Father’s Day: From Career Criminal to Career Employment
The men of Ready, Willing & Able work hard to transform their lives not just for themselves, but for their loved ones, families, and most of all their children. In fact, 60% of Ready, Willing & Able trainees are parents. In recognition of Father’s Day, we’re sharing one of our most inspiring stories yet.
When William Bossio was released from prison in 2016, he was at rock bottom. A career criminal whose rap sheet included forgery, identity theft, and robbery, William spent years cycling in and out of incarceration. Though his weapon of choice was the humble pen, he nonetheless left a trail of destruction in his wake — most of all, self-destruction — and left his family to pick up the pieces. He knew something had to change.
William’s daughter Kathleen saw how hard he tried to stay on the straight and narrow. He overcame the gambling addiction that first led him down a path to crime. But like so many justice-involved people, he was unable to find stable employment due to his background. Again and again, desperation would lead him back to his old ways.
“He returned to his crimes to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table,” said Kathleen. “He had no support at all from parole or any part of the system. There are so many resources that could have helped him so much sooner if only someone connected him to them. Instead, within months he’d be back in prison.”
William’s absence made Kathleen’s childhood challenging. Her family moved around constantly, and they were evicted from 10 apartments in under 15 years.
“We lived in chaos,” said Kathleen, “sometimes not knowing when our next meal would be, and asking for support as we built back up again. I remember waiting on the welfare line with my mother, bringing a metal cart to food banks and using the old colored paper food stamps — the ones that were impossible to be discreet about.”
Whenever William was released, he’d usually come back home to his wife. But by 2016, they had separated and she had moved back in with her mother. There was no home left for him to return to anymore. Instead, his parole officer directed him to Ready, Willing & Able.
When Kathleen heard that her father had entered the shelter system, she was devastated. Despite all their ups and downs, she had remained William’s fiercest supporter and advocate.
“Even as a child, I’d get so passionate about coming to his parole board hearings and writing character letters to the judge,” she said. “I’d write about who he was as a father, as a provider, as a human, and how he was never given a fair chance when he left prison, how the system was broken and never set him up for success.”
Adjusting to Ready, Willing & Able is a challenge for many trainees, but being away from his family made the program even more daunting for William. Nevertheless, Kathleen encouraged him to give the program his all — and he did just that. Motivated by the thoughts of his children, within a year William went from “pushing the bucket” as one of the Men in Blue to becoming a Driver and then a Dispatcher for The Doe Fund’s Community Improvement Project, which provides paid work to men experiencing homelessness in cleaning crews that service more than 115 miles of NYC streets.
The Doe Fund eventually hired William as a full-time Administrative Assistant for the Community Improvement Project, while its supportive services helped him find a room of his own. William graduated from Ready, Willing & Able in 2017 and hasn’t looked back since.
After seeing how The Doe Fund helped William transform his life, Kathleen knew she had to get more involved. “I wanted to be an advocate for the voice my father didn’t have,” she said. “That’s what inspired me to work with the reentry population as a career. ”
In January 2018, Kathleen became a Criminal Justice Case Manager at The Doe Fund’s Peter Jay Sharp Center for Opportunity — the same transitional residence where her father rebuilt his life. Five years later, she now serves as Director of Workforce Development. In this role, she works tirelessly to help men like her father obtain the employment opportunities that they’ve for too long been denied. Her goal is to expand access to living wage careers for Ready, Willing & Able trainees and graduates — particularly in fields like skilled trades and emerging industries — while also prioritizing long-term engagement with graduates.
Becoming part of The Doe Fund family is just one more way Kathleen has followed in the footsteps of her role model. “My father went from career criminal to career man,” she said, “from ‘living large’ to understanding and appreciating that living large is not in the material items you have, but in family sticking together, helping each other, and being there through the ups and downs together. Humbling ourselves and reaching out for support from our community, that’s living large.”
