Sterling came of age in Brooklyn during the storm of the 1980s drug epidemic — a time when life moved fast and turned hard. “People changed,” he says. “Some made it out. Some didn’t.” After losing both parents at a young age, Sterling stepped in to help his grandmother look out for his three younger siblings. He ended up in street life, thinking it was a way out of hardship, but he bumped his head a few times and learned it wasn’t. By 13, he was tagging along with older guys — locally and out of town — pulled into hustles that offered fast money and later served time.
Years later, after serving two state prison terms and one federal bid, Sterling reached a critical turning point. He enrolled in the Residential Drug Abuse Program (RDAP) while incarcerated and learned how to identify and describe what he had been through. He saw what he didn’t know in others, and “That program changed me,” he says. “It helped me understand myself — and once I had the words, I could talk to others too.”
Upon release, Sterling was placed in a halfway house — but when he began finding work and gaining traction, they told him he was “doing too well” and had to leave before he could find another place to live. He was exhausted, working grueling shifts for a skyscraping business doing framing for windows, with barely any breaks. Then he moved to a bakery, only to be replaced by automation. “I just needed a chance to build something better.”
That’s when his probation officer told him about the Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO) in Buffalo, describing it as a life-changing opportunity. Sterling took the leap and pushed to build a better life for himself, enrolling in the transitional work program and soon after gaining eligibility for a pre-apprenticeship opportunity through CEO's local union partnerships.
“Sometimes I had to pull out a dictionary or calculator just to keep up,” Sterling says. “Staying focused was the hardest part. But graduating — that was the reward.”
Just days after finishing the program, Sterling got a call from the union. He completed orientation and soon began working in the electrical trades, installing solar panels and laying cables — up to 20 a day — for converter boxes on industrial job sites. Now he’s part of a proud union brotherhood.
“Being in the union means people have your back,” he says. “You meet folks from all over and learn from each other. And once you’ve put your time in, the benefits let you take the rest you need. That’s powerful.”
These days, Sterling spends his time laying up to 20 cables a day into converter boxes and looks forward to earning his license to operate job site equipment like buggies (four-wheelers). The job has lifted him out of a financial rut and into a life of structure and possibility.
But the most significant transformation isn’t just on paper. “I’ve stayed focused,” Sterling says. “I’m not hanging with the people I used to. I decided to do something different — and now I’m doing it for me and my kids. They’re doing really well. Even though I had a rough life, they’re succeeding. I haven’t been this happy in a long time.”
To others returning home from incarceration, Sterling’s advice is simple and direct:
“You’d better get to it. There’s nothing out here in the streets but a return to where you came from. There’s a lot to offer in the trades.”
He encourages new participants to explore every opportunity within the union — from electrical work to floor covering, metal, or wood framing. “Keep learning. Keep expanding,” he says. “This life isn’t about going back. It’s about building forward.”
And build he has — with discipline, determination, and the tools to light his own way.
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