Helping people prepare for, find, and keep good jobs is what Goodwill is about.

Hi Everyone –

As always, there are so many great things going on at Goodwill:

·       Help me welcome Joe Gordon as our new Ignite Case Manager and Ashley Cooke as our new Job Coach! Also beginning next week is our new Tri-Share Hub Manager, Catrina Rule. We are so fortunate to have some great people joining our team.

·       We are busy planning a reset for our Allendale store coinciding with our newly signed lease for that location.

·       We also signed the lease on our new SOUTH HOLLAND STORE! Finally, we will be in a location and store that is consistent with our brand and good for our employees and customers. Renovations will begin soon at the new site.

·       The YMCA/Goodwill Learning Center will open to serve children on June 1! Families can begin enrolling soon!

·       One of our GoodWorks clients was placed in a position at Lowe’s which is where he wanted to work when he came to us! This program works – tell your friends.

·       We completed our Year Two United Way presentations for Newaygo, Muskegon, and Oceana on our VITA program results. Carl, Kiesha, and Mikaela did a great job.

·       Our CARF accreditation site visit is this week, and although it will be held remotely, it is still a lot of work for HR, workforce development, Ron B., and more. Please keep them in your thoughts!

·       The Leadership Team finished our first quarter review of the annual plan and our key performance indicators. We are on track to have a great year, and we keep getting better at managing to data, understanding what we do well, and moving forward in achieving our strategic pillars through annual planning.

·       We finished the taping of our Achievers of the Year 2019-2020 awards and it is now available online for you to view. Congratulations to our own Kawan Payne!

·       Textile Job Certification for retail staff is in pilot testing. Thanks to all of you who are helping us trial this new process.

·       E-commerce is expanding into the old electronics disassembly room at the ROC, as our sales continue to increase.

·       Our second plastics granulator was delivered last week which will expand our sustainability efforts and training opportunities.

The news is overwhelmingly positive and full of opportunity, growth, and community impact. Keep up the great work.

COVID numbers continue to be alarming, although they are coming down a little from the most recent peak. Stay strong and wear your masks, wash your hands, keep your distance, and GET A VACCINE. We are all craving the time when this is not a threat to our collective health and well-being and at this time, the vaccine is our best chance to achieve this. If there is any barrier you have to getting one that Goodwill can help eliminate, we would love to! Let us know how we can help by calling Jamie Barmes in Human Resources. 

Be well, all of you –

Jeanette