Goodwill West Texas Expands Services in the Concho Valley

SAN ANGELO,TX — The grand re-opening and expansion was celebrated despite the drizzle.  I spoke with Kevin, CEO of Goodwill West Texas, and learned about the 5th Goodwill established in west Texas and second career center.  Once a bank building, later a garage, the location at 2301 Sherwood Way has had its doors open since 1996.  Recently they gave the current building a facelift, worked on removing in building obstacles like a fireplace and are repaving the donation driveway and parking lot, investing in the location to help it grow in expanded function as a vocational training center for minors and adults.

The program at the career center is now open for a limited capacity, but they expect it to be fully functional by January 2018.  The building connected to the one San Angelo is familiar with as a thrift store is marked with a mural created by a local artist and boosts the "Smiling G" logo in blue on blue. While you may not always see what everyone has to offer, it is it always near at hand.  Once inside, there is an intake area, a fully outfitted computer room and a classroom for classes that will assist those who need training in vocational skills to receive what they need to harness their skill sets and gain employment. 

The most impressive point Kevin made was that $0.87 out of every dollar made or donated is spent on these programs.  Also,  the retail store is a driver for their mission to assist those in communities who need it.  What donations cannot be used in the retail store go to recycling, even computers.  Goodwill has a program through Dell where they intake computer donations and send them to Dell.  Then Dell uses those in various capacities to make plastic bags, wipe clean and renew computers, send computers to third world locations so they can receive vocational training. Even the gold and silver from the motherboards are melted down into bars and sold to pay for labor to deliver, install and train on that computer use and classroom set up.

It is amazing what they are doing down the street, so go donate those things hiding in your closet, and ask about their great programs designed and financed to support our community, San Angelo.