Ambassador April - June 2011
Goodwill Gives Health Care Industry Ready-to-Hire Candidates How Joyce Brewster Found a Career Scan and Save Space Our business is changing lives.
giveit2goodwill.org April - June 2011
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Mobile Mondays
contents
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A New Career - High Hopes
Health Care Program Launches
Save Space, Save Time, Save Paper
On-the-Spot Jobs in Clarksville
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CMT Reality Show Uses Goods from Goodwill to Dress the set
Thanks for Donating Forward
If It Doesn’t Sell - Donate It!
President & CEO - David Lifsey Sr. Director of Marketing & Community Relations - Karl Houston Art Director & Photographer - Scott Bryant Writer & Copy Editor - Suzanne Kay-Pittman
Microsoft Grant is Paying Big Dividends
How Goodwill is Working to Help End Poverty
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Mobile Mondays
Read Ambassador Online
Ambassador is a quarterly magazine published by Goodwill Industries of Middle Tennessee, Inc. 1015 Herman St. Nashville, TN 37208 For the nearest retail store, donation center, or Career Solutions facility, please call 615.742.4151 or visit giveit2goodwill.org.
The Ambassador provides its readers with stories about the events, activities and people who support the mission of Goodwill Industries of Middle Tennessee. We are pleased to provide you this information and hope you will share our publication with others. Please note, the opinions expressed in the Ambassador do not necessarily reflect an opinion or official position of the management or employees of Goodwill Industries of Middle Tennessee, Inc. Goodwill’s Mission: We sell donated goods to provide employment and training opportunities for people who have disabilities and others who have trouble finding and keeping jobs.
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It’s Easy Being Green I
t might have been tough for Kermit the Frog to be green, but at Goodwill it’s easy! It may take a few extra steps to get there, but if you’re committed, as Goodwill is, to reducing your carbon footprint, to sending less to the landfills, to reduce, reuse, recycle and repurpose, you’ll be doing Mother Earth a big favor. Goodwill kept 21 million pounds of goods from entering the landfills in 2010, including textiles, shoes, toys, household goods, purses and belts. Cardboard and book recycling saved 15,000 trees last year. Nissan North America, which now calls Franklin, a suburb of Nashville, home, hosted an event to celebrate Earth Day and Goodwill took part. More than 500 Nissan employees stopped by to find out what numerous area businesses are doing to be eco-friendly, including what we’re doing at Goodwill.
Of great interest to Nissan employees was what Goodwill does with items that may not seem recyclable, including TVs, cell phones, old books and even non-store quality textiles. Cell phones are sold to a recycler that refurbishes the ones that can be reused, and if not salvageable, they’re sold to a recycler that disassembles them and recycles the internal workings. Textiles, including clothes, bedding and towels that are not store quality, are baled and sold and reused and recycled by salvage companies. When you think about it, Goodwill may have been the first recycler. When the organization started in 1902 in Boston, it was designed to take items that were no longer needed, wanted or used, donate them to those in need, giving job opportunities to those in the community who refurbished and distributed the items. Goodwill went green 110 years ago!
Nissan employees wanted assurance that their donations to Goodwill are being put to good use. They asked about our recycling program and the recycling companies we partner with to be certain they meet the highest standards.
Career counseling & planning Job search & placement Training & certifications Basic & advanced computer training WHY CAREER SOLUTIONS? We provide one-on-one job training and placement services to people who need help looking for, finding and keeping a job. Contact us today for more information 800.945.9231 | giveit2goodwill.org giveit2goodwill.org April - June 2011
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A New Career - High Hopes
Joyce Brewster and Arnold Roach.
I
n April 2010, Joyce Brewster was working at Bass Pro Shop in the Opry Mills Mall. She had been a member of its sales force for three years. On Saturday, May 1, Joyce’s job was washed away by the massive flood that soaked much of Nashville. Although Brewster may not consider herself a flood victim, she’s still living with its aftermath. She hasn’t worked full time since the store and mall were closed due to the immense damage. After months of disappointment in her search for a new job, Brewster came to Goodwill. But she came a bit reluctantly. “I thought Goodwill was for people who are down and outters and those with disabilities. What I found really surprised me. Everyone has been so encouraging.” Brewster is currently working part-time for a transportation company near Nashville’s airport. “I was looking for a job,” she says. “Now I’m looking forward to a career.” That career will be in the field of health care, thanks to Career Solution’s Health Care Incentives training program. Brewster is a member of the first graduating class of Career Solution’s new program, designed to help Tennesseans prepare themselves for a job in the always growing field of health care. As a graduate she’s now qualified for entry level positions with her new knowledge base in medical terminology, medical ethics and basic patient care, including taking vitals and helping patients through those first few minutes of their physicians’ visit. “I’m really excited about this new phase in my life. I want to move into this area of work and I recognize there are a lot of opportunities,” says Brewster.
