Written by: Meredith Canfield & Ted Mosey, GIHFH staff
Over the years, Habitat has enjoyed a great relationship with Goodwill of Central and Southern Indiana. Several Habitat homeowners originally found out about our program while working at Goodwill, participating in Nurse-Family Partnership (including Mansa!), or at the Excel Center. One of our longtime board members is Zaida Monell, who spends her days as a Goodwill executive. Our relationship is tied together by our combined passion to offer a life-changing hand-up that empowers people to reach their potential.
Recently, we built on our relationship by getting out of the office and doing a volunteer-swap of sorts! Together with Goodwill employees, Habitat employees spent the day at a Goodwill Outlet reaching into bins or containers to sort through items like donated clothes, books or shoes looking for gently used pieces that would be sold at a nearby Goodwill store, Vintage Vogue or Outlet store. We learned that the revenue generated by the sale of these items help create opportunities to improve the health, education or employment of individuals, just like the very employees standing next to us in the back of the warehouse. Many of us have shopped at Goodwill stores ourselves but didn’t really know the impact behind our purchases! It was fun working right alongside the employees of Goodwill, learning from them and hearing how Goodwill has impacted their lives. You know the saying, “someone’s trash can be someone else’s treasure”? Well, our team truly learned how the purchase of someone’s once unwanted belongings are bringing a life of new treasures to someone else’s!
The following week, Goodwill employees spent a day with paint brushes in their hands on a Habitat build on the Southside of Indy. Kent Kramer, Goodwill CEO, as well as Zaida Monell and other teammates worked alongside Sharna to help her achieve her dream of homeownership.
Collaboration is key and we are thankful for partners like Goodwill that are working alongside of our team to make Indy a stronger and more equitable place to live and work!
