"Going to prison really just set me back a whole lot," he said. "Just lost two years that I could have been doing something to better myself and do for my kids. I spent it away from them, you know, just not helping myself or nobody else."

Marquais working on deconstruction job this summer

Before he got out, his wife divorced him. Once he was released, he had nowhere to go. Nowhere to live. Nowhere to work. He tried getting jobs all over town. He tried fast food restaurants-anywhere-but nobody wanted to hire someone who looked like him. Nobody wanted to hire someone with tattoos and dreadlocks. Nobody wanted to hire a felon. Nobody, except Better Futures Minnesota.

Better Futures saw something in Marquais-a readiness to change. In fact, Better Futures evaluates all of the men who apply. We do a thorough assessment to help the men realize where they are in their lives and where they want to go, using seasons as categories for each phase: Season of Self, of Drought, of New Growth, and finally of Significance.

In additional to helping Marquais find a job, we also helped him with a place to live. We connected him to a support group of other men in similar situations. We provided him with counseling and life coaching to deal with traumatic events from his childhood and to help him transition from one season in his life to the next.

Marquais had never really worked before. Now he is working hard and earning a paycheck doing snow removal, landscaping, and breaking down refrigerators for scrap metal. But the hardest work that Marquis is doing isn't physical. It's the work he is doing on the inside.

"I used to get mad at people and just fly off the handle," he said. "Now I can sit down and talk to people even if I don't agree with them."

He sees it as a progression.

"People change every day," he said. "A little bit here and there, and when you look back...you can make a better decision."

Better Futures would say these changes bear the signs of the Season of New Growth. More importantly, Marquais sees it that way too.