Essex County Man Refuses To Let Debt, Job Loss Get Him Down

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — Sometimes you work hard, but life throws you a curveball. And that’s when people like 59-year-old Jamaica native Anthony Bygrave dig deep and work even harder.

Bygrave, an East Orange resident who has lived in the United States for the past 27 years, is nearing the two-year anniversary of his job as a package loader at a New Jersey Stop and Shop warehouse. He’s jacked up his credit score by 90 points, opened checking and saving accounts, moved into his own apartment, bought a used car and cut down on his debt by more than $11,000.

But according to the Urban League of Essex County (ULEC) and the LISC Financial Opportunity Center (FOC) in Newark, which teamed up to help him get back on his feet, it didn’t come easy. (Read Bygrave’s full story here)

After losing his job as a forklift operator in July 2015 when his employer was shut down, Bygrave was on the verge of exhausting his unemployment benefits and spiraling into debt. However, he managed to turn things around with a simple mantra: “Setting smart goals and sticking to a plan.”

Less than two months after enrolling in programs at the FOC and benefiting from workforce training sessions and financial coaching from the ULEC, he was hard at work at a new job at Stop and Shop, the recipient of intensive workforce development training and financial coaching.

"I feel independent and it is a wonderful feeling," Bygrave said. “In life there are obstacles, but you have to have the will within you because I know there are things to accomplish.”

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Photo: LISC