RALEIGH, N.C. — Michael Phillips has owned Men at Work Car Care Center for 33 years.
He opened the car detailing company as a way to give back to the community. Everyone Phillips hires is either coming out of prison, homelessness, or rehab.
“I’ve had a lot of success stories, and of course some folks tend to go back, but in 33 years I’ve seen them leave and I’ve seen them come back,” Phillips says.
Phillips makes it his mission to give others a second chance, because he has also been down that road. In 1990, he was convicted of selling cocaine but avoided jail time by being sentenced to intensive probation.
“What I did was, and I tell young folks all the time, you just have to change your product. So I went from cocaine, to car washing,” Phillips says.
He’s now made a name for himself in Raleigh. Everyday dozens of cars roll through to be washed and detailed.
Over the last three decades Phillips has employed over a thousand men. In the summer he plans to hold free car detailing classes and hopes to one day start a franchise to be able to employ men all across the country.
To learn more about Men at Work Care Center, click here.