Goodwill creating jobs on a recycling platform

Kitchener, Ontario – Goodwill Industries, Ontario Great Lakes is expanding, creating jobs for those who need them most, providing employment services to thousands of job seekers and helping to sustain the environment through reuse and recycling millions of pounds of donated goods.

Over 100 jobs have been newly created at Goodwill in Southwestern Ontario in the last 18 months.

Simply put Goodwill’s mission is WORK. We employ people who need work most such as those facing disability or social disadvantage …and we provide employment services to those seeking work in our community. Last year this regional Goodwill, one of seven in Canada serving Southwestern Ontario, employed 300 people and supported and trained another 5,000 individuals helping 1,500 achieve jobs and over 3,000 access training.

And as Goodwill achieves its primary goal of WORK, we also support the environment through recycling; provide access to affordable goods thereby helping families facing poverty; and strengthen communities because when people are working communities are working.

“I applaud Goodwill for its successful and innovative model of employment services and for being one of our community’s largest employers of persons with disabilities” John Milloy, MPP Kitchener-Centre

The latest addition to Goodwill’s large network of Career Centres, Community Stores and Donation Centres is the newly renovated and expanded Store and Donation Centre in Kitchener. This expansion was undertaken to provide more convenient access for donors, create jobs and enhance Goodwill’s social enterprise model. The Store is also celebrating its 10th Anniversary.

Kitchener’s Community Store employs 33 individuals and provides a multitude of placement and training opportunities for participants from agencies such as Ontario Works, Experience Matters, Ontario Youth Program and Boards of Education. This past year more than 200 individuals developed their work skills and potential at Goodwill in Kitchener.

The job creation potential at Goodwill looks bright. Goodwill is creating employment despite a challenging economy on the basis of an increasingly relevant mission – employing people who face employment barriers on a work platform which encourages reuse and recycling. The Kitchener Store demonstrates the direction Goodwill will take as it expands to a new location in Cambridge and eventually two more locations in the Waterloo Region and Wellington County with potential of creating up to 60 more jobs.

A partnership with the Region of Waterloo Waste Management Division enhances Goodwill’s capacity to divert from landfill and recycle millions of pounds of textiles and household goods.

Goodwill is a model example of a social enterprise that can unite caring and business and achieve outcomes for people, community and the environment” Mayor Carl Zehr, Kitchener Ontario

Since the beginning of the last century Goodwill has existed to create work opportunities, skills development and social integration for people facing disabilities and other barriers to employment.

Today, Goodwill is one of the largest operating charities in North America; the largest employer of persons facing disability and disadvantage and the largest non-profit provider of employment services. This $3.2 billion social enterprise has over 200 member Goodwills which last year, collectively, employed 88,000 people and served more than one million individuals – placing someone in a job approximately every 53 seconds.

Goodwill employs and serves those hardest to employ with an emphasis on building and strengthening the abilities of persons challenged by physical, mental, developmental, sensory, learning, addictions and other disabilities; and also workers in transition, the chronically unemployed, youth at risk, the aged, Aboriginal people, and newcomers.