to obtain better results. We can see this science behind this kind of work, which is beautiful,” says Ruben. “It’s also helpful in life because we learn to help ourselves and to interact with others, like family members, neighbors, and coworkers. [We learn to] be open-minded and understand people from their perspective, not from being judgmental.”
Through participating in Ladder Up, Ruben gained clarity around the type of specialized work he wanted to pursue, as well as certifications that positioned him as a competitive candidate. By the end of the eight-week program, Ruben was hired as a case manager at a local nonprofit called Turning Point, which exists to break the cycle of poverty, mass incarceration, homelessness, and mental disparities.
In his new role, Ruben is paying it forward by helping people who have experienced trauma, violence, and many of the same challenges he had to navigate:
“It makes my work easier—the fact that I went through what part of my clients are going through at this moment. I also went through that situation. I was homeless, I was unemployed… And it feels familiar. When I help them, I feel like I’m helping myself.”
His day-to-day work involves helping justice-impacted individuals who are rebuilding their lives after incarceration. As Ruben connects them to resources for employment, housing, food, and transportation, he directly applies both his Ladder Up training and the indirect training he received as a Chrysalis client.
“I can adopt some techniques that were applied to me in different ways. My case managers helped me learn about this activity even though I didn’t know I was going to be doing it eventually in my life,” Ruben reflects. “We have to be patient. We have to be humble. We have to use psychology…to build rapport and interact with people. That makes it easy for them to be more open to the questionnaires. It makes them open for us to help them with exactly what they need—to understand what they’re going through and be empathetic. It’s a process that is nice and it’s human.”
Excited to have found a purposeful role that leverages his unique strengths, Ruben feels both a sense of personal gratification and assurance in his career trajectory. He believes that case managers in organizations like Chrysalis or Turning Point serve as a “bridge” for people in need who are sometimes misunderstood by society. He takes pride in helping his clients rebuild, and he continues to move himself forward as well.
“I bring transferable skills from the customer service field, but I feel more comfortable as a case manager. It’s one of my goals to develop a profile and experience in this area, which has a lot of job opportunities in different areas: in healthcare, in law… Case management is very wide, and that’s where I’d like to focus to develop my expertise.”
From a transitional job with Chrysalis’ employment social enterprise to specialized training with Ladder Up, Ruben’s path forward was bolstered by programs that added to his skills and earned him income. It was just the boost that he needed to get into a new career where he has room for growth. It’s these kinds of steps that leave Ruben feeling like he is putting his best foot forward.
Ruben’s future is bright, but for now, he’s taking time each day to appreciate the results of his adaptability and hard work. From his tireless job search to the hours spent learning new skills in Ladder Up, his story reminds us of what’s possible when we stay curious and committed to learning and growing.
“I’m excited every morning that I wake up early and go to my job… And when I finish my shift every day, I’m so thankful and go home with the satisfaction that I’ve done a good job.”