Goodwill helps Phoenix mom rise from homelessness, find career

PHOENIX — A Phoenix mom beat the odds with some help from Goodwill.

Jackie Espino lost her job several years ago and struggled to support her sons as a single mom.

“I basically was homeless and was living in a car for about three weeks with my four children,” she said.

The family ate canned food and anything they could warm up at gas station microwaves. Espino said she would go into Walmart stores to freshen up inside the bathrooms and would leave her sons in the car while she went looking for jobs.

To make matters worse, her youngest son had recently been diagnosed with tumors under his skin and needed medical attention, which she could not afford at the time.

Espino decided to move the family to Yuma to search for better opportunities. There, she turned to a Goodwill Career Center for help and was able to get a part-time job as a receptionist at a staffing agency. Two months later, she lost the job.

Using the little bit of money she made at the part-time job, Espino moved the family back to Phoenix and rented a house. But she and her sons went several weeks without water and electricity because she could not afford utilities.

They also used a neighbor’s hose to get running water. The neighbor also lent her an extension cord so they could get electricity.

“It was pretty hard, but I didn’t let myself go down just because I had four boys looking at me wondering what we were going to do,” she said.

After a few months of an unsuccessful job search, she again turned to Goodwill for help. She went to a Goodwill Career Center in Phoenix, where she was offered a job as a career adviser.

“Someone there saw potential in me, and saw that I was struggling and needed this, and gave me an opportunity,” she said. “My whole life changed from there.”

Espino has now been working for Goodwill for four years and is now a senior career adviser.

She said this Mother’s Day, she is proud of herself but also her children.

“I’m proud of my kids who supported me through the whole thing,” she said.

“Going through what I went through and having your kids live it with you, it’s the hardest thing you can do.”

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