[January 2009]

Raphael Rucker still vividly remembers the day more than two years ago when his father dropped him off to start his trip from Memphis, Tennessee to the Frenchburg Job Corps in Menifee County.

“My dad, he told me, ‘This is your last chance. Put that into perspective,’ and he shut the car door and drove off,” Raphael said.

With that blunt warning fresh in his mind, Raphael left his troubles in Memphis behind to remake himself at the Job Corps campus in Menifee County. That sheltered spot in the woods might as well have been another world for a young man who was used to travel and big city living, but there Raphael was able to clean up the mess his bad choices made of his life, finish high school, and learn important life and job skills.

One key component of Raphael’s transformation was made possible by a partnership among Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program, Inc. (EKCEP), Gateway Community Action Agency’s (CAA) Workforce Investment Act (WIA) program for out-of-school youth, and Job Corps. That partnership helped Raphael to get Certified Nurse Aide (CNA) training and certification and the CNA job that is supporting him financially as he takes his next step toward a bright future by getting a college education

Gateway CAA delivers WIA programs in Morgan and Menifee counties under contract with EKCEP. The Gateway Office in West Liberty is also an Access Point for the JobSight Network, a collaborative partnership of workforce and training agencies administered by EKCEP in 23 eastern Kentucky counties.

Raphael is now a freshman at Morehead State University. He was upbeat and positive about his future as he talked recently about his experiences with Douglas Hopwood, Frenchburg Job Corps work-based learing coordinator; Chuck Washington, Frenchburg Job Corps career transitions specialist and a member of the EKCEP Workforce Investment Board; and Karen Wright, his Gateway CAA career advisor. He candidly admitted that his outlook before Job Corps was cloudy because of some bad choices he made as a teen.

Raphael’s father is a U.S. Navy chaplain, and so the family moved around a lot when he was a child. Despite his semi-nomadic lifestyle, Raphael managed to make friends and was a promising student and athlete.

But somewhere in his teens, Raphael’s rebellious streak derailed his ambitions.

“We grew up in a very structured home. A lot of discipline. Of course, I was stubborn so…,” he said, with a chuckle.

“I had dropped out of high school. I was just being an unruly teenager,” he said. “I think I found it exhilarating to butt heads with my parents.”

At 17 Raphael was living on his own. He soon got into enough trouble that it “affected all the areas of my life.”

Friends and counselors from high school were still rooting for Raphael despite his difficulties and suggested Job Corps as a way to make a fresh start.

“I needed an outlet to turn over a new leaf,” he said.

Raphael adjusted well to the educational curriculum at Job Corps, obtaining his high school diploma from the Menifee County School System, getting his driver’s license, and even taking college credit courses in communications at Lee’s College in Jackson.

Job Corps also offers several vocational tracks for work experience, and Raphael chose culinary arts -- “so I could eat!” he said -- and enjoyed the work as he and fellow Job Corps students catered a number of events, including a Governor’s reception.

There are, however, some career tracks that Job Corps is not able to offer on its own. When Raphael found that through the partnership with Gateway he could also learn to be a CNA, he was interested, though not completely sure.

Taking part in a job shadowing exercise to see what CNAs do at a nursing home convinced him to pursue the training because he saw how the CNAs form personal connections with the patients in their charge, Raphael said.

“You’ve got to be coldhearted not to care,” he said.

Raphael decided to take the Saturday-only class, giving up several weekend recreational events to do so.

The program included six weeks of core employability training focusing on resume writing, interviewing, CPR, and job shadowing. This training was then followed by six weeks of CNA classes with tutoring, materials and textbooks provided by Gateway.

Upon completing the training, Raphael was placed in a six-week work experience position, where he got to help care for patients at Windsor Care in Mount Sterling.

“We had to use what we had learned in real life,” said Raphael. During his time at the nursing home he checked catheters, measured blood pressure, respiration and heart rate, helped people to walk and do range-of-motion exercises and fed patients who could not feed themselves.

He learned quickly that it was important to take his responsibilities there seriously, he said.

“You’re dealing with somebody’s life,” he said. “You’re taking care of people.”

It was also “very humbling” to meet the personal care needs of his patients, Raphael said.

Hopwood said Job Corps ensures students have jobs and are ready to enter the world before they leave. When Raphael left during the summer he had a place to stay and multiple jobs lined up at clothing stores in Lexington’s Fayette Mall.

But Raphael’s supporters at Job Corps wanted better than that for him and helped him to enroll at Morehead State University, starting in the fall semester. Gateway CAA also provided added encouragement, offering Raphael a laptop computer to help with his studies and assignments if he could show proof he had enrolled in post-secondary education.

“Everybody encouraged me to go to college,” he said. “We took on the challenge full on.”

To go to college, Raphael had to give up his jobs in Lexington because they were too far from Morehead and he does not have a car.

With the help of Job Corps, Gateway CAA and his CNA certification, however, Raphael was able to obtain a good job within walking distance from campus. He is putting his CNA training to use at the Morehead Lifecare Center.

Raphael is now seeking a double major in communications and business management. He hopes to eventually get a job in broadcasting and recently started helping with the campus public radio station, Morehead State Public Radio.

“I really want to work in the media,” he said.

Even though being a CNA is not his ultimate career goal, the training that Gateway helped him get is still an essential stepping stone for Raphael as he works toward achieving his ambitions.

He also said he feels what he learned through his CNA training will be useful in helping to take care for his parents when they get older. His parents, brothers and sister have been very supportive of him as he tries to achieve his goals, he said.

Raphael said he has learned a lot from his second chance.

“You determine your own destiny,” he said, adding that even if you are in a bad situation, if you take advantage of tools like Job Corps and Gateway CAA’s programs you can make your life whatever you want it to be.

Hopwood said working with Gateway CAA to offer the CNA program has been a “great experience.”

“Our students have had an opportunity that otherwise wouldn’t have been available to them,” he said.

Wright agreed, saying Raphael was an exceptional student, helpful and curious.

“It’s been a pleasure to assist this young man,” she said.

Wright said she checks in with Raphael regularly to make sure things are going well.

But Wright hopes Raphael will be like many of her clients who have been part of the agency’s partnership with Job Corps and still keep in touch, letting her know about their lives and successes years after finishing the program.

As Raphael settles into the life of a college freshman, it is clear he took his father’s words seriously and is making the most out of his “last chance.” Those who helped him are optimistic about how things will work out.

“He’ll make it in society,” Washington said.

For more information on Workforce Investment Act services for out-of-school youth available in Menifee and Morgan counties, contact Karen Wright at Gateway Community Action Agency at 606-743-4141.