Tonya: “I feel like I’m doing something worthwhile”

In her short time at Pallet, Tonya has embarked on her recovery journey, found housing after experiencing homelessness, and set her sights on a skilled future career.

Tonya knows Everett like the back of her hand. She spent most of her childhood on the north side of town but has lived in various neighborhoods throughout her life. So it seems fitting that now, after a decade of living on the streets of her hometown, she’s found a new path at Pallet and already moved into a place of her own mere steps away from HQ.

Although she was born the middle child of five siblings, Tonya grew up as the eldest in the house, as her two older sisters lived elsewhere with other relatives. She was a natural athlete, playing basketball, volleyball, and running track for her high school teams. 

Her stepdad was not only a solid supporter of Tonya and her siblings, but also played the role of coach in her athletic training. But even with bright prospects to play on a college level, Tonya felt as though something fundamental was missing due to her unconventional family dynamic. 

“In high school I had a lot of scholarships to play different sports for different colleges, but my family was really broken, and I was looking to fill some kind of void,” she explains. 

Tonya had her first son at age 15, which contributed to the loss of all her scholarships. Despite this massive shift in planning her future alongside the new responsibilities of becoming a mother, she worked tirelessly to graduate high school on time. 

This feeling of accomplishment was short-lived. Out of school, Tonya got a full-time serving job out of necessity, which allowed her to secure her own apartment. Then she began using substances. 

Life quickly began to spiral: she lost her job and was evicted after taking out short-term loans and falling behind on payments. Feeling lost and insecure about her ability to care for her child in such a tumultuous state, Tonya called her oldest sister, who promptly came to pick up her son and raise him in eastern Washington. 

The lack of structure and trauma of living unsheltered caused Tonya to enter survival mode. She lived day-to-day, often couch hopping to friends’ houses or scraping together enough money for a motel room for the night. 

“I was just really trying to figure out how, and where, I was going to sleep,” she says. “It was really hard being a young female, homeless out on the streets.” 

In the final several years of being unhoused, Tonya lived with her boyfriend in a tent. She says they often wouldn’t be able to get into nightly shelters due to a lack of beds, and they weren’t interested in being separated. 

During this time, they routinely talked about their hopes of getting clean. One day, he returned from the library to announce he’d arranged appointments to apply for a recovery program. From then on, they fully committed to sobriety and moved into separate sober living houses. Tonya immediately knew she made the right decision upon moving in. 

“Oh my gosh, it saved my life,” she beams. “The structure has been great for my first year of sobriety. I really have been able to actually work on my consistency with my kids, with showing up for myself. I have so much support at that house. It’s been great, I love it.” 

It was there that Sarah, her house manager, told Tonya about Pallet.  

“She was telling me about this opportunity for people like us, who have a record, who don't have a lot of job experience, who have been homeless,” she recalls. “And I just thought it was a great opportunity to broaden my horizons when it comes to working and figuring my life out. So I suited up, I showed up, I tried it out, and now here I am.” 

Tonya says she finds fulfillment working on the production floor and joining the deployment team to assemble shelters at new Pallet village sites. 

“I feel accomplished,” she explains. “I feel like I'm actually doing something worthwhile, like I’m actually doing something good and not just wasting space. I've always felt like I've just been wasting space for a long time.” 

In the short time participating in Pallet’s Career Launch PAD, Tonya has accomplished tremendous growth and plans to use her new skills to pursue a career as an HVAC technician. She says she’s not only enjoyed the hands-on lab sessions in the pre-apprenticeship program, but also taken a liking to the applied mathematics required for this skilled trade. 

Outside of work, Tonya’s also made great strides with her family. She has moved into her own apartment with her boyfriend along with her two youngest kids. She’s close with her mom, who is now six years clean. Her own recovery is strong. 

Given the progress she’s already made, we’re eager to see what great things await Tonya with her next steps.

Tonya's Progress Update: January 2025

Sometimes progress is small steps, other times it’s great strides.

Since starting Pallet’s Career Launch PAD four months ago, it’s decidedly been the latter for Tonya.

“I moved into my apartment and I’ll have a year clean next month, and I got my oldest son back in my life,” she says. “I got a gym membership—I vowed to never touch the basketball again when I started using drugs, but now that I’m clean I’m getting back into it. I’m gonna go get my license next week. Everything seems like it’s going smooth.”

Starting out, Tonya had her reservations about starting the program and getting back into a classroom setting. But once she gained some momentum, her concerns faded away.

“I was nervous in the beginning because it's been a long time since I've had to do any kind of schoolwork and be consistent with anything in my life,” she reflects. “So I was definitely nervous, but as I got the hang of it, it's definitely gotten me excited and it’s been smooth sailing since then. So I'm not even nervous about it anymore.”

