Goodwill helps train, place area workers

Goodwill does even moregood in NWA communities

Kellye Beavers (left), Career Services NWA manager, and Tina Reeves, administrative assistant, set up a projector for a presentation inside the center in Rogers. One store in Springdale was Goodwill’s only presence in 2008. Five retail stores, five career centers and three donation spots now operate in the area.
Kellye Beavers (left), Career Services NWA manager, and Tina Reeves, administrative assistant, set up a projector for a presentation inside the center in Rogers. One store in Springdale was Goodwill’s only presence in 2008. Five retail stores, five career centers and three donation spots now operate in the area.

Goodwill Industries of Arkansas helped more than 2,200 people in Northwest Arkansas find jobs in its last fiscal year, the group's leader said recently.

Brian Itzkowitz, Goodwill Industries of Arkansas president and CEO, updated community leaders on the nonprofit organization's growth at the Rogers store and career center.

By the Numbers

Goodwill Industries of Arkansas

$31 million in revenue

800 Goodwill employees

15,790 people served statewide

4,540 people served in Northwest Arkansas

4,270 statewide job placements

2,130 Northwest Arkansas job placements

Source: Goodwill Industries of Arkansas

Northwest Arkansas was the metropolitan statistical area with the lowest unemployment rate in the state in June at 4.2 percent. The metropolitan statistical area comprises Benton, Washington and Madison counties in Arkansas and McDonald County, Mo. There were 10,633 people unemployed in the area in June.

"We've had explosive growth in Northwest Arkansas," Itzkowitz said. One store in Springdale was Goodwill's only presence when he became CEO in 2008. Five retail stores, five career centers and three donation spots now operate in the area.

Goodwill had $31 million in revenue in the last fiscal year that ended June 30, and 96 percent of the nonprofit's budget comes from sales in its retail stores, he said.

Staci Croom-Raley, vice president of workforce development statewide for Goodwill, said the group introduced the two programs first that it felt would best serve the needs of Northwest Arkansas: career services centers and transitional employment opportunities.

Career centers provide free placement services to people seeking jobs in this area. Services include helping clients assess career goals, prepare resumes and cover letters, find prospective employers and prepare for interviews.

The employment opportunity program is for adults with nonviolent and nonsexual criminal offenses who want to reintegrate into their communities. Participants work at various jobs at Goodwill during a 16-week training program while they search for employment.

Tina Reeves of Garfield spent 22 days in the Benton County Jail and is serving five years of probation after accepting a plea deal on drug charges. She denies any involvement in the drugs that got her arrested last year and is a first-time offender.

"After I got out of jail, I was hitting everywhere trying to find a job. I kept getting told, 'No, you are a felon,'" she said.

She started work at the Rogers store on April 13 and now helps operate a career center. With her last day in the program approaching and no job prospects yet, Croom-Raley was trying to extend her time in the program.

"I am trying to find something administrative," Reeves said.

Croom-Raley said more than 40 people have completed the employment opportunity program in Northwest Arkansas.

Nick Robbins, Pathway to Freedom re-entry specialist, said he hopes to find more ways to work with Goodwill. His area includes Northwest Arkansas and the Fort Smith area. Pathway to Freedom is an 18-month pre-release residential program that has a contract with the Arkansas Department of Correction. The unit in Wrightsville houses 200 men who attended classes four days a week to prepare for their release.

Robbins said he would like the inmates to work with Goodwill's transitional program during the last six months of their sentence so they have solid footing when they get out.

The Transitional Employment Opportunity program gives released inmates a job that is not labor intensive, he said.

"It has a high teaching component, and it would be really good for our guys to have that one-on-one access," Robbins said.

Other programs Goodwill operates in the Little Rock area that it intends to eventually bring to Northwest Arkansas include:

Horizons, a job training program designed for Autistic adults. The program started two years ago in Little Rock and Croom-Raley hopes to have one in Northwest Arkansas within the next 12 months.

The Academy at Goodwill is certified by the Arkansas State Board of Private Career Education and offers eight- to 10-week courses leading to certifications or credential. Discussion are ongoing with local educational institutions about program coordination. No timeline has been set for a local program.

Adult Charter High School will start next year in Little Rock. The program helps some of the more than 300,000 Arkansans who don't have a diploma meet that milestone. Croom-Raley said plans are to eventually open another charter in Northwest Arkansas.

"We want to be responsive to community needs," she said. "Our services are not cookie cutter."

Christie Swanson can be reached by email at [email protected].

NAN Profiles on 08/16/2015

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