Business

Awake Window & Door finds business growth in giving second chances

Jessica Cos, left, and Scott Gates on the production floor at Awake Window & Door Co. in Gilbert. Gates and the company's cofounders gave Awake a mission to help former convicts like Cos with a job and other resources.

Independent Newsmedia/Tom Blodgett

Jessica Coz walked into Awake Window & Door Co. expecting to learn how to operate a saw.

She had been out of prison less than a year after serving 15 years. Her plans for life after incarceration had unraveled after her release in March 2024, leaving her at one point living in a Yuma hotel and nearing homelessness.

A connection eventually led her to a reentry program at Hickman’s Family Farms, where housing came with a job working on a chicken farm in Tonopah.

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Awake Window & Door finds business growth in giving second chances

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