My typical workday at Amazon is getting up between 3 to 5 a.m. and getting ready and taking the BART. When I walk through the door, they always announce, Hey, what's up, Ash? There he is. You ready to go scan some boxes? And I'm like, yeah, let's go.

The warehouse that Ash works in is about a two and a half hour commute that he does five days a week. He just took it upon himself before his first day to map it out, got on the train and did it. And he wanted to make sure that he knew how to get there. I always wanted a job, but I didn't know how to start looking and interviews. They made me a little nervous. His first real job was working at a retail store here called TJ Maxx. It was just a seasonal position. They hired Ash to work for the holidays.

At that point, he had fallen on the ground. He had some hard times. He spent two years living in a homeless shelter. It was hard mentally and emotionally and physically hard. When I got into stable housing, the first thing I want to do is get to work. I called up Bridges. They connected me with Lisel.

Coming back to Bridges and pursuing employment opportunities, getting into stable housing, then to have the pandemic. Even through that, managing to find a perfect fit in terms of jobs, it says a lot about how resilient Ash is and the way that he is able to overcome any challenge or obstacle that comes his way.

He started at Amazon as a temporary employee. Through the arc, he had a job coach. Soon he was working totally independently. And within two months, they promoted Ash to a permanent employee. Then they started training him in all different areas. So he's gotten three raises within seven months.

With Bridges, I'm in a program that helps me tremendously.

He's confident, he's independent, he's thriving and feeling comfortable in the person that he is. Honestly, I couldn't be prouder.

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