Goodwill’s East Athens Career Center is a part of the Goodwill North Georgia network that has served as a starting place for job seekers for the past 19 years.
“We’re synonymous with ‘thrift store’ and people know that,” Jenny Taylor, vice president of career services and chief mission officer at Goodwill North Georgia, said. “They don’t know the rest of the story.”
The location off of Lexington Road provides support for a variety of professions as it sees needs arise in the community. As one of the 14 locations across the region, it shares some programs and positions common across the network, but has pathways and certificates that are based on local needs.
Wesley Chenoweth, CEO of Grizzly Delivery LLC., came to Athens from New York in 2015. He ran Grizzly Delivery in New York, but his limited business knowledge made the venture unsuccessful.
Someone at the Athens-Clarke County Library told him about the programs offered through Goodwill, which led him to visit and sign up for the GoodBIZ! Program. The 12 to 15-week intensive allows individuals to access a variety of resources and take courses relating to all aspects of starting a business.
“All the skills that I learned from that class, I utilized in starting my business, all the research of the industry, reaching out to competition, doing customer discovery, hearing from the actual community what the needs are … and I had all these ideas,” Chenoweth said. “ I didn’t know which one to go with. So the feasibility plan helped me to narrow down my ideas and figure out what the need of the community is that I was actually capable of doing.”
His business has begun to expand: hiring more employees, donating to charities in the community and mentorships with up-and-coming entrepreneurs. He is also now a registered vendor with the University of Georgia for transportation.
Goodwill’s GoodBIZ! Program is one of the many offered. Other programs include work-based learning with training stipends and also take place over a shorter period of time to ensure that trainees can enter the workforce soon after. For example, they can learn how to weld or hold a career in supply chain management.
The career center also houses a Financial Opportunity Center. Programming will include helping people with their credit, building savings and wealth and learning how to file earned income tax credits, along with homebuyer workshops.
“We want people who may have been struggling with unemployment or low income, now that you’re stable and moving towards success,” Taylor said. “We want generational wealth, particularly for people of color to start to build, and one of the best ways to do that is homeownership.”
According to Taylor, 76.8% of people involved in career center programs become employed following the completion of the course. Taylor says that the center requires a lot of proof that candidates are motivated to work before they enroll in these types of programs, which helps to ensure this high completion rate.
“We have a long-standing relationship with UGA for interns from the School of Social Work … We host a lot of master’s and bachelor’s degree students at Goodwill and so because of the proximity, we get a lot in Athens and many choose to stay on and to work for us after they complete,” Taylor said. “And so we have a very highly credentialed team because so many people graduate and then just want to live in Athens because it’s so great.”
The Goodwill Career Center in East Athens continues to offer programming on a monthly basis. Information about current initiatives can be found by visiting in person or visiting their website.
