Tracy wakes up every morning and goes to work as the assistant manager at a fast-food restaurant in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Every time she walks through the doors, she remembers just how much work she and her coworkers put into getting it up and running.
“We were working 12 and 13 hours a day, six days a week, cleaning everything and getting ready for business, and we hired and trained 64 people,” she said.
Now, after successfully opening the national fast food brand’s 500th shop, Tracy is part of the company’s plan to open several more locations in the Colorado Springs area.
“I will be moving along with each store, getting it ready, hiring the crew and managers, training them, the whole nine yards,” she said.
But having that kind of responsibility, being a leader, and earning the trust of a successful company are things that she had almost given up on achieving only a year ago, when she lost her job at a major hotel company due to her felony criminal record.
“My assistant manager never really cared for me, and even though the company knew about my record, she used it as an excuse to get rid of me,” Tracy said.
“After that, I had a really tough time finding a job.”
Formerly incarcerated people face an unemployment rate nearly five times higher than the general United States population, and studies show that having a conviction history reduces employer callback rates by 50 percent. The stigma of a record also hits hardest for women, who are roughly 30 percent less likely than men to receive a callback.
For Tracy, out on parole for a nonviolent offense since 2023, these struggles were very real. While losing her job was painful, she has always been a fighter and a worker, so she immediately set out to find a new one. She applied everywhere, even for positions that she was overqualified for or that only paid minimum wage. But after six months, she was still coming up empty-handed and depending on family support to get by.
“I was out there pounding the pavement, applying for every job that I knew I could do,” she said.
“But even when I did receive offers, once the higher-ups found out I had a felony conviction, they would always rescind them.”
It didn’t matter that she was open and honest with them about why she had been charged with a felony and gone to prison: that she had stolen a car to flee a man who had kidnapped, imprisoned, and assaulted her for two days; that he had stalked her from halfway house to halfway house; that she had gone to the police, but received no help, even after filing a restraining order; and that she had finally chosen prison because it was the only way to escape him. All anyone cared about was what a piece of paper said about her.
“At one of the places I applied, someone even had a story very similar to mine and was sympathetic,” Tracy said.
“But, as soon as they ran my application up the flagpole, the bosses said no.”
Beginning to feel helpless, but not hopeless, she turned to her probation officer, who connected her with the Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO). There, she began transitional work beautifying highways while working one-on-one with a job coach to help fine-tune both her resume and interview skills.
“My background was in human resources, so, while I already had some interview experience, the team at CEO taught me new ways of speaking and relating my experience to employers and prepped me for every interview beforehand,” Tracy said.
She also finally had a place where she was understood, supported, and respected.
“Everybody there was or had been in the same position as myself, so they really knew how I felt and what I was going through,” she said.
With the team at CEO, Tracy found shoulders to cry on when she was down and people to motivate and push her when she doubted herself. They gave her the clothes and jewelry she needed to look presentable and professional for interviews. Since she didn’t have a driver’s license or a car, they regularly drove her to and from every appointment. Their support and trust boosted her confidence, and because of it, she finally landed the job she has today.
“Even before I had left the interview for the job, the owners told me that they were going to make me an offer. It was amazing,” she said.
The offer itself was more than she could have imagined: they would pay to fly her down to one of their California locations and back, pay to train her there, and pay for her hotel while she learned, allowing her to build savings. And unlike other jobs she has interviewed for in the past, they didn’t care about her criminal record; instead, they immediately recognized her value and potential.
“Probably half of the people that I work with are justice-impacted,” Tracy said.
“Because the owners know that everybody makes mistakes, that everyone deserves a second chance, and that all that matters is that we keep working hard for them.”
Today, she is making a decent living again. With her new promotion to managing the opening and training of the company’s planned new locations throughout Colorado Springs, she is also expecting a raise. Thanks to her hard work, she is eligible for early parole release, no longer needs to rely on family for financial support, and intends to earn her driver’s license back and buy a car. With her current income, she is also beginning to pay off her credit card debt. Her five-year plan? To make enough money to buy a house.
“I want to be a homeowner again,” Tracy said.
“And I’m excited, because I know I can do it, I’m safe, I’m doing everything I’m supposed to be doing, and that’s all because of CEO.”
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