Hannah delivers a certificate of completion to a recent Goodwill Kentucky client.
LOUISVILLE, KY. – For thousands of Kentuckians, a past mistake can follow them long after they’ve fulfilled their debt to society through incarceration, which creates a barrier to stable employment, housing, and a chance to move forward. But expungement can change that.
By clearing eligible charges from a person’s record, individuals gain access to better-paying jobs, stronger career pathways, and the opportunity to build brighter futures for themselves and their families, while strengthening Kentucky’s workforce in the process.
Through its expungement program and partnerships with legal advocates and workforce organizations, Goodwill Kentucky has been working to remove these barriers and create second chances for justice-impacted individuals. This April, during Second Chance Month, Goodwill Kentucky is highlighting a significant milestone in that work: more than 20,000 criminal charges expunged through its program since launching the initiative in 2021.
Goodwill Kentucky became involved in expungement work to help remove barriers to employment, directly supporting its mission of helping Kentuckians find pathways out of poverty. The organization and its partners, the Kentucky Department of Corrections, legal aid agencies, and others, offer legal clinics where participants meet with an attorney, review their backgrounds, and start the expungement process for eligible charges. An attorney continues to assist the clients throughout the process, and costs associated with the expungement petition(s) are covered by Goodwill Kentucky. Additionally, during the process, guidance and connections to resources are provided so justice-impacted Kentuckians can get a fair chance to succeed.
“Expungement is more than a legal process. It’s a chance to move forward,” said Dennis Ritchie, vice president of reentry and strategic partnerships for Goodwill Kentucky. “When barriers to employment are removed, new possibilities open, allowing people to rebuild their lives, support their families, and create a stronger future.”
One of those individuals is Hannah Saïd, a Lexington native whose past once stood in the way of her future. Despite completing drug court on June 3, 2017, and maintaining more than a decade in recovery, she still carried 15 charges on her record, some of which had been dismissed but were not automatically cleared. Those charges created ongoing barriers to employment, limiting her to service industry jobs as she worked to rebuild her life.
“I still had those 15 cases dating back to when I was 18 years old,” she said. “At the time, I was 27. Because of that, and the nature of some of my charges, it was super hard for me to find a good job.”
Hannah stayed committed to her future and obtained employment at the drug court, the very system that once supported her. That paved the way for her to join Goodwill Kentucky as a career coach in 2021. As a Goodwill Kentucky team member, she began volunteering her time at expungement clinics happening throughout the Commonwealth. While volunteering, she signed up herself, recognizing that cost had previously been a barrier, but through Goodwill Kentucky, the process was free.
“I was in a place at that point where I wasn’t really thinking about my background because I had a job,” she said. “It got me thinking: I don’t know why I wouldn’t do this.”
That day, Hannah learned that nearly all of her charges were eligible for expungement, and just months later, on June 3, 2024—the same day she completed drug court in 2017—she received her approved expungement paperwork.
“I don’t think I realized how meaningful that would be to me,” she said. “It feels good to know that it’s over—it’s over for good. I’m glad for the experiences that I went through, because I fully believe they shaped me into who I am, but it was really nice to feel like I got a fresh start.”
Today, Hannah works as the manager of strategic partnerships for Goodwill Kentucky, and with her record cleared, she is embracing new opportunities both personally and professionally, including being able to volunteer at her son’s school—moments that once felt out of reach and reflect the impact of a true second chance.
To learn more about Goodwill Kentucky’s expungement program, visit GoodwillKY.org/expungements.
About Goodwill Kentucky
For more than 100 years, Goodwill Kentucky has helped Kentuckians find pathways out of poverty through the transformative power of work. Operating in 103 of Kentucky’s 120 counties, Goodwill Kentucky places over 3,000 Kentuckians into jobs each year through its 1,400-plus employer partners and its own retail stores. These life-changing opportunities are made possible through donations to Goodwill Kentucky stores and community support. The organization reinvests approximately 90 cents of every dollar earned in its retail stores into job training and workforce programs. When you give to Goodwill, you do a lot of good.
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