Community Story
Sammie J., Job Trainee
Hey there, I’m Schmid Jean-Louis, otherwise known as Sammie J. I was a case management client for four years, and now I am on staff at Housing Works! It wasn’t easy.
I first encountered the Second Life Job Training Program (JTP) in February 2005. I was just 19 when I decided that I wanted to do case management. I met the staff and took a liking to them immediately. I enjoyed learning from them. I had a lot of personal issues I had to work through such as being responsible in a demanding city where failure wasn’t an option as well as learning to accept having HIV.
I left Housing Works in October 2005 without completing JTP. Soon, I was a wreck. I had to go through some trying times in order to know that JTP was the best thing to happen to me. When I reapplied and did my interview in 2007, the question always came up: Are you really ready to complete this program?
I was unsure. The staff took to me as if I were their very own newborn baby and nurtured me to the man I am today. JTP provided me with a better understanding of myself, my status and what my heart was really telling me to do.
I graduated in the Spring 2008 class and am now employed with Brooklyn West Case Management. I am now content with living with HIV. Thanks to JTP, I am ready and willing to bestow the knowledge I’ve gained and lessons I’ve learned upon others like myself or who are at risk. I am honored to be a JTP graduate and now an employee in an organization that is for the people, by the people.
Sammie J.
