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I was born in a small town of the Dominican Republic called Cevicos.

I came to New York in 1983 because I wanted a better life. It was around two years ago when New York Works, a demonstration project that provides work incentives for people with disabilities who want to work, sent me their postcard. I was going to a training school, which included lessons in math, English and computers. I wanted an office job that offered better conditions than the menial jobs I used to get. I marked a section and said to myself that I would call them later. Soon, my wife was giving birth to our second child, so I dropped out of school to help raise the children.

About seven months later, I called New York Works and I told them to send me all the information that they could give me about their program. They did it. I read it and I called them again. I told them that I was ready to work. They took all the information necessary to process my case.

They told me that I had to go to the VESID office, so I did it. I signed all the documents they requested me to sign. They assigned me a benefits advisor and an employment coordinator. I had one interview with each of them. Then they sent me to the Employment Office. In that office I had two interviews. The first one lasted about two hours. We spoke about the type of job I wanted to do. In the second interview, I brought my resume. They fixed some parts of it.

When we went through all of the positions that many companies had at the time, I chose the kind of job where I could help someone the same way I was being helped to find work. I want to help consumers to rise up.

I chose a job with the Baltic Street Mental Health Board's (BSMHB) Brooklyn Peer Advocacy Center (BPAC). My resume was faxed to someone at BSMHB where I applied for a full time position. A few days later I was called at home and asked if I would like to have an interview with Jonathan Blaufarb and Darlene Arroyo, my soon-to-be supervisor at BPAC. Everything went okay.

Then I had an interview with Rick Sostchen, general supervisor at BPAC, and Isaac Brown, director of housing and advocacy at BSMHB. Once again everything went okay. I, however, did not think so. I called my New York Works employment coordinator and said: "I do not think that I can get that job." He said, "You might not know. Let's see what is going to happen."

Three days later I received a call from Jonathan Blaufarb and he gave me the best news of my entire work history. He said: "Mr. Ricardo Cabral, the position as a Peer Advocate here at Brooklyn Peer Advocacy Center is yours. I was speechless. I was so happy, the only thing I could say was: "Thanks a lot Mr. Blaufarb." He described the salary, which was very reasonable. Then I went to the three-day training. And since then, I have been working as a Peer Advocate at the Brooklyn Peer Advocacy Center.

I am planning to keep working in this field later on in a City, State or federal government agency. Thank you Mr. Dwayne Mayes, David Gonzalez and Nigel Franklyn from New York Works. And thanks to all the people of Baltic Street Mental Health Board and the people at Brooklyn Peer Advocacy Center for the very strong support that they had given and are giving me through all these months.