Each workday, Guadalupe does the heavy lifting that keeps California freeways clean and safe. Each evening, she goes home to her family.
She is tenacious. She is loved and the people around her know they can rely on her. She is a go-getter who knows what she wants in the future.
But her journey did not follow a straightforward path.
For many years, Guadalupe was proud of the life and family she was able to build. Her career spanned office, healthcare, and management roles before becoming a stay-at-home parent. Together with her husband at the time, she created a comfortable, stable life for her children.
Things changed drastically, however, after she and her then husband got involved with substance use. Very quickly, life as Guadalupe knew it escaped her grasp; they both lost their jobs, their home, and eventually custody of their children. What followed was a downward spiral of Guadalupe’s mental and emotional health and a cycle of instability marked by homelessness, relapsing, and incarceration.
After her first encounter with the justice system, Guadalupe learned about Chrysalis. At the time, she shrugged off the referral from her probation officer.
“I thought I didn’t need them. I thought, I know how to land a job, I just need the opportunity to get an interview. So I put it off,” Guadalupe remembers her outlook before being confronted by a new reality. “I had ample experience and education, but being fresh out of jail with the charges I had, nobody would hire me. I even tried applying to a company that was felony friendly, but they wouldn’t hire me.”
Several closed doors led her back to Chrysalis’s open ones.
Guadalupe enrolled in Chrysalis’ job-readiness program and was soon hired onto a Chrysalis Roads crew doing freeway maintenance. A business line of Chrysalis’ employment social enterprise, Roads provides transitional jobs for clients like Guadalupe who may be facing more significant barriers to attaining a job.
Reentering the workforce was a major step forward, but Guadalupe wasn’t fully ready to walk a new path. She hadn’t committed to transforming her life at that point and recalls, “I was just there to do what I was told.” Still struggling with substance use at the time, Guadalupe ended up getting re-arrested, leaving Chrysalis’ program, and losing custody of her children once again.
When Guadalupe returned home, she had the opportunity to spend quality time with her children. This brief reunion brought on feelings of both joy and remorse, and she was reminded of what mattered most to her. Unwilling to let any more precious time with her children pass her by, Guadalupe’s courage to change was about to align with the path that was open to her.
She enrolled herself in rehab, initially planning to spend just two weeks there for a detox program. But by the end of the program, a case manager asked her, “What’s your plan after this? Is this it?” Having come this far, Guadalupe wanted to keep moving forward. She was committed to transforming her life and wanted to make sure it stuck.
After the program, she knew where she could find her footing: Chrysalis. Guadalupe re-enrolled as a client and was eventually brought onto a new Roads crew. This time was different, and her supervisors took notice. Within three months, Guadalupe was promoted to a lead, and six months after that, she became a supervisor.
Guadalupe appreciated how her professional growth brought her closer to her personal goals: “I could show the court that I was changing. That’s all that mattered: for me to show proof that I was serious about wanting to get my girls back, and that I was going to do the right thing, stay in the right path, and that I wasn’t going to relapse.”
This newfound job stability and progression served as an anchor for Guadalupe as she continued to struggle with depression, anxiety, and grief while tirelessly working to regain custody of her children. Not only did she find support from her managers during this time, but she also experienced catharsis working alongside others who had experienced similar challenges.
“Pain knows pain. Maybe people don’t understand the same language, but if you went through the same struggle, people tend to rely on you or open up to you,” Guadalupe says about her peers who took interest in her story. “They use you as a [symbol of] hope because they think, ‘You went through this? You’re going through a struggle, you lost your kids, and you’re fighting for them—how did you do it? How did you stay positive?’”
As Guadalupe continued to advance in her role and build trust among both Chrysalis and Caltrans crewmembers, more opportunities came her way. Encouraged by her Caltrans counterparts, Guadalupe applied to work at the state agency after intentionally developing her skillset as a Roads supervisor. It took several rounds of applications, interviews, and rejections, but Guadalupe was determined to prove herself. Her persistence led her to a Worker I position at Caltrans, where she has now been for over a year.
Guadalupe’s journey to a budding career at Caltrans was also her journey back to her children, her family, and ultimately herself. By committing to her personal development, she also repaired her most important relationships—eventually regaining custody of her children and rebuilding the trust she lost from her extended family.
“Without my kids, I don’t think I would have ever done it. Just them alone is my sole motivation for anything that I do in this world right now,” Guadalupe says. “Now, I know that I make my kids proud because I can see it in their eyes. That’s why I will never go back to that life—because I can remember the pain and the disappointment that I caused them.”
Although Guadalupe can confidently say she is happy with where her life is now, she has no plans of stopping. Calling this period in her life her “transition chapter,” Guadalupe is steadfast in her commitment to learning new skills and evolving as a person. Right now, she is working toward earning her Commercial Driver’s License, which can open new doors for her at Caltrans and beyond.
Guadalupe’s story reminds us that transformation is never linear. It can be filled with setback after setback, but perseverance, intention, and the right support can also push us forward. In Guadalupe’s case, the promise of a stable job and the love for her children were exactly what she needed for her own personal chrysalis.
“I come from struggle. I had it good, and I fell all the way to the ground, but you know what? Once you hit the bottom, the only path is to go up. No matter what anybody says, no matter what we’ve done in our past, people can change.”