MANATEE COUNTY (WSNN) – After serving time, some criminals want to get a chance to redeem themselves in society. But, it’s not always easy. This is an inspirational story on how one Manatee County resident turned her life around when she was given a second chance.
“It gave me my life back,” Sue Ottomanelli said.
Ottomanelli is currently the manager at Goodwill Manatee Avenue Store, training team members, working with donations, and running almost everything. But, four years ago, she was at a completely different place in life; teaching in New York while married to an abusive husband.
“Through that abusive marriage, I got into drugs and I actually lost my teaching job,” Ottomanelli said.
And she even experienced some jail time.
“I was just arrested here and there,” Ottomanelli said. “And then there were repercussions from being arrested.”
It wasn’t until Ottomanelli’s husband went to jail and her sister died that she took the step to change her life.
“My sister, who was my best friend in the world, died of a drug overdose,” Ottomanelli said. “So, when that happened, that was really my wakeup call, I have this opportunity, let me move forward in that opportunity.”
So, she moved to Florida to join a women’s recovery home called ‘Learn to Fish.’ As a partner, Goodwill Manasota offered job readiness skills to these women.
“We help those people give them a second chance to change their lives and put them on a different track,”Goodwill Manasota’s Community Outreach & Development Manager, Pavitra Ciavardone said. “And that’s exactly what Sue did.
“I was able to use the skills that I had previously acquired and use them again,” Ottomanelli said. “I didn’t feel like I was nothing in the world anymore. I felt I could do something with myself again.”
Ottomanelli took advantage of the opportunity granted to her. She earned Team Member of the year in 2018 and became store manager a few years later.
“We saw that she had leadership skills right from the get-go,” Ciavardone said. “She was a hard worker, she could take her skill-set as a teacher and transfer those to her job now as a store manager.”
“I’m a different person,” Ottomanelli said. “I’m happier, I love coming to work. Goodwill has given me that second chance to be who I always was, be who I am, and grow from that even more…Thank you for giving my life back to me.”
Everyone deserves an opportunity to thrive. Goodwill Industries is an American non-profit with a mission of providing job training and job opportunities for people with disabilities and other barriers to employment.
At Goodwill Manasota, as of February, 58 team members (7% of the organization’s workforce) noted that their primary barrier to self-sufficiency was that they were ex-offenders. Across all of its programs, Goodwill Manasota served 165 ex-offenders or 9.2% of program participants.
Approximately 1 in 3 American adults has a criminal record, which is why Prison Fellowship, a nonprofit serving criminals, made April, Second Chance Month.
President Biden even declared April 2021 as Second Chance Month. The White House Proclamation recognizes Second Chance Month, affirming the Administration’s support for removing the unnecessary barriers that prevent those with a criminal record from becoming productive members of society.
