With our state experiencing a 7.6% unemployment rate in June (the most recent numbers available), it’s clear that every Georgian needs all the help possible to find and maintain stable employment. That’s why the Georgia Center for Opportunity team was excited to see Gov. Brian Kemp sign a new bill into law (HB914) that knocks down a significant barrier to employment for new Georgia residents.

The new law provides a temporary occupational license to spouses of members of the armed services who move to Georgia. Georgia has the 5th largest number of military, civilian direct-hire, reserve, and national guard employees in the U.S. Spouses of these employees will now have a greater opportunity to obtain employment in the career of their choice.

“Particularly in the COVID-19 era, breaking down barriers to employment is more important than ever,” said Buzz Brockway, vice president of public policy at Georgia Center for Opportunity. “Restrictions on occupational licensing can be an enormous one of these barriers. It’s the least we can do for our men and women in uniform to ensure that their spouses have the ability to work in their area of expertise in our state.”

For many Georgians, past criminal conviction can be the most significant hurdle to overcome in getting a job. On this front, there is good news: Gov. Brian Kemp recently signed a bill (SB288) into law that allows formerly incarcerated individuals to petition the court to have certain misdemeanor convictions erased from their record four years after the completion of their sentence. 

The new law excludes certain offenses, including sexual offenses and DUIs. In a crucial move, the law also creates incentives for employers to make “second chance” hires.

This new law allows for an easier transition back into the workforce for a segment of Georgia’s population that has paid its debt to society and stayed on the straight and narrow.

“This new law is monumental because it takes Georgia off the list of only a handful of states where a criminal offense stays on an ex-offender’s record perpetually,” said Buzz Brockway, vice president of policy at Georgia Center for Opportunity. “We know that unemployment is a key way to help ex-offenders not repeat their crimes. Particularly in the COVID-19 era, breaking down any barriers to employment that we can is always a huge win. We applaud Gov. Kemp and the Georgia Legislature for making this law a reality.”

Chris Glinski was addicted to heroin He has aspirations to be a therapist and was recently married in 2016. “Where I am at now, it feels so foreign that I had this debilitating addiction that prevented me from love and joy,” Chris said. Chris’ story is an example of overcoming barriers and beating addiction.

Chris lived in Chicago for the first six years of his life. Both of his parents were young when they got married. By the time Chris’ mom was 20 and his dad was 21, they already had three kids. “They did the best they could,” Chris recalls. His dad was often away working while his mom was busy running a daycare in their home. At one point she was babysitting 15 different children. This caused Chris to get little attention. So, in order to find the attention he needed as a kid, he started turning to his friends. “I found family, outside of my [blood-related] family, through my friends,” he remembered. 

The Beginning

Chris’ journey to addiction started with general curiosity. He and his friend would start drinking together for fun. However, Chris eventually came to the realization that he had the ability to control his moods with substances. He began to like the feeling that weed and alcohol provided to him. “I liked this feeling a lot more than being sober,” Chris admitted. By the time Chris was 14, he was “smoking weed, popping pills, and coasting through life.”

Chris recalls being an aggressive kid growing up. He would fight other kids in his school based off of his unresolved anger towards life. He recalls that it was “lucky that he finished high school.” After he finished his high school education, he attempted one semester at college only to flunk out. He would pick up jobs as a waiter and whatever else he could find to stay afloat and pay for his addiction. Chris said that he, “…eventually started having legal issues. I got arrested for felony and burglary.” The path that he was on was not sustainable.

The Depths of Addiction

The prescription pills that Chris was hooked on were starting to become harder and more expensive to get due to increased regulation. With Chris heavily hooked on hard drugs, the only “natural move for an addict” was to turn to heroin. “Luckily I was a terrible drug addict. I got arrested a lot. That was what saved my life,” Chris recalls. He stated how he was going down a path of destruction and his only options were prison or death. In November of 2013, Chris went to jail for possession of heroin. This was his second felony and this was also after several misdemeanors. Chris’ road to recovery started at this event.

The Journey to Recovery

After a month in jail, Chris was given the option for drug court. Knowing that this avenue was not a sustainable way to recover from addiction and that it would only lead him to use heroin again, he refused. Chris wanted to be granted another opportunity. “I was hoping to go to No Longer Bound.” He had a friend who went to the No Longer Bound program and was staffed there. The organization “enrolls men in a 12-month residential regeneration process to rescue addicts, regenerate men, and rescue families.”

“By the grace of God, the judge gave me the sweetest deal…If I completed the No Longer Bound program, my record would be wiped clean. Also, anytime that I spent in college would count towards my community service hours. Finally, any dollars I spent towards college or treatment would be put towards my court fines. It was great,” Chris exclaimed. With that decision, Chris left jail for the last time and enrolled in the No Longer Bound program.

Hope for the Addict

Chris never before felt as good as he did then when he was at No Longer Bound. “I had an entire year to focus on myself and grow up. I was 21-years-old at the time,” Chris said. The program helped him work through a lot of the shame and regret that he had from his years as an addict. “I had this internal belief system that caused me to have low self-worth, the inability to cope in a positive way, and feeling like I was a failure,” he added. He was able to find joy and hope through his time at No Longer Bound. Chris spent that year in the program building up confidence in himself.  

“I want to make sure I am serving people in No Longer Bound, my community, and my family.”

Coming out on Top

After his year of treatment was finished, Chris enrolled in No Longer Bound’s after-care program as an intern. He spent that time helping out in their marketing needs and also helped with the groups that No Longer Bound’s counselors taught in the mornings. In 2015, he enrolled back in college and got his Bachelor in Human Services. He is now seeking his Master of Mental Health Counseling so that he can become a licensed therapist. “I didn’t realize how easy school was until I got off drugs,” Chris remarked. His life completely turned around and that is because of the work he did to overcome barriers in his life with the help of No Longer Bound. 

No Longer Bound’s mission is to rescue addicts, regenerate men, and reconcile families. Chris’ story is a perfect example of that mission being accomplished. The Georgia Center for Opportunity partners with No Longer Bound in the form of helping reconcile families. GCO’s Healthy Families Initiative provides classes and a curriculum to help the men in No Longer Bound to improve their relationships with others. “I’m not saying I owe anything to No Longer Bound, but that opportunity saved and changed my life,” Chris concludes.