{"id":582066,"date":"2026-02-11T11:00:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T11:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/582066\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T11:00:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T11:00:11","slug":"how-goodwill-san-antonio-helped-a-local-woman-defy-odds-after-long-term-prison-sentence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/582066\/","title":{"rendered":"How Goodwill San Antonio helped a local woman defy odds after long-term prison sentence"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN ANTONIO<\/strong> \u2013 Because of Goodwill San Antonio<\/a>, one woman is now doing things she never thought possible after years of incarceration. <\/p>\n

Sandra Rojas is now the assistant manager at the \u201cSay Yes\u201d nonprofit employer and has been working with the organization for three years. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy favorite thing to do is to interact with people,\u201d she said. \u201cI love being with the customers and making sure they leave satisfied.\u201d <\/p>\n

Her career with Goodwill did not happen overnight, though. <\/p>\n

Rojas said her life before Goodwill<\/a> was a bit dark. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was incarcerated for nine years,\u201d she said. \u201cI struggled when I got out to find a job. I lost so many jobs, and I felt like I didn\u2019t fit in. I just didn\u2019t have the help I needed, but Goodwill changed all of that. They reached their hand out and helped me and encouraged me.\u201d <\/p>\n

Rojas said they also provided her with the life skills help she needed through counselors. <\/p>\n

She admitted that she had many fears about re-entering society. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy biggest fear was reconnecting with my children,\u201d she said. \u201c\u2018Was I going to fail again?\u2019 I was fearful of the things that led me to my incarceration.\u201d <\/p>\n

She said that the cycle of failures ended when she realized someone actually cared for her. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was a loyal shopper with Goodwill, and I built a relationship with one of the cashiers,\u201d she said. \u201cShe told me they were hiring and I thought, \u2018Let me jump on this.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n

Rojas was not only hired, but she also worked her way up to assistant manager. <\/p>\n

That is when she almost made an unfortunate decision. <\/p>\n

\u201cI know with all of my previous jobs, when things get too good, I would quit,\u201d Rojas said. \u201cI would run and never turn back, and things were getting too good at Goodwill. The new store was opening, and they had this grand opening and all, and I just felt I didn\u2019t deserve that, so I didn\u2019t show up. So many managers and people were reaching out.\u201d <\/p>\n

She said the store didn\u2019t give up on her, though, and rehired her. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey didn\u2019t give up on me,\u201d she said. \u201cMy team members would not let me fail. I started all over again as a cashier, and because I worked so hard, I got my assistant manager position back and have been going strong for the longest time I\u2019ve held a job now.\u201d <\/p>\n

Rojas said she also received trauma therapy while at Goodwill<\/a>, which helped her get closer to forgiving herself.<\/p>\n

She now has a relationship with her three adult children, is now a homeowner and now helps others get on the right path and stay there by sharing her story. <\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the management team to the business center, this is like a family here,\u201d she said. \u201cThey assist with food and clothing and volunteer programs, too. There is so much to offer here, and I just want people to know I am living proof that things do get better. I have had many, many dark moments in my life, but I made it through, and I want to encourage people that it will be ok.\u201d <\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by KSAT – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2013 Because of Goodwill San Antonio, one woman is now doing things she never thought possible…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":582067,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5133],"tags":[5229,718,252415,7202,7203,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-582066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-america","tag-community","tag-goodwilll","tag-san-antonio","tag-sanantonio","tag-texas","tag-tx","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116051654940738141","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=582066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/582067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}