Thursday, September 25, 2008
Goodwill expands building, outreach
Kyle Green | The Roanoke Times
With financial assistance from Goodwill, Reva Spencer was able to finish her accelerated nursing program. She now works at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Salem.
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Shanna Flowers is The Roanoke Times' metro columnist.
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Last year, bargain hunters from Harrisonburg to Wytheville shelled out more than $22 million in Goodwill stores.
Although selling donated goods accounted for nearly 62 percent of Goodwill's income, the agency always has been more than a place to pick up a $4 dress or an $11 suit.
The mission of Goodwill is to change lives.
Now, as the organization expands its purpose, it sits poised to change a neighborhood in Northwest Roanoke.
Today, officials with Goodwill Industries of the Valleys will announce a $7.7 million project to renovate its headquarters and create a one-stop Job Development Center on its 10-acre site at the corner of Melrose Avenue and 24th Street.
"We think it's time for us to be a player in the neighborhood," said Bruce Phipps, president and chief executive of Goodwill, which has been at the location since 2004. The nonprofit, which had been leasing its space there, bought the parcel and its two buildings totaling 98,000 square feet in August 2007.
Clients will be able to undergo career testing at the job campus and return to the same site for training in the medical and retail professions. The multimillion-dollar project is good news for an area too often ignored as a viable place for large economic investment. (Nearby homeowners still await a chain grocery store.)
Putting a job training center in a neighborhood where the annual per capita income is less than $12,000 will reduce transportation worries for residents who will be able to walk or take a quick bus ride to learn new skills and a shot at a better life.
Also, the upgrade of an established and well-known organization such as Goodwill can be a catalyst for bringing more customers, business and development into an area already teeming with independently owned barbershops, hair salons, eateries and some retail.
"It has such a positive impact, not just on this corridor but on the labor force. We give people hope," said marketing vice president Jim Shaver.
To many Roanokers (including me), Goodwill represents a great place to shop for quality secondhand clothes and household goods.
Others know that the organization for years has offered workplace centers for mentally disabled clients.
But the agency does much more than that.
Last year, its four main facilities -- Roanoke, Rocky Mount, Staunton and Radford -- served 31 counties, 14 cities and 10,815 clients. A growing aspect of Goodwill's mission is helping those and other workers become self-sufficient.
Different programs cater to the employment needs of youth, who hold part-time jobs after school, of adults looking to enter the work force and of laid-off workers who need new skills.
Reva Spencer already was enrolled in nursing courses at ECPI when she came to Goodwill in January 2007.
A widow, Spencer was having trouble making ends meet. Through its Workforce Investment program, Goodwill gave Spencer a $100 weekly stipend and paid her electricity bill.
She finished her accelerated nursing program in November and today is a licensed practical nurse at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Salem.
"I had some challenges to overcome because of the death of my husband," said Spencer, who says she is "over 50" and the mother of two adult children.
"It was time for me to pull myself up by my bootstrap. For whatever reason, God let them find me," she said of Goodwill.
Spencer is one of the 426 people Goodwill helped train and land a job last year. Additionally, the agency's work force efforts allowed 300 people to reduce their reliance on at least one form of public assistance.
"Goodwill is evolving," Phipps said. "We continue to work with people with disabilities, but we see a greater need as well."
To expand its outreach, Goodwill will begin renovations next month on the old Kmart building that has been its home for four years.
The $7.7 million project's price tag includes the $3.4 million the agency paid for property and the buildings last year. The organization hopes to have the job center open next fall.
Industrial bonds of $6.4 million will cover many of the costs, and private, corporate, foundation and government support will cover the others.
The new facilities will total 103,000 square feet, up from the 50,000 square feet the organization occupies now. Until June, the remainder was leased to a heating and air conditioning business.
On the parcel's northern tip, just inside the driveway off Melrose, Goodwill in August renovated and opened the only Goodwill retail store in the city.
It will serve as an on-the-job training site for clients interested in retail.
In addition to classrooms and computer labs, the Job Development Center will have space for social service agencies, college recruiters and others to meet with clients.
"I just see the entire community being energized by this," Shaver said.
