Goodwill South Florida is a nonprofit organisation serving South Florida that provides employment, education, career coaching, vocational training and job-placement services for people with disabilities and other barriers to employment. Its programmes are funded by commercial businesses rather than grants: thrift and consignment retail, apparel manufacturing, and commercial laundry, cleaning and contracted services. Over the past decade the organisation has served more than 56,000 people and placed more than 11,000 individuals into jobs.
Its business enterprises operate at scale. The apparel arm produces complex military clothing and equipment, and the organisation is a certified provider under the AbilityOne Program and RESPECT of Florida, creating substantial employment for people who are blind or have significant disabilities. Retail and donation centres divert some 62 million pounds of waste from landfills annually. For those leaving uniformed service, the operating environments - logistics, manufacturing, contract services, retail operations and facilities work - draw on comparable discipline, compliance and supervisory experience.
Free career services and training cover digital skills, customer service, construction, logistics, food service, healthcare, hospitality and retail. Training includes immersive virtual-reality simulations for practising workplace scenarios. Mission services hold CARF accreditation. Further information is available at https://goodwillsouthflorida.org/.