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The Health Care Initiatives Program is an intensive four-week class that is held daily from 9:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. The hard work is just the first step for Brewster who plans to enroll next in a certified nurse assistant’s program. “I would really enjoy working in a children’s hospital. Thanks to the skills I’ve learned at Goodwill I see that as a real possibility.”
A HEALTHY NEW CAREER
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PAT H
t’s never too late to start on a new career path. Arnold Roach can vouch for that. He has taken the skills he mastered during his 24-year career as a Chief Petty Officer in the Navy into leading one of Goodwill’s newest offerings, the Health Care Initiatives program. “I dealt with preventative medicine and traveled a lot during my Navy career. I felt like this job was created just for me. It’s a perfect fit.” Roach teaches basic health care skills to clients who want to pursue entry level health care jobs in medical offices, hospitals or in health care facilities. The four-week class covers a wide range of topics including standard first-aid, CPR, medical terminology, ethics, measuring vital signs, medical information and HIPPA standards, ServSafe food safety, and health care focused customer service and communications
Arnold Roach assists student Faith Nwankwo with a blood pressure cuff.
A certificate from this Career Solutions program gives graduates a leg-up in their job searches. Compared to candidates who haven’t been through similar training, Goodwill’s clients are job-ready and able to make an immediate mark. The Health Care Initiatives program may also be just the first step for many of its graduates to go on to continuing their education to get better paying and higher level jobs, for instance, as licensed practical nurses or registered nurses. Two of Roach’s most recent alumni had jobs waiting for them when they graduated; one working for a sitting service for the elderly and the other as a caregiver at a day care center. A third student is in the interview process while the remaining two are aggressively looking for jobs with the help of Goodwill’s career counselors. Roach couldn’t be more proud of his students. “This program provides opportunities for those who thought they could never work in the medical community. This is a fresh start and many of my students are working toward their dream career. Sometimes all a person needs is a second or third chance. This is just that chance!” The ServSafe program is especially valuable for clients who may have a felony and are not eligible to work in a setting where prescription drugs are dispensed. Through ServSafe, those with a criminal background who want to contribute to their communities and work in health care, can get jobs in a hospital cafeteria, health care facility or in restaurants. “Your past has nothing to do with your future,” says Roach about his clients and the ServSafe program.
Christy Jones, student, is all smiles with her son after receiving her certification.
When the candidates graduate from Career Solution’s program, they receive a certificate certifying them through the National Restaurant Foundation, making them even more marketable to employers in the food service industry. giveit2goodwill.org April - June 2011
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Paper or CD Rom? H
ave you ever tried to find that invoice you know you filed in your drawer, but it’s not where you thought it was so you search another few minutes until you finally find it in the wrong folder? On average, we take six minutes to find a paper document at work. If that document had been scanned and saved electronically, it would take you just 16 seconds to find the file you need with a few clicks of a mouse. The savings can be measured in time and space. Career Solution’s Document Archiving Program, a new business module within the company, is in its formative stages. Glenn Brown is the program’s manager. “Converting paper files to electronic files increases productivity, increases the physical space in an office and reduces storage costs. We’re ready to train clients to help small to medium businesses with all of the above.” The archiving process involves indexing and identifying paper files, scanning them and then dropping them into an electronic file on a CD ROM. How much office space will that save? Just two CD ROMs can hold all the paper files stored in three, four-drawer file cabinets. 6
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Goodwill’s own document storage space was growing tight, and Brown’s first order of business has been to archive accounts payable, accounting and in-house personnel files for Career Solutions. The big picture calls for Brown to hire his first two clients within the next few weeks and help them find jobs in the industry after they complete two weeks and 20 hours of training. As the program grows, Brown plans to hire an employee to train clients while he brings in external clients who are interested in electronic filing and storage. It’s hoped that once the Document Archiving Program is running at capacity, Brown and his team will train 100 clients each year and have as many as five sales people. Through the program clients will also become more proficient and digitally literate. And, as more businesses look for ways to save time and space, they’ll need Goodwill’s trainees to help.
One Day, 50 Jobs, More Offers Career
I
fair in
Clarksville Sparks
a
Hiring Spree.
t took less than two hours for Clarksville Career Solutions counselor Michael Thombs to help place more than 50 clients in jobs.
