Success Stories
Baltimore County Success Story: Evangelin G. Redd
Healthcare may be a high-growth, high-demand industry, but that didn’t keep Evangelin Redd from losing her job with a health insurance company. Ms. Redd had been working at a desk job–steady work, but with no growth potential – when she was laid off after 21 years of service. Suddenly, she was a dislocated worker – divorced, 55 years old, with a $1300 monthly mortgage to pay on her own. With no income other than unemployment compensation and food stamps, she was concerned about losing her home.
Ms. Redd was devastated to be out of work. “It was a horrible feeling,” she recalled.
Desperately seeking employment, she heard about Baltimore County’s Workforce Development Center at Hunt Valley. “From the time I walked in the door, everybody was very kind, very professional.” Ms. Redd especially appreciated the Career Path Strategies/Early Intervention seminar. “Shemel Bowden, who presented the seminar, was a dynamic speaker. I went from having very low self-esteem when I walked in the door to thinking that I could get back out there like a champion and gain employment.”
Ms. Redd’s career consultant, Annie Hatchett, explored career options and helped her look for jobs. “She talked with me about what I wanted to do. I wanted to work in the healthcare field, hands-on. I had been working part-time as a CNA [certified nursing assistant] since 1997, but my certification had expired so I had to start over again. This is where I got all the help from the Center.”
She enrolled in GNA/CNA (geriatric/certified nursing assistant) training, with financial support from the Center, but “from the first day I walked in the class, I felt doomed to fail.” And fail she did, but not for long. She had kept Ms. Hatchett up-to-date on her difficulties throughout the training, so the career consultant was able to find another GNA/CNA program, at the Ghandi Institute of Health, that better suited Ms. Redd’s learning style. “They are excellent instructors,” Ms. Redd said. “My teacher took pride in her teaching, and in her students. I got a lot out of the way she taught her class.” She achieved her GNA/CNA in mid-2008, thanks to her own hard work and the Career Center’s persistence.
Today, after working brief stints in two nursing homes, Ms. Redd is well on her way to building her own business. While working at the nursing homes, she pursued the paperwork necessary to start an assisted living business, acquiring her Medicaid provider number and her Certified Medications Technician license, and taking First Aid and CPR classes at the American Red Cross. While she currently earns money providing in-home care for one patient, Ms. Redd plans to eventually expand her business, bringing other Medicaid-eligible elderly or disabled people into her home and hiring additional staff. “This is what I like doing – taking care of other people who can’t take care of themselves,” she says with pride.
“If the workforce development center hadn’t been there for me, I don’t know what I would have done. God sends people into your life. From the day I walked in, I knew I was okay. I couldn’t have done it by myself. They were there for me; they care about people. I just so appreciate it.”
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