Kenneth began experiencing symptoms of mental illness about the time he left the Navy. Following that, he found himself homeless for five years in California. He eventually moved to Ohio to be near his family, but then became homeless again for another ten years. \u201cI was living under a bridge. I had a bad drug problem at the time and I spent my days playing the guitar, writing poetry and praying under the bridge. I only came out to shower at a church and get something to eat.\u201d Eventually, a homeless outreach worker began to visit Kenneth under the bridge to talk to him about a group home that he could move into. \u201cHe visited me for four or five months before I finally agreed to visit group home with him. I had lived in institutions before and I was afraid because I didn\u2019t want another institution. But it looked okay, so I agreed to move in.\u201d At that point, Kenneth began working with a mental health case manager and told her that he wanted to work. \u201cI always wanted to work but I wasn\u2019t sure how to get a job. I didn\u2019t know the steps to take. You have to talk to people to get a job. Also, I was out of work for so long\u2014I didn\u2019t think anyone would hire me. My case manager referred me to a job training program but after the training was over I was supposed to use a computer to find job leads. I couldn\u2019t navigate that and things stopped right there. It was disappointing.\u201d Eventually, the agency where Kenneth received mental health services began to offer IPS supported employment and he met an employment specialist named Rebecca. \u201cRebecca was hands on. She took me places which helped immensely because I was afraid to go by myself. She helped me apply for jobs and went to interviews with me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Almost two years ago, Kenneth was hired to wash dishes in a Lebanese restaurant. He reports that he likes working in the back of the restaurant so that he doesn\u2019t have to come into contact with other people, and he also likes his boss. \u201cI\u2019d rather just focus on my job and not converse with other people. I work really hard. It just feels good to do a good job. I work to glorify God and that motivates me to keep working harder.\u201d Kenneth\u2019s boss agrees that he is a good worker, \u201cHe was one of the first to come work with me. Others have come and gone, but he\u2019s still here. He\u2019s wonderful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kenneth\u2019s employment specialist has noticed that Kenneth has changed a great deal since the days when they started looking for jobs together. \u201cI remember that he wouldn\u2019t look up at all and was so quiet. But even though he was so nervous and shy, he pushed through that because he was motivated to work. And I think that he feels better about himself now. Now that I am working, I have something to talk about when I see my family. And I can hold my head up because I am paying taxes and I\u2019m part of society again. He also feels more comfortable, and now smiles because he feels like smiling. Kenneth agrees saying, \u201cIn the past, I was having trouble by not working. I think I was doing drugs because I had so much free time. And when I began receiving Social Security benefits, I didn\u2019t feel good about getting help from the government when I wasn\u2019t contributing. That was a big thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the future, Kenneth has plans to learn how to use computers and to pursue his interests in poetry and music. But in the meantime, he will keep working at his job. \u201cNow that I am working, I have something to talk about when I see my family. And I can hold my head up because I am paying taxes. I\u2019m part of society again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kenneth began experiencing symptoms of mental illness about the time he left the Navy. Following […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":13929,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"iawp_total_views":16,"footnotes":""},"categories":[325],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-personal_stories"],"acf":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsworks.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsworks.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsworks.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsworks.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsworks.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12319"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ipsworks.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15968,"href":"https:\/\/ipsworks.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12319\/revisions\/15968"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsworks.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsworks.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsworks.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsworks.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}