Thombs, and Springfield counselor, AJ Helms, hosted a job fair in March after lining up multiple employers from throughout the northern counties served by our Goodwill. The final head count – 354 attendees. The final job count – Still being tallied! The invitees are companies that had open positions, thus increasing the odds for success for the clients who want and need work. The diversity of the companies matched the diversity of the attendees, making it much more successful than Thombs thought possible. “I know the job market is rebounding and that’s why I only went to employers who were hiring. I didn’t imagine we’d have so much interest, but when I arrived at the office at 7:00 a.m. that morning, people were already lined up at the door. The event didn’t start until 9:00 a.m.”
Which companies stepped up to the plate to offer jobs? Kelly Services – The company places individuals in medical, clerical and administrative positions, and also has the contract to recruit for the Montgomery County school system for bus drivers, janitors, teacher assistants, and food service workers. 15+ clients were hired as a result of the job fair. Staff Partners – This service places individuals in industrial jobs, and the representative at the job fair was on the lookout for forklift drivers, assemblers, and candidates with clerical backgrounds. “Funny thing is the Staff Partners representative came to the Career fair with just 75 applications and ran out of them within the first hour,” said Thombs. PIC Group – PIC Group is an independent quality control company for Aekebono Brakes whose employees inspect the brake parts that come off of the assembly line. Thombs says, “The representative from PIC Group told me she was very impressed with the quality of our candidates and hired 30 people in three groups of 10 to start work immediately.” Convergys – Convergys is a call center for AT&T Wireless. The company’s representative set up in the computer room and had candidates apply online for jobs with the company onsite. If the candidate met the company’s qualifications, they were tested while at the event and also went through an initial job interview. Bethel University representatives were at the job fair to provide those clients who might be interested in pursuing a higher education the opportunity to learn more about the school.
“The representative from PIC Group told me she was very impressed with the quality of our candidates and hired 30 people in three groups of 10 to start work immediately.”
-Michael Thombs,
Clarksville career counselor
Thombs and Helms each worked at the Career Solutions table at the job fair. For candidates who were not hired, or needed additional skills, the counselors were available to explain the services and programs offered by Career Solutions. “Those who weren’t working, didn’t get a job and were not clients did get information about our programs and now are clients. It was definitely a win-win for everyone who took part,” said Thombs. The next Clarksville-based job fair will be held June 15 and will focus on employers in the service sector, with an emphasis on the food industry. If you are an employer looking for skilled employees, contact Michael Thombs, the Clarksville career counselor, at 931-503-8051.
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donate
forward re-cap
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oodwill relies on our donors to do one simple thing - donate what they no longer want, need or use. By doing so, their donations help Goodwill do one simple thing – provide free job services to our clients. It’s a simple concept paying big dividends.
Lisa Patton
The first-ever Donate Forward campaign was held March 20-March 26, and, another first, our Goodwill partnered with WKRN, the ABC affiliate in Nashville. News anchor, Neil Orne, and meteorologist, Lisa Patton, were the faces of the campaign, and their televised requests for donations sent our supporters by the thousands to Donation Express Centers. More than 25,000 donors heeded the suggestion and donated their gently-used items during the Donate Forward week. Each donation means Goodwill is able to continue growing job training services and employment opportunities to the thousands of Tennesseans who visit our Career Solutions Centers each month. It’s projected more than 12,000 clients will work with our career counselors in 2011. If you’re one of those donors who gave your gently-used items during our Donate Forward week, thank you. If you donate to Goodwill throughout the year, thank you. Your donations are changing lives! For more information about how each item you donate adds up to free services for those who come to Goodwill looking for help finding a job, please visit giveit2goodwill.org/successstories.
Neil Orne
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Having a Neighborhood Sale? It’s always nice to make a little extra money on the weekend if you hold a garage sale or take part in your neighborhood’s sale. But the reality is, not everything sells and then you’re left with a pile of gently-used items that need a new home. Don’t throw those items away! Give them to Goodwill.
If your neighborhood is hosting a sale, Goodwill makes it easy to take the items that didn’t sell off your hands. What’s more convenient than having an attended donation truck in your neighborhood? Find out more by calling our community relations manager at 615-346-1307.
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Proudly supported by Microsoft.
