Description
GoodwillSolac was established in 1929 in response to the great depression, which brought an increased focus to the thousands of people out of work and to people with disabilities. In 1945 GoodwillSolac responded to GI's returning from World War II to train, find jobs and assimilate back into a peacetime economy. Today, GoodwillSolac serve individuals with barriers to employment in a highly populated, culturally diverse and growing community. GoodwillSolac's main facility is located at 800 West Pacific Coast Highway and houses its administrative offices, training programs, processing operations and transportation fleet.
GoodwillSolac operates 17 brick and mortar retail operations, Shopgoodwill.com, its e-commerce operations, and LiNKS Sign Language & Interpreting Services, and Shred-4-Good, its document shredding business. GoodwillSolac operates twenty-seven owned, leased or partnered sites (retail stores, attended donation centers, and workforce development programs) within the southern Los Angeles County area.
GoodwillSolac believes that putting people to work not only benefits the individual but also the communities' economic vitality through taxes, spending power, real estate values, quality of life, and relief to social services and welfare systems. Goodwill, Serving the People of Southern Los Angeles County provides job training, education and job placement services for residents in the City of Long Beach, surrounding communities including, Artesia, Bellflower, Cerritos, Lawndale, Manhattan Beach (South of Rosecrans), Redondo Beach, Torrance, Carson, Avalon, Hermosa Beach, Hawaiian Gardens, Hawthorne (South of Rosecrans), Lakewood, Lomita, Palos Verdes, San Pedro, Wilmington,Paramount, Norwalk, Gardena (South of Rosecrans) and Compton (South of Rosecrans). barriers to employment such as displaced older workers, welfare recipients, at-risk older youth, people with disabilities, and people who are experiencing homelessness. Goodwill's job training programs are developed to provide individuals with skill sets (both soft skills and technical skills) that lead to jobs that are in demand in growth industries.
Currently, Goodwill operates an Allied Healthcare Training Program and a Customer Services Training Program. The Allied Healthcare program provides classroom and clinical practicum training that qualifies the individuals to take the State of California Certified Nurses Assistant exam and other healthcare related tests. The Customer Services Training Program, also known as Project M.O.V.E. (More Opportunities for Vocational Employment), provides classroom and hands-on experience that teaches the individuals skills to be successful across a wide variety of jobs in the customer service industry.
Goodwill provides many of its workforce development services at its main site in Long Beach. Additionally, these services are also provided at various southern Los Angeles County sites such as the Long Beach Multi-Service Center (serving the homeless community), the Long Beach Career Transition Center (primarily serving the disability community and at-risk older youth), and at the Carmelitos Housing Community (serving low-income adults).
Goodwill also provides a Supported Employment Program that assists individuals with developmental disabilities find employment with various companies in the manufacturing, hospitality, retail, warehousing, and product manipulating industries. This program allows for a group of three to four people to work at a company site to fulfill contract services at the company's specifications while also assisting the company in meeting its "bottom line". This program layers in a Job Coach to supervise the group at no extra charge to the company.
Goodwill works with a wide cross section of employers and industries to make sure their needs are met by individuals referred by the Goodwill workforce development professionals. A satisfied employer network is Goodwill's number one priority towards creating more job opportunities that lead to economic self-sufficiency for southern Los Angeles County residents.
