Read Connie's Amazing Story:
Mission Moment
Connie visited the Selby Goodwill Job Connection office back in 2015. She was seeking employment because of a layoff from her job as a cashier at a grocery store that had gone out of business. Connie was facing many obstacles. She was newly-divorced, raising two kids as a single parent, and had no high school diploma nor any transportation.
Carlos met with Connie and asked a lot of questions. He helped her create an employment plan, which would serve as a playbook for her future success. The first thing the team decided to tackle was employment. Without a GED or transportation, Carlos knew that placing Connie would be something of a challenge. He was going to have to be creative and look for very specific opportunities.
One day, Carlos was visiting the local Boys and Girls Club for an Advisory Board Meeting. He learned that the Club was seeking an entry level employee for the front desk. Carlos immediately thought about Connie. He gave her a call and asked her if she could come back to the Job Connection office. When she came in, he told her about the job opening. Connie quickly applied and was hired!
That should have been the end to a happy story. However, when the pandemic arrived last year, Connie was once again part of a layoff.
Although the job market was tough in the early days of COVID-19, Connie refused to give up. She came into the Selby Job Connection office two or three times each week looking for job leads. Things were different for Connie this time around because she had acquired a few more tools in her toolbox. Now Connie had a GED and an independent means of transportation. She felt confident she would get a job much faster this time.
Carlos knew that Goodwill had received funding for security guard training. He asked Connie if she was interested – and she was. She applied for a job with a security company and got it, contingent upon her completing a one-week, 40-hour online security course. Connie wanted to pursue this opportunity but she had neither a computer nor internet access. The local libraries were all still closed. Carlos offered Connie the use of the Selby Goodwill computer lab for her training. She came into the office daily and completed the course as scheduled. Once she was finished, she went to work as a security monitor, working from home.
Connie has been working at her new job for the past three months. She is proud of herself and she really enjoys her new job. She is glad she can count on Goodwill to help her make lemonade whenever life hands her lemons. It is good to have that friend you can always count on right around the corner.
Changing lives through the power of work!