Roy Mainelli

West Hartford, CT

ROY MAINELLI

The person that was the “master of ceremonies” at my retirement party is the president of an aerospace company in Connecticut. He knew I was about to go work at Journey Home on the issue of homelessness and he says, “Roy and I are going to go into business together and I’m going to hire the homeless,” as an off-the-cuff comment. I called him a month later. I said, “You made that comment, here’s the program, here’s the proposition. If I bring you candidates that are low to mid-skill and at a lower wage than you’re paying today, and I educate them, will you hire them?” And he said yes.

MATT MORGAN, Executive Director, Journey Home

The relationships that he had working in the aerospace industry helped us to develop and cultivate this whole aerospace program that’s specifically helping people who are experiencing homelessness to be placed into the aerospace industry sector. It was really awesome.

ALEXIS McDADE, Journey Home Client

I actually met Roy through the Salvation Army. When he first came to the shelter, he let everyone know, there’s the training, and at the end, if you complete the training, there’s a job. Oh, man, the first day of work? It was amazing. Really big company, very welcoming. I was just happy to go to work, knowing I’m doing something that’s productive.

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Learn about Encore!Hartford, the nonprofit leadership and fellowship program that helped Roy Mainelli find his encore. 

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MATT MORGAN

This program that Roy has started has been incredible in that it’s offering living wage jobs with health care benefits. People with absolutely nothing, no income, no job, are able to leave poverty and homelessness behind forever.

ROY MAINELLI

Our executive director is 33, 34. It’s a young shop. I am the older guy there by about probably 25, 30 years. I’m learning from them because I really don’t know this field at all. And they look at me as I’ve been around, I can help them, raising money, organization structure, how best to, you know, handle some political situations. It’s been fun. It’s been fun working with young people.

ALEXIS McDADE

I have been living in my own apartment for five months. I feel like I’ve moved up. It really all worked out for me, it really did. I think Roy does what he does to give back, to be able to help someone else be a success story. If you’re successful yourself, why not share it? Why not pass it on? Just keep the chain going.