Darnell Bates is a dedicated father, a respected manufacturing supervisor and a mentor to many at Goodwill Commercial Services. But the journey to the life he leads today was anything but easy.
Darnell’s childhood was marked by chaos. “I remember visiting my brother in prison when I was probably 10 or 11,” he shared. By age 12, he tried drugs for the first time, and by 17, he was incarcerated himself. For more than a decade, his life was a cycle of addiction and incarceration. “It was just a messy, dark, dangerous place,” he said.
Everything changed when Darnell became a father. Determined to give his three children the stability he never had, he set out on a mission to be the best man and father that he could be.
In 2020, Darnell found Goodwill and joined New Beginnings, Goodwill’s reentry program. At first, he was resistant. “He was angry and defiant,” said Dr. Trelles Evans, senior director of mission and Reentry services at Goodwill. But when Darnell returned, he was ready to change. “He humbled himself and said, ‘I’ll do anything you ask me to do.’”
Through Goodwill New Beginnings, Darnell gained the structure and support he needed to rebuild his life. He started as an assembler at Goodwill Commercial Services, Goodwill’s manufacturing division, proved himself and was then promoted multiple times. Today, he’s a manufacturing supervisor, has tripled his income in five years and is able to give his kids the stability and experiences he once only dreamed of. “I own my own car, I rent a house, I’m able to put my girls in sports, my son is in wrestling, and I get to be at all their events.”
Darnell’s transformation hasn’t gone unnoticed. Colleagues call him a leader, a problem solver and someone who inspires others to change. “I saw Darnell make micro adjustments to his thinking and behavior on a daily basis, and I followed him in that path,” said James Clements, lead forklift driver at Goodwill Commercial Services. “It worked for me and it’s working for me right now.”
But perhaps the clearest proof of how far he’s come is what his kids see. “He’s a really great dad,” his daughter says. “I love how he smiles. He did stuff bad, but then he changed his mind and did stuff good.”
Looking in the mirror today, Darnell is proud of the man he sees and the future he’s still building, step by step, for himself and for his family. “We hope Darnell knows how proud all of us here at Goodwill are of him. We only showed him the path, he is the one who chose to walk down it.” said Shawn Lange, Goodwill’s Vice President of Manufacturing and Contract Services.