Jeremy Logan

The Communicator

We like to believe that we live in a forgiving society; a society that doesn’t judge a man for what he has done in his past. But how forgiving are we really?

Adam Tidwell is the sole provider for his 6 year old son Hunter, and together they have Faced nearly every challenge and judgement one could face.

When Hunter was just one, his mother was incarcerated, and he and Adam bounced around various shelters. It was this experience that lead Adam to an interest in social services.

“I became really intrigued by the people that worked in that field helping people get the resources they needed,” Tidwell said, so, “after working construction for years and working on cars, college became a goal of mine.”

Adam and Hunter struggled as Adam tried to find steady work and a steady place to live. Knowing he had no real money to cover rent, Adam was forced to move into an apartment he couldn’t afford.

“Without the support of family sometimes you just have to rent a place even when you can’t afford one, and when you are providing for a child that stress is exasperate,” Tidwell said. This lead to an eviction notice; which, when coupled with his criminal history, makes it even tougher to rent a place today.

“The way things are set up with property owners running the show, there aren’t a lot of options for the tenant,” Tidwell said.

After a while the stress became too much for Adam and he relinquished custody of Hunter to Hunter’s grandfather. He headed to California and scouted around looking for work while living out of his car, but missed Hunter and decided he needed to come back and be with his son.

“I tried to set up a visit with my son, and my father was concerned and wouldn’t let me, so I picked Hunter up from daycare and they reported it to the police,” Tidwell said. “I was charged with unlawful imprisonment and took a plea bargain down to custodial interference.”

Adam was heartbroken, and after three months in the Chelan County Jail, Adam returned to Spokane where his mother resides.

“What happened next was essentially a nervous break down,” Tidwell said. “I knew I needed to move to Spokane to ask for help from my mother for social support.”

Then, “…after making some moves to Seattle, Wenatchee, and California I ended up in a mental institution in 2011,” Tidwell said.

After his release he started applying for FAFSA [financial aid] and discovered that he had never signed up for selective service which made him ineligible for financial aid grants.

“I didn’t think much about it. The military wasn’t anything I was taught about and knew about. I wasn’t signed up when I called and I was over the age of 26 so there was no way I could sign up. That put a stop to my FAFSA funding,” Tidwell said. “They told me that the only way I could excuse myself from signing up is if I were in prison or a mental institution when I got the papers.”

It was during this time that Adam found a lawyer that would help him pro bono to try and regain custody of Hunter. After a few visitations, Adam’s father made the decision not to battle his son in court and released Hunter back to Adam.

Adam spent most of his time trying to find resources for Hunter and himself and eventually found help through the Division of Vocational rehabilitation.

“I went to DVR after taking a odd-ball bartending job and a Conoco job,” Tidwell said. “DVR gave me a psych evaluation and took me on as a client.”

“DVR is unique in that it’s one of the few Fed [federal] institutions that provides funding for reentry into society on a broad basis,” Tidwell said. “I knew my studies had paid off when I got them to pay for an Associates Degree.”

Adam completed his Associates Degree with a 3.85 GPA, all the while providing rent and food for him and Hunter on $380 per month from TANF [Temporary Assistance for Needy Families] and $300 per month from work study.

He started his work study with PACE-SEER working with the developmentally disabled and within two days they asked him to help with the curriculum. Upon completion of his Associates Degree they asked him to come on and work with them, but the custodial interference charge came back to haunt him.

“Upon hire I had to go through a background check and the custodial interference charge put me on a no fly list as far as working with any kind of vulnerable population,” Tidwell said. “So I went to the Center of Justice to try and expunge the charge, but I had a driving without a license charge after that charge, which makes it impossible for me to get it expunged.

Linda Deford went to bat for me. She saw what I was able to do and that I was sincere and able to think outside the box while adhering to their mission statement,” Tidwell said. “She was able to find a loophole that as long as I wasn’t alone with people in a vulnerable position, I could work with them.”

Adam has withstood many adversities, and will continue to try and make a better life for himself and his son.

“It’s survival, man,” Tidwell said, “we’re all just fucking reptilian.”