I will give you a true story of what I am taking about. This is actually quite a recent event that just happened. My sister and family lives in the Quad Cities and they are quite active in their church. During the really bitter cold snap that happened a couple weeks ago, their church collaborated with another organization and opened a warming center/shelter.
There was a particular homeless man staying in the center. Now this is probably one of the lowest points in this man's life, he's out of a home in -35 degree weather with not a pot to piss in. While in the shelter he asks the staff if there is ANYTHING he can do while he is there. I suppose he was bored or just wanted to pay it back. I don't know his intent. They found him tasks to do like vacumn floors, wipe down tables, clean windows, etc.. He'd get done and ask if he could do anything else. Anyway, a local business owner (who went to the church) who owned a neighborhood hardware store witnessed this individual and his work ethic. He offered the man a job at the store and said if he was interested to come down a certain day when they opened and gave him the time. That homeless man did end up going to that store and now works at that hardware store. Absolute true story and you may even be able to Google the story if it was in the paper. The Harvest Bible Chapel is the church that had the shelter.
Now if this individual has that work ethic and knows a little about hardware, he has a chance to move up in the store and maybe become a manager someday. If not, maybe he could move on to another store and move up. Maybe now he can get some things straightened out in his life and with time, down the road, maybe even have his own hardware business. Who knows. But, my point is that even in that man's low point in his life, he took advantage of a small opportunity in a shelter to ask to do jobs and maybe set a path for himself.