Know the Good: Goodwill Industries of Kentucky
Every September, hundreds of local organizations that participate in Give for Good Louisville make a tremendous impact on our Kentuckiana community. One organization, Goodwill Industries of Kentucky, is not only celebrating its centennial anniversary this year, but they are changing the economic landscape for many residents in our region.
The nonprofit is making its largest mission-related investment in its history by establishing the Norton Healthcare Goodwill Opportunity Campus at 28th Street and Broadway in West Louisville, a nine-neighborhood community where the median household income is $21,000. Many of its 65,000 mostly African-American residents are underserved with limited employment opportunities.
The Norton Healthcare Goodwill Opportunity Campus will house its headquarters operations and a 124,000-square-foot comprehensive resource center, known as the Opportunity Center, that is expected to serve more than 50,000 individuals each year. In addition to housing Goodwill’s social services and programs, the Opportunity Center will include Big Brothers/Big Sisters, KentuckianaWorks, Volunteers of America, Park Community Credit Union, the Kentucky College of Barbering, University of Louisville School of Dentistry, Legal Aid Society, and the YMCA of Greater Louisville as co-located partners. In a separate building on the campus, Norton Healthcare will open its first hospital in West Louisville in more than 150 years.
Goodwill will collaborate with other social services agencies on the campus to provide job training, youth mentoring, soft skills training, restorative justice programs, free grooming, expungement services, second-chance banking, free drop-in childcare, dental services, and a community cafeteria for residents in the area.
The Opportunity Campus has an expected annual economic impact of $18.7 million in West Louisville. It is expected to bring more than 300 full-time jobs to West Louisville with average salaries of approximately $60,000. The Opportunity Center on the campus is expected to help place more than 600 job seekers into full-time employment with businesses throughout the region that pay a minimum of $13 per hour.
By the end of its centennial anniversary year, Goodwill will also have established ten additional Opportunity Centers across the Commonwealth, located in Bowling Green, Corbin, Elizabethtown, Lexington, East Louisville, South Louisville, Morehead, Paducah, Pikeville, and Somerset.
In 2022, the services offered at Goodwill’s Opportunity Centers touched more than 20,000 individuals. Goodwill helped place 2,368 Kentuckians into jobs with 877 of its employer partners and inside its own retail stores. Participants placed with employer partners earned an average wage of $14.29. Through its Expungement Program, more than 2,500 individuals had their records expunged. Last year, Goodwill reinvested 77.7% of its revenue – $85 million – in its programs and services.
Goodwill – an annual participant of the Community Foundation of Louisville’s Give for Good Louisville, a day of generous support for local nonprofits – has had a mission to serve the underserved. In 2023, it’s taking a bold approach to take that mission to new heights. From Goodwill to its shoppers, donors, and supporters, thank you for helping the nonprofit help others for 100 years.
To learn more about Goodwill’s impact in the community, visit GoodwillKY.org