Microsoft Grant... T
Money Well Spent
As proof that the trainers are already having an impact, Violeta here’s an intangible when you learn how to maneuver on the Menjivar, career counselor at the Mt. View Career Solutions Internet. It’s not just that you can access information from anywhere in the world, it’s not that you know how to use a mouse Center, sent a note after trainer, Jennifer Evans, spent the day with Menijvar’s clients. “An 86-year-old client took the class, and she or that you understand the difference between a Web site and an was thrilled to see she scored a 95 on her e-test. I printed it and e-mail account. The intangible is that once you learn these basics she said was going to show you’re connected. To everyone and everything. You’ve moved “With the additional skills our clients are her grandchildren that she is still intelligent. She told me into the 21st century. You ‘get’ learning, they’ll have a much better she’s going to frame her it. And that’s what’s happening opportunity to find and keep when Goodwill’s clients spend certificate and wants to learn more.” one-on-one time with our digital employment in the future.” literacy trainers. - George Carlson, Good Prospects manager The trainers focus on The trainers were hired after our teaching three areas of basic computer skills, including basic resume writing, computer quick Goodwill was awarded a $236,000 grant through Microsoft’s Unlimited Potential program. The five trainers are each assigned a start, and online job search skills. Of the 639 clients who’ve taken part in basic computer training through Career Solutions so far in district and travel to each of our 16 Career Solution Centers throughout the week. 2011, 485 of them have come through the new digital literacy program in just the first two weeks since it rolled out in April.
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11/11/2010
The accolades are piling up for the five trainers who have made great strides with Goodwill’s clients in such a short time. “I asked a client how the class went and he could not say enough about the class and Marshall (Bolding). He told me the closest he had ever come to a computer was when he gave his Goodwill counselor intake info. The client said he did not realize a computer could do so much and was thinking about buying one once he found a job,” reported George Carlson, the Good Prospects program manager. The grant from Microsoft was awarded to our Goodwill after a thorough vetting process. The software giant received more than 300 applications from nonprofits throughout the U.S. Our Goodwill was one of just 12 organizations to be awarded grant funding. The expectations are high both within Goodwill and Microsoft for the Project Digital Literacy program. In the grant application, Senior Director of Career Solutions, Matt Gloster, set the bar high, suggesting that Goodwill will provide digital literacy training to 3,500 participants in the first year of the program and to 4,000 clients in year two. “Our goal isn’t just to train our clients, but to be certain that once they get a job, they remain employed,” says Gloster. “Based on the results so far, I expect we’ll exceed our training goals, and I’m confident that with the additional skills our clients are learning, they’ll have a much better opportunity to find and keep employment in the future.” In Spring Hill, where Marshall Bolden works as the digital literacy trainer, the word from the Career Solutions Center’s administrative assistant seems to sum up just how much the not-so-simple act of learning how to use a computer can impact someone’s life. 4:51:53 PM
“I have never seen so many older men, including railroad workers, farmers, and others who have done nothing but hard labor throughout their working lives, so excited about a class. They signed up for about an hour and ended up staying all day. It was a beautiful thing to see! I was tickled to death. One of the gentlemen said he’s coming back every week until he knows it all like I do,” said Tracy Davis.
Project Digital Literacy Trainers & Territories: Jennifer Evans – Cookeville, Gallatin, Mt. View and Murfreesboro Skip Davis – Dickson, Springfield, Clarksville and Rivergate Marshall Bolding – Franklin, Spring Hill, Lewisburg and Shelbyville Carol Rawdon – Union City, Jackson Andres Bustamante – Lifsey Career Solutions Center (Nashville) and Berry Road giveit2goodwill.org April - June 2011
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Nashville
Poverty
Reduction Initiative 12
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Services with conducting annual community needs assessments and organizing community-wide, public-private partnerships consisting of professional social workers, business leaders, nonprofit and community organizations, philanthropists, academics, and policymakers.”
Goodwill partners with social service agencies in an effort to reduce poverty levels in middle Tennessee. Poverty Reduction Initiative. It sounds like an academic project and a lofty goal. But it’s neither of those. The initiative is in place, and Nashville’s mayor, Karl Dean, has implemented the project to grapple with how to help the thousands of people in the area who live each day in poverty. Why be concerned? Because poverty means a loss of dignity, a sense of powerlessness, a lack of autonomy and control, and the perception of being marginalized or excluded politically, socially or psychologically. The mayor’s plan, if successful, could reduce Nashville’s poverty rate by 50 percent within the next decade. That plan is called Nashville’s Poverty Reduction Initiative, and consists of seven areas in which committees comprised of both public and private agencies will concentrate their efforts. •
Child care
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Economic opportunity
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Food
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Health care
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Housing
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Neighborhood development
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Workforce development.
