Meet Ken.
Ken moved to Grand Rapids after graduating High School in Flint, Michigan. Ken struggled making ends meet and was arrested several times for drug related charges. In 1997, he was arrested with a drug related felony, receiving 2 to 20 years. After a few months, Ken went to court mandated Marine boot camp in Prison, which gave him motivation to clean up his life. Due to good behavior, he was released from Prison early after only 5 months. After his release, he had nothing to his name except a duffel bag. He spent the next year homeless, bouncing around from couch to couch still making bad decisions with his life. He said, “I’m gonna be honest with you, when I got out of prison I didn’t learn my lesson, I just got smarter. Although, I got to the point where I started to see what I was doing had an effect on other people’s lives. So I grew some what of a conscience.” He then went on to say, “I had to stop doing this. I didn’t like what I was doing to people.”
Towards the end of his first year out of prison, he had to say, “Through this process, I had to make a decision. Is this really what I want to do with my life? That is when I signed up for school, worked two jobs, and spent the rest of my time in the gym. That is when things started to change for me.” A few years later, Ken connected with a local staffing company to help find quality employment. He said, “When I was going through this life change, God really did a lot of work in me. Life was never smooth sailing, but it has been a climb since then. Few bumps in the road, but I have learned to deal with them better and have more faith in God.” Ken is currently receiving his degree in Social Work and wants to show his kids and grandkids what hard work looks like. He said, “When I was working two jobs, going to school, and working in the gym, I was driven with a pure, ‘I am gonna show you. I’ll show you.’ But now letting my kids and my grandkids see that you can change, and make your life better, if you just trust God and put forth the effort. Success is not the same for everybody, but to me this is success. I never thought I could do it. But it can be done, you can change your life and you can do better.” Ken is currently the Housing Advocate at Mel Trotter’s Ministries, helping others get on their feet and make a plan to be successful in their own lives.