[00:00:01] Speaker A: The journey Hometown Journal One of those
[00:00:03] Speaker B: things is we directly employ people in communities. We offer them positions in our stores. We develop them and help them find their path to where they want to be.
[00:00:12] Speaker C: Welcome to the Hometown Journal. I'm Mark Edwards. In our first segment, we're going to hear about Goodwill Industries of the valleys. When we think of Goodwill, we think about their stores. But the nonprofit is impacting communities beyond the stores. Cole Keister is the director of retail with Goodwill Industries.
Cole, what led you to working with Goodwill Industries?
[00:00:32] Speaker B: I started in our services department about 12 years ago. I had a real passion for helping folks in my community and Goodwill was a clear choice for me because they used employment to change people's lives. So the work that we do, we strive to empower individuals and strengthen families and then inspire our communities. That was a mission that I could get behind. Early on, I transitioned to our retail stores as a store manager and then I've worked in our e commerce department and other departments throughout the organization and have just slowly made my way to the director of retail.
[00:01:09] Speaker C: So many people know Goodwill because of the retail stores. But Cole, talk a little bit about the other things that Goodwill is involved in benefiting communities.
[00:01:21] Speaker B: Sure. That is one thing that I love to talk about. People often know our retail stores and they think that's all that we do is retail.
And through those retail stores we accomplish a lot of different things.
One of those things is we directly employ people in communities. We offer them positions in our stores, we develop them and help them find their path to where they want to be. We also are actively doing work that we fund through the sales of donated items in our retail stores in the Roanoke area through the Melrose Plaza, which is a community based hub in the northwest Roanoke area that addresses food insecurity, economic and financial barriers and then health inequities in education. It's the total package that a community needs and we're trying to be that for this community that was underserved for others, for our employees and then everyone else in the community. There are career navigation programs that is a free resource that helps job seekers to find work, build skills and reach personal goals. Our career navigators work one on one coaching these individuals, helping them build resumes, prepare them for job interviews and connect them job seekers with training programs. In our area, another thing that we do, we have been about sustainability before sustainability became a topic. We have always been about taking gently used items and reselling those to the community and giving them a second life. So we've been doing recycling for A really long time. And it is a huge part of what we do.
[00:02:51] Speaker C: And one of the newer partnerships when it comes to job training and education is with the Excel center in Roanoke.
[00:02:58] Speaker B: Yes, sir. The Excel center is. It's one of the things that I'm most proud of that we've started doing since I've been at Goodwill.
It is the first of its kind in the state of Virginia. It is an adult high school that's accredited. You get a real diploma, not just a ged.
And we actually had our first graduate through that program earlier this year.
[00:03:18] Speaker C: And so when somebody purchases an item at a Goodwill store, they are contributing to job training and benefiting the community.
[00:03:27] Speaker B: We strongly believe that through employment, people can develop the skills to go whatever path their life needs to take them. And we use our retail stores to train the people that work for us. But also the Career navigation program and MyCareerAdvisor, those are online resources that work, connect you with local folks that can help you, that can help individuals in the community with the coaching and building their resume and job interviews and things like that. We also offered internal development opportunities for the folks that work with us. That is the majority of where our work is done is in developing people for employment, preparing them for the process of becoming employed. And our goal is to help people become the best versions of themselves through employment.
[00:04:13] Speaker C: Well, Cole, before we wrap up this portion of the Hometown Journal, I know there's an event coming up at the Lynchburg area Goodwill stores. Tell us about that.
[00:04:22] Speaker B: We're holding a thrift savings event for our Lynchburg stores. Thrifters that shop all four of our Lynchburg Goodwill locations between August 28th and 30th will receive a 20% off coupon for a purchase that's made in September.
This thriftathon is what we're calling it is an exciting way to reward our thriftiest customers. All that people have to do is make a purchase at any of our four, or actually at all four of our Lynchburg locations.
They will get a punch card where they'll get a stamp at checkout.
Those locations are the Ward's Road location in Lynchburg, Timberlake Road, Forest Road and Madison Heights. Those locations are open from 10am to 7pm Monday through Saturday.
And on Sunday, we're open noon to six. So come in, make a purchase, collect a punch from each location and they will get a coupon for that 20% off a single purchase in September. And here's the biggest part of that. That's pretty awesome. Not only can they get the 20% off. But this coupon can be stacked with our Color of the Week and our dollar day anytime during the month of September. So it is an opportunity for folks to really save on the items that they look for all the time.
[00:05:32] Speaker C: Well, that gives you a little more insight to Goodwill Industries in our area. As a nonprofit organization, the stores are a vital source of Goodwill's impact in our communities. The website is goodwillvalleys.com that's goodwillvalleys.com My thanks to Cole Keister for being our guest, and thank you for joining us for the Hometown Journal.
[00:05:54] Speaker A: You've been listening to the Journey Hometown Journal if you're a part of an organization or know of one in the communities we serve and would like to be considered as a guest, please make your
[email protected] email officeyjourneyfm.com or call 800-424-9594. The Hometown Journal is a presentation of the Journey.
