Region's Goodwill Industries Assisted 7,263 Job Seekers in 2011

Sixty Kentites were among the 7,263 residents of Portage, Summit, Medina, Ashland and Richland counties who received job-search related assistance in 2011 from Goodwill Industries.

While Goodwill is best known for assisting individuals with disabilities and operating a well-established donation and resale operation, the agency has been in the business of meeting the needs of all job seekers for 85 years.

With the mission of helping individuals prepare for, find and retain employment, the nonprofit agency provided a variety of services to individuals looking for a new or better job, or the opportunity to advance toward gainful employment.

“We take pride in our commitment to help individuals prepare for, find and retain employment,” said Nan McClenaghan, Goodwill’s CEO and president. “We continually look for ways to increase and improve the services Goodwill offers."

Although not everyone who receives services from Goodwill is seeking immediate job placement assistance, the agency boasts a seven-year placement rate of 80 percent or better.

Also, its 90 percent retention rate for 2011 means that most of the 517 individuals Goodwill placed into jobs in 2011 were still on the job after 90 days, and it is probable that their employment will continue.

Goodwill’s impact on the local economy as the value of the first year’s wages of individuals placed was over $14 million – dollars that purchased food and services, and paid taxes in local communities.

Beginning in 2006, Goodwill began more formally measuring its satisfaction level of participants receiving services, and in each of the last five years, it has achieved at least 92 percent participant satisfaction.

It is also important to note that Goodwill’s business lines, which include its Contract Services and Retail Operations, are the training ground for many of the participants receiving services

More than 321 program participants worked within these business operations for a total of 120,553 hours gaining valuable skills and an enhanced feeling of confidence and self-worth to help them become more successful in relation to their employment goals.

Goodwill Industries would not have been able to achieve these service numbers without the support and encouragement from the public’s donations and its many referral sources and funding agencies.

Goodwill will formally present its service numbers with the release of its 2011 Annual Report at the agency’s 85th annual meeting at 5 p.m. March 29 at The Tangier in Akron.