Goodwill Industries of East Texas, Inc.’s ReEntry Program provides soft-skills, job training and job placement services to increase employment opportunities for formerly incarcerated, non-violent individuals.

Serving a re-entry population, 73% male and 27% female, the ReEntry Program strives to ensure long-term positive outcomes. Goodwill serves a diverse population, 11% Black, 9% Latino, 5% Multiracial, and 73% white, with ages ranging from 16 to 65+. The re-entry participants ages served are: 32% 16-24, 32% 25-44, 27% 45-64, and 9% age 65+.

Among the success stories is Sam who was referred to the Youth Academy by Goodwill’s Human Resources after applying for a position in Retail. At that point in his life, he had never held a job, and Goodwill believed their Youth Academy could offer him paid training and an opportunity to learn the skills necessary for the position of production associate. After being accepted into the Academy, Sam was enrolled in the Work Adjustment Training program (WAT). While in WAT, Sam worked hard to learn the necessary skills needed for the production position. He received support from the WAT staff as well as retail management. The Employment Services staff assisted Sam in completing Job Readiness and Financial Literacy sessions. He was then asked to interview with the retail manager. The manager was impressed by his work ethic and offered him a full-time position as a production associate. Sam began his job as a production associate on January 18, 2021. Sam stated that he is thankful and appreciative of the assistance that Mission Services offered him. With the knowledge he received in the financial literacy session, he was able to work and save money and now Sam has successfully enrolled in a college in Alabama and is currently playing basketball for his school’s team.

To date, the ReEntry Program has served 134 re-entry individuals, which reflects a 103.03% increase from the projected number of 66 participants to be served by the end of the project. The program has met projected benchmarks for the grant period, exceeding goals. To truly illuminate the successes these individuals have accomplished, Goodwill noted that the re-retry participants offer their services in an array of positions ranging from entry-level to managerial. Further, Goodwill is committed to reaching out to the community members in need of the re-entry services. For example, they were recently interviewed on-air:

You can read the full article at https://www.ketk.com/community/east-texas-live/goodwill-industries-shares-about-their-re-entry-program-for-men-women/.