One thing that surprised Tonya was how much she enjoyed the math components in the CITC program. She never thought she liked the subject in high school, but that changed when it was applied in the context of knowledge she would need in her future HVAC career.

“Back in school, I told myself: ‘I’m not good at it, I hate it, I can’t do this,’” she explains. “I’m coming into it this time as an adult with experience. In the beginning I was surprised that once they touched base on the course work, I felt like, ‘Oh yeah, I kind of like this.’ And then I got the hang of it.”

After getting her first grades in the mail and completing certifications in safety, CPR, and tool operation like the forklift and jackhammer, Tonya’s confidence his risen and showed her how capable she is.

“We got our first grades in the mail, and when I saw how good I was doing, I was like, ‘Wow,’” she says. “Like, ‘Wow, I’m really doing this.’ And it’s a really good feeling of accomplishment that you’re actually doing stuff for yourself. That made it feel real.”

Week to week, the schedule of attending classes at CITC and working at Pallet the rest of the week is working well for Tonya by setting up structure and expectations for herself.

“It helped me with routine and discipline,” she says. “I know what I need to do, I know how to prepare for the week: for school, for work. It’s a good transition, a different way to live. This time last year, I had no kind of schedule. Nothing. So it’s very refreshing.”

Adjusting to this new way of life didn’t come without some challenges. Tonya says it’s been difficult keeping up with certain financial obligations, but she’s not giving up.

“In the beginning it was child support and then I got past it, and now I'm back in the same spot again,” she explains. “But it's just a matter of putting some work in to figure it out. So I'll get through it again. This is the kind of stuff that makes people want to quit their jobs to start selling drugs again: ‘I can't get ahead.’  But I've been working too hard. I have too much support. Why go backwards? There's always a way to get through it, you know?”

Having clear goals set for her future and seeing the progress she’s already made is what keeps Tonya going. She says showing up for herself and making good decisions for her kids is one of the best feelings she could have.

“I'm proud of suiting up and showing up,” she says. “I'm proud of myself for continuing to do something with myself on a consistent level. I like the fact that I’m setting an example for my kids—it feels good that people actually look up to me and come to me for advice or trust me with certain responsibilities and know that I’m actually going to be there. It’s a really good feeling.”

Tonya's Progress Update: March 2025

Life is often a balancing act. Between adjusting to her schedule at Pallet, participating in courses at CITC, having her kids back in her life, maintaining her own apartment, achieving a year clean, and even helping her mom after an electrical fire damaged her house, Tonya says “crazy busy” would be an accurate description of how things have felt lately. 

Even so, she’s keeping her head up and taking everything in stride.

“I’m just trying to get back into the hang of being a mom,” she says. “But some things are natural. I’m just really trying to figure it all out.”

She says moving into her own apartment is a big step up and feels like the start of a new chapter.

“The fact that I have my own place is beautiful,” she shares. “I have my family, my man, and we’re starting to live our life correctly.”

Based on what she’s learned about finding a job post-graduation, Tonya says while HVAC is still on her radar as a career path, she’s open to other options. Her main concentration is finding a job after graduating the program that allows her to have a stable income, gain some work experience, and explore her interests.

“I shifted [my focus],” she explains. “I’m definitely still intrigued and interested. But in the meantime, to pay the bills I can just tap into something else and see if I like it. Because I don’t know if I’ll like it until I do it, you know?”

Along with her fellow Launch PAD participants, Tonya is currently taking classes focused on electrical, which will be followed by a section on plumbing. But she said learning carpentry skills during their class project building a doghouse was a recent highlight of the program—even if the process didn’t click until actually putting the hammer to the nail.

“I’m a hands-on learner: you can’t show me a picture or read a couple sentences about something and expect me to know what it is,” she says. “I’ve never dealt with carpentry, I’ve never dealt with tools until I worked here. So for us to go and make the doghouse and apply what we learned, that was me learning it. But in the end, the whole thing was fun.”

Tonya says that while she is eager to know what life will look like after graduation, she’s confident in her new skills and happy to pass on the same chance she had to incoming members of the program.

“I have gotten used to working here, I’ve got my routine down,” she says. “But at the same time, I’m excited to branch out and to give other people an opportunity to do what I did. I know so many people that could get started if they could just have a job like this.”

Ultimately, Tonya knows that her experience working at Pallet and taking courses at CITC will set her up to pursue her dream of going to college and attaining a career in social work, where she’ll have the chance to fulfill her passion of helping others.

Given how hard she’s worked to get where she is today, we know she has the drive and talent to make this dream a reality.

Meet the other three featured participants in Pallet’s Career Launch PAD and read their stories.