Participant Story: Tomas

Born and raised in Stockton, Tomas lives with his wife and two kids, a 7-year-old son and a 6-year-old daughter. He works in manufacturing, lives by the motto “solid individual,” and his hobbies include drawing and cars.

“With the SEED money, there’s no need for the hustle. I have the time to actually sit there and actually take opportunities for myself, like if I felt like I wanted a new job or different a different job for better choices I was able to make it. I didn’t have to worry about it.”

“A lot of people have noticed a positive change. Like I said before, I would never be around. Like, my in-laws, we just celebrated Fourth of July. Most people celebrate Fourth of July for our independence, me, I celebrate Fourth of July because my daughter passed away. So, during Fourth of July usually I stay away or that’s what I did before and this year I was with my family. And we did a little firework thing but we still did a birthday thing for my daughter and I got to do that and actually have a smile on my face not so much worried or have that stress or pain still. So that’s that the SEED program opened my eyes to that because if not, I’ll be stressing out for that, and I would just take it to a dark place. Now since I’m able to be around my kids more it wasn’t as hard. It wasn’t as hard to accept it and she would have been 11. So it’s been some years. And this time it was better. And it’s getting better. And after this ends or whatever, it’ll still get better because they opened my eyes to it.”