Goodwill Industries of Greater Cleveland and East Central Ohio, Inc.

Tell us about your organization.
Goodwill Industries of Greater Cleveland and East Central Ohio, Inc. serves Stark, Tuscarawas, Carroll, Harrison, Jefferson, Cuyahoga, Lake, and Geauga counties in Ohio as well as Brooke and Hancock counties in West Virginia. There are seven Mission offices and 26 retail locations, including outlet stores and bookstores. Donations made at our retail locations and donation centers supply customers with items to purchase. The funds generated by those sales enter the Mission Department to support employment programs, social services, parenting skills training, rape crisis services and other outreach efforts.

How can someone access your services/resources? Are their eligibility requirements?
Goodwill has 30 mission programs that serve our area. While some programs have eligibility requirements, there are some that do not have specific criteria to be eligible. For example, Employment G.P.S. (Goals. Planning. Support.) is open to anyone who has an employment or training goal. At the Ken Weber Community Campus at Goodwill, there are walk-in days, in which the social service coordinator helps people from the community get connected to programs and resources and makes referrals to agencies and organizations. This happens every Tuesday and Thursday in Stark County, with no appointment necessary. Walk-in days are also starting in partnership with OhioMeansJobs at the New Philadelphia Store where people can speak with the social service coordinator and someone from OhioMeansJobs. Anyone can email mission@goodwillgoodskills.org to get additional information about programs offered at Goodwill.

How do we access more information about your organization and any special events/initiatives?
Our website, http://www.goodwillgoodskills.org/, is a great resource, highlighting our upcoming events and additional information about mission programs, retail locations, as well as agency information.

What is a successful outcome for your organization? How can the OhioMeansJobs centers help meet your goals?
At Goodwill, we’re about meeting people where they are and elevating their skill sets to help them find success in a job, whatever that may look like for them. We find success in being able to expand our impact throughout the communities we serve. One way we do this is by partnering with agencies such as OhioMeansJobs to find ways to better serve people and give them a hand up, not a handout. Partnerships such as this help build a presence in the community and meet more people we can potentially serve.
You can find an OhioMeansJobs Center rep at the Goodwill Kent Weber Community Campus (Stark) every Tuesday from 10AM-2PM and at the Goodwill in New Philadelphia the second Wednesday of each month from 1PM-3PM.