eKART Gives Chad’s Hope Resident Dustin Bryant New Career Path, Future after 20-year Addiction Battle

Dustin Bryant never thought he could get on the right path until eKART assisted him in getting his welding license during his stay at Chad’s Hope.

Tennessee native Dustin Bryant has spent the last two decades going down a dark and dangerous road.

“Back at home I was more or less on heavy drugs like meth and shooting pills,” Bryant says through crackling phone reception. “I’d been doing it ever since I was 15 years old, and I’m 35 now.”

During that time, Bryant was in and out of the court system on multiple charges. He admits he was on a fast track to disaster that culminated in a fight with a family member that eventually landed him one final time in front of a judge’s bench.

“Me and my little brother got into it and I was coming off drugs and I hit him,” he explains. “They put an order of protection on me and I kept breaking it.”

“I got court-ordered to do 3 to 5 (years), and I asked them if I could do rehab instead,” Bryant continues.

The court agreed to allow Bryant to serve his time in a faith-based, residential recovery care program for substance-addicted men in Manchester, Ky., called Chad’s Hope.

“I just prayed to God to let me come here because one of my buddies came here and I asked for all the same chances he got and he’s doing pretty good now,” Bryant says. “That’s what God laid out in front of me.”

What Bryant didn’t know when he checked into Chad’s Hope on Valentine’s Day 2020 was that there was an even bigger plan in store for him thanks to a new regional program called eKART.

eKART (Eastern Kentucky Addiction Recovery and Training) is an initiative of Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program (EKCEP), Inc., that works with local drug courts and other agencies to bridge the gulf between recovery and productive participation in the workforce by providing individuals with valuable career, training, and supportive services, while actively cultivating transformational job opportunities. It aims to help former addicts get back on their feet with job trainings and placements.

eKART teamed up with Chad’s Hope to offer residents the opportunity to get their welding certificates at no cost to them.

“I loved it when I heard about it because my brother, he’s a welder, he’s a pipefitter and it’s all I’ve been wanting to do. I knew it’d keep me out of drugs if I had a career like his,” he says. “That’s one of the biggest prayers I’ve had answered is the welding class here and I just love it.”

Bryant says getting involved with eKART was as simple as saying yes to his advisor. Once the ball got rolling, he discovered that eKART was not only offering a free class but also assisted with buying any equipment the residents needed for the class.

“We got the stuff we needed like our gloves, our helmets, our safety glasses, and our welding jackets. It’s (eKART) been a really great help; I know some of the boys here couldn’t afford that stuff without them,” Bryant explains.

Bryant and his fellow residents graduated the welding program in December, but he already had a few plans for employment lined up for when he would be checking out of Chad’s Hope in 2021.

“They (the instructors) showed us where we can put our applications in to look for jobs to put our licenses to use,” he says.

For anyone in a similar position as he was in just a year ago, Bryant says they’d be foolish not to consider working with eKART if the opportunity arises.

“If it wasn’t for this, I don’t know where I’d be at 10 years from now. At least now I know I have a different road to travel on,” he says. “I appreciate everything everybody’s done for us here.”

EKCEP, a nonprofit workforce development agency headquartered in Hazard, Ky., serves the citizens of 23 Appalachian coalfield counties. The agency provides an array of workforce development services and operates the Kentucky Career Center JobSight network of workforce centers, which provide access to more than a dozen state and federal programs that offer employment and training assistance for jobseekers and employers all under one roof. Learn more about us at http://www.ekcep.org, http://www.jobsight.org and http://www.facebook.com/ekcep.