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

Hi Everyone –

There has been so much happening this week! We are one of four Goodwills to receive the Young Adult Reentry Partnership grant which will allow us to serve young people involved with the criminal justice system age 18 to 24 with job training and placement with a special focus on recycling technology. Some of our program participants came back to work last week and we are happy to have them and their contagious positive energy back at Goodwill, and our new GoodWorks Certification Program began today, which helps walk-in clients work toward a certification from us in work readiness.

Some of the best news this week was that Friday Governor Whitmer made wearing masks mandatory. This is simply the best way we collectively have at this time of controlling the spread of a contagious and deadly disease and still have our economy operational. The Governor’s Order says that if you are out in public and inside, a mask must be worn. If you are outside and it is crowded, a mask also must be worn. There is a $500 fine and a misdemeanor charge possible for people who do not follow the order, and businesses can lose their licenses to operate if they allow people to be in their establishments without them. We have mandated masks all along, but one of our retail staff’s biggest concerns about returning to work was fear of dealing with a customer who was violently opposed to mask wearing. In the moment of dealing with such a customer, our staff members needed to have enough options to be able to do what they can to ensure their immediate safety, so we gave stores leeway on how they handled individual customers and allowed some customers to shop without a mask. This order takes away that option, but our shoppers should be ready to wear a mask everywhere they shop and I am hopeful that enforcement will be easier going forward. This action protects all of us.

In addition to the challenge of some customers not wanting to wear masks, retail has been challenged to keep store shelves full due to being understaffed, and we are beginning to deal with a country-wide shortage of coins. In spite of the challenges, we have gotten back into our bale rotation and stores are doing a great job of sending things to shopgoodwill where we have a record number of items listed for sale! I want to offer a special thanks to our staff at the North Holland store for welcoming back the Holland Employment and Training Center. They have made our staff and clients feel good about returning to this location and I am grateful for that during this stressful but positive transition.

And finally, I believe we are at a very special point in history, and I am thrilled that we have the opportunity to participate in positively moving the needle on racism. There is a different level of understanding about racism’s reality among white people than ever before, and we need to take advantage of this moment to very intentionally work towards the elimination of systemic racism.  The reason we talk about Black lives mattering is because theirs are the lives most at risk. That the life of every one of you matters — regardless of race, gender, religion, orientation, or ability — is presumed. Saying Black lives matter does not make your life matter less. We say it as a reminder that people who are Black are at highest risk of police violence, of death from COVID-19 because of systemic racism in the health system, of poor education outcomes because of systemic racism in the schools, and of poverty because of systemic racism in housing, employment, urban planning, and banking. There is data to support all of this. Our agenda in this space is tied to our vision: that everyone has a pathway to meaningful and sustaining work. In order to achieve this vision, we must remove individual and systemic barriers. One of the most devastating barriers to economic success and to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is systemic racism. We will do our own work to alleviate systemic racism at Goodwill even as we work more broadly in the community to remove this barrier. We will be consistent in our advocacy and commitment. 

If you find yourself chaffing against this very intentional effort, you may decide that Goodwill is not the right organization for you. If this is true, we will wish you Godspeed. But for all of you who are willing to learn, to understand the world from a perspective that is different than your own, and who want to be an active part of making this world a better place for every one of us to live and thrive, we have powerful work to do right now. We will absolutely make mistakes as we move forward, individually and collectively, but we will greet our mistakes as an opportunity to learn — to understand the harm caused and to make amends. As a result, we will grow together to better change lives through the power of work.

Have a great week!
Jeanette