Goodwill has taken the lead in helping to resolve a primary barrier for many of the area’s people in poverty: finding a job. In July, 2010, Betty Johnson, Goodwill’s vice president of employment services, was chosen to join the workforce development committee, and she then stepped up to lead the committee in January, 2011. Goodwill is partnering with fellow nonprofit organizations, government agencies, academic institutions, businesses and other sectors of the community to identify ways to connect more people in poverty to jobs in the Nashville community. Debbie Grant, development director for Career Solutions, has stepped in to serve on the workforce development advisory committee, which is a subcommittee.
In order to succeed, the plan’s implementation team originally recommended six action goals within workforce development: •
Provide a customer-friendly data base of employment and training opportunities
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Ask the Mayor to lead efforts to create pathways to better jobs, including such things as increased wages, benefits and stable jobs, as well as extended opportunities to access training and supportive services
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Develop a catalog of resources with respect to job navigation skills, education and job readiness
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Provide recommendations of best practices of training and education for job readiness
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Provide quarterly workshops for businesses on related topics in order to lower barriers and increase cultural sensitivity in the employment process
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Use the new Nashville Convention Center project as a pilot, indentify a career development model that exposes lowincome workers to sustainable employment opportunities while leveraging the availability of social services that mitigate career barriers created by generational poverty.
On the table now is a push to create and implement workshops that will educate the area’s business community about the groups of people who live in poverty, increasing awareness, reducing barriers and increasing cultural sensitivity. Johnson has led the process of developing the workshops, and Grant has assisted Johnson . Goodwill’s new David B. Lifsey Career Solutions Center will host the first of these community workshops, with the focus to be on individuals with criminal backgrounds. This initiative involves numerous other organizations including the Martha O’ Bryan Center, Urban League, New Beginnings, Project Return, the Homeless Commission and the Middle Tennessee Society for HR Management. Upcoming workshops will focus on mature workers, veterans, people with disabilities and immigrants. Mayor Dean urges businesses, residents, government agencies and community groups to stay involved as his ten-year plan to reduce poverty is developed and executed. Goodwill will continue to lead in helping to provide jobs, and job training to those in the community who are in need of our help.
“The government can’t end poverty on its own,” Mayor Dean said. “The solutions laid out in this plan take the entire community – both the public and private sectors. I am tasking Metro Social giveit2goodwill.org April - June 2011
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And the Winner is...? Goodwill
decor throughout a top
T
hey’re singing their hearts out hoping to become a singing sensation.
CMT’s Next Superstar, which airs on Country Music Television, was shot in and around Nashville in February and March. The 10 contestants, chosen after auditions throughout the country, lived together in a house in Franklin throughout the taping. What they didn’t know was much of the decor and many props throughout the house came from our Goodwill. The house, a whopping 8,400 square feet, needed to be transformed into a music-themed living space, to give the look and feel worthy of music superstars. That job went to Elaine Hensley, an art director with Art Dogs Props in Nashville, and she knew where she could find all that was needed to give the house the music touch. Goodwill! Hensley shopped at many of our stores throughout Middle and West Tennessee, and onlinegoodwill.com, to find the items that viewers see when they watch the show. The assortment of props
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CMT
reality show.
and decorative items Hensley bought from Goodwill include everything from guitars hanging on the walls to vintage music books and antique radios that are scattered throughout the house. “We had a tight budget and a specific decorating plan for this house,” said Hensley. “We wanted to maximize the coolness of the music theme, and when shopping at Goodwill, we knew we could get the most for our money.” Look closely when you watch the show for the green guitar that came from our Murfreesboro store. Hensley says it was a favorite with the contestants. Want to see if your donations made it on TV? CMT’s Next Superstar airs weekly on Friday nights at 8:00 p.m. Central Time.
Savings on the Go
T
here are always good deals at Goodwill, but now the deals are even better, and if you’re plugged into technology, some of those deals are just for you. Good Deals at Goodwill are exclusive savings coupons that can only be accessed by shoppers who sign up for them using a smartphone or computer.
Use your smart phone to scan this QR Code.
How does it work? There are three ways to save. •
Visit goodwill2go.com and sign up to begin receiving e-mails about exclusive savings at our stores.
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Are you a texter? Text the word, ‘Goodwill’, to 96362 and we’ll send you updates about the Good Deals at Goodwill.
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Have a smartphone? When you check out you’ll see a QR code at the register. The QR code, or Quick Response code, is read by your phone and takes you to a landing page where you’ll see the exclusive deal of the day..
A QR code is similar to UPC codes that are scanned when you check out at most stores including grocery stores, hardware stores and Goodwill. Enjoy savings while you’re on the go and get Great Deals at Goodwill. Save more and share the word that there’s even more to like about shopping at Goodwill. The mobile marketing exclusive savings are not valid with the Smart Card or at Goodwill’s outlet store.
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