Dignity
Achievement
Independence
Success
Empowered
Growth Self Confidence
Self Relience
Opportunity Respect
Annual Report 2009-2010
People with disabilities constitute the nation's largest minority group, and
the only group any of us can become a member of at any time. Approximately 54 million Americans have at least one disability. As our baby boomer population ages and more veterans return from war, this number will double in the next 20 years.
Fiscal Year 2009-2010 Outcomes • Good Vocations/Goodwill Industries, in conjunction with NISH and the AbilityOne Program, has been training and placing individuals with disabilities into meaningful jobs at Robins Air Force Base for more than 29 years and at Fort Gordon for more than 15 years • Provided over 130,000 training hours to jobseeking clients, most with severe disabilities
• Last year, commissary workers stocked over 1.3 million cases of groceries at Robins Air Force Base and Fort Gordon
• Clean over 5.5 million square feet per day at Robins Air Force Base and Fort Gordon
Goodwill has been training and placing individuals with disabilities into meaningful jobs at Robins Air Force Base for more than 29 years and at Fort Gordon for more than 15 years. There are currently 190 employees and trainees at Robins Air force Base and Fort Gordon. Without Good Vocation’s help, any of these individuals could be one of the more than 21 million people with disabilities nationwide who are not working. Since 1998, Good Vocations , an autonomous subsidiary of Goodwill of Middle Georgia and the CSRA, has provided job skills training for individuals with disabilities. This training helps people with barriers to employment prepare for jobs that provide good wages, good benefits, and lead to greater independence and quality of life. SM
Good Vocations creates training programs to meet specific needs of the employer. Most employment opportunities are made possible through job contracts at federal facilities and procured through the AbilityOne Program – the largest single source of employment for people with disabilities in the United States. SM
Trainees receive paid training, equitable wages, and opportunities for advancement in positions producing products and services for federal customers, such as Robins Air Force Base in Warner Robins and Fort Gordon in Augusta. Jobs cover a wide range of service sectors including, custodial services, manufacturing and assembly work, stocking, fleet services, vehicle retro-fitting, and warehousing. It has been an honor to lead the board of Good Vocations this past year. Your support to our organization ensure that we will be able to grow our services and programs to people with disabilities.. Everyone deserves the opportunity to work. Thank you for helping us provide this chance.
Jonathan Alderman Board Chair Good Vocations, Inc.
The mission of Good VocationsSM is to build lives, families and communities –one job at a time– by helping people
discover and develop their God-given gifts through work and career development services.
Vivian Wilson
• 69% of Americans who are blind or have a significant disability do not have jobs
• People with disabilities are most at risk with regards to employment
• Americans with disabilities want to work and only need the opportunity to make that happen
Fort Gordon
Vivian had been battling severe arthritis, degenerative joint disease and carpel tunnel and looking for work for nearly three years before she was hired by Good Vocations in July of 1999. Her lack of transportation and reliable child care hampered her search efforts, and she was hopeless with no means to help herself or her children. Through DFACS, Vivian learned about training classes offered by Goodwill. The skills she acquired through these classes prepared her for a job with Good Vocations at Fort Gordon Commissary. Hopelessness was transformed to confidence and pride as Vivian was able to apply new skills and earn a living to support herself and her family. Vivian says her two children were "thrilled" with her employment, and they are so proud of her accomplishment.
Today Vivian is a Lead Worker whose goals are to keep working and to achieve her very best. She says a life of independence is so much better than having to depend on others. Vivian loves the opportunity that her job provides to help others who are in training at Fort Gordon. Vivian says working is important and takes away the worry of not being able to take care of yourself. According to Vivian, "Goodwill gives you a chance no matter how bad life may seem. Simply trust in yourself, and Goodwill will be a barrier breaker."
Wilbert Johnson
Robins Air Force Base A bad economy and bad knees kept Wilbert Johnson out of the workforce for 16 months. His life was hard and seemed unfair. Hired by Good Vocations as a Lead Worker in September of 2009, Wilbert is now a vital member of a successful custodial team at Warner Robins Air Force Base. Wilbert learned of Goodwill services from other Goodwill employees and says his job has provided a stable income and has also given him an opportunity to set future goals to achieve with Good Vocations. Wilbert says he sees his job as a career, and he hopes to become a Project Manager. Employment has helped Wilbert to strengthen life and communications skills. He loves the benefit of an extended family through his work at Robins Air Force Base. In Wilbert's words, "Goodwill offers a lot of great things for people who need help and people who need to change their way of life". Wilbert's former life of hardship has been transformed by determination and achievement.
“Ability One� Contract Site Listings:
Robins Air Force Base Custodial
Commissary Contract at Robins Air Force Base
At Robins Air Force Base in Warner Robins, GA,
Good Vocations provides competitive professional
custodial services to the majority of the buildings at
At Robins Air Force Base in Warner
Robins Air Force Base in Warner Robins, GA. This
Vocations provides
80,000 square feet of cleaning space and employed
contract started 22 years ago with one building with
Robins, GA, Good
about 18 persons with severe disabilities; today this
warehousing, receiving,
contract has grown to 280 buildings, with over 4 million
shelf stocking and
square feet of cleaning space and employs over 110
custodial services.
This contract began
its 29th year on April 30, 2010, it employs 34 people, most of whom have severe disabilities.
people, most of whom have severe disabilities.
Fort Gordon Custodial and Day Care Center
Commissary Contract at Fort Gordon
Good Vocations is responsible for cleaning over 100
Good Vocations provides warehousing, receiving,
shelf stocking, and custodial services at Fort Gordon
in Augusta, GA. This contract has been successful
for 14 years and employs 28 people, most of whom
government buildings as well as the Day Care Center
located at Fort Gordon in Augusta, GA. This contract began August 2, 2010 and employs 45 people, most
of whom have severe disabilities.
have severe disabilities.
Good Vocations has grown in the last fourteen years from $670k to over $8 million in revenue and a workforce growing from 49 persons to over 200.
2010 Good Vocations Board of Directors Jonathan Alderman (Chair) Anderson, Walker & Reichert, LLP
Kathy Bowden Macon-Bibb County Industrial Authority
Paul Hart R.A. Bowen Construction
Jonathan Martin Constangy, Brooks, and Smith LLP
Robert Morton (Vice Chair) Secure Health Plans of GA, LLC
Beverly McCullough (Secretary/Treasurer) Bibb County Schools Workforce Development
Raymond H. Smith, Jr. (Past Chair) Smith, Brown, & Groover Inc.
Good VocationsSM is managed by Goodwill Industries of Middle Georgia, Inc.