SNAP / Food Stamp recipient Nicole Mattson had been looking for a job for a long time. She applied to many places, even holding a couple of jobs, but for varying reasons, they didn’t work out so well. Nicole was discouraged to find herself back at the job search starting point once again.

In order to maintain her Food Stamps benefits, Nicole needed to find employment for 20-hours per week. The Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) referred her to the Fitchburg office of Training Resources of America, Inc. (TRA) that operates a SNAP Path to Work program.

The program is designed to help clients improve their basic academic skills, prepare for the high school equivalency test, learn computer/ customer service/ clerical skills, gain job readiness and workplace skills, and access jobs and advanced skills training opportunities. Nicole joined the SNAP Path to Work Program in February 2018.

“Being in this job training program, I have had so much more motivation looking for a job, and doing what needs to be done to get a job than I ever had on my own,” says Nicole. After three months, she found employment as a warehouse picker at the Paper Store Warehouse in Fitchburg.

Nicole says, “So I would love to say thank you to the two job training ladies, Jennifer Chaves and Lisa Welcome, who helped me with all of the resources that they have and can give for finding a job. I also want to thank my family and friends and my son for giving me motivation to get a job…with all their kind words of being told that ‘I can do what I put my mind to’. It was the best feeling that I could ever have when I found out that I got this job.”

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