Arizona Mother Finds Job With Help From Goodwill Career Centers

Jackie Espino and two of four children.

With Mother’s day coming up, it only feels fit to highlight a mother who has worked her way from the bottom to the top.

Jackie Espino lives in the West Valley and is a single mother of 4 and a grandmother of 1. In 2011, she was working full time for the WIC Program and budget cuts hit the county and state. All of a sudden, she was without a job. She was devastated and scared because she had four children to support and her youngest son (who was 5 at the time) was battling cancer.

After a few months without much success, she walked into the Goodwill Career Center in Yuma. The staff helped her update her resume, search for jobs online and connected her to other community resources. After a few job leads didn’t work out, she was frustrated and ready to give up, but Goodwill kept assisting, guiding her and encouraging her something would work out. She worked temp jobs in Yuma to get by, but it wasn’t enough to support her family and provide her son with the medical care he needed. Jackie and her children decided to move back to Phoenix because she thought there would be more opportunities in a larger job market.

She didn’t realize the road would be tough. They lived out of their car for a short time and then found a place to rent but went weeks without water and electricity because they couldn’t afford utilities. They would shower at neighborhoods or use the garden hose.

She went to a Goodwill Career Center in Phoenix to update her resume again and met Elizabeth Pacheco, a career advisor. She looked at her resume and asked if she’d be interested working at Goodwill. Jackie interviewed for a career advisor position and was so ecstatic when they offered her a job.

Jackie started her new job on March 9, 2015 and can’t believe how much her life has changed since then. She has gained confidence, is a proud role model for her sons and loves helping job seekers who were in the same position she was. She’s able to get her son with cancer the care he needs and she’s incredibly grateful for the opportunity she was given. Four years into the job, she is a senior career advisor.

Jackie gave us some advice for mother’s who may be going through similar situations, “Don’t lose hope, it is out there, you just need to know how to look for it.” Jackie shares her story with other women to let them know they aren’t going through this journey alone. “Being women we need to stick together, not lose hope and keep trying and something will stick.”

About Jill Rivera

Jill Rivera is a contributing writer for Frontdoors Media.
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