Impact > Transitional Employment Program
Project: Transitional Employment Program
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The first participants of Goodwill of El Paso’s Transitional Employment Program were a group of female public housing residents who had never held a job. They had never touched a computer and had never thought they could individually sustain themselves. The participants first sat in a classroom environment to learn basic skills and then moved on to receive work experience as cashiers at several of the Goodwill stores.
This program was developed with the intention of doing whatever it took to help the clients be successful. The program was modified, for example, when one of the participants told her Goodwill instructor of her dream of being a health promoter for a local non-profit clinic. The instructor taught her presentation and computer skills, as well as the traditional retail training that was standard for the participants. This woman completed her training and is now working at a clinic as a health promoter! The determined staff of Goodwill urged a local retail store to accept these trainees as interns in order to acquire outside work experience at their store. These outside businesses were not convinced. They wanted to know, “What could they do with staff who spoke little English?” The staff at Goodwill encouraged them by ensuring them that it would not cost them anything and they would be surprised at their level of competence. One of the successes was a woman who was hired on full time after her internship. She has been with that company for more than 2 years. |
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