Strategically Positioning Goodwill Industries of Central Texas

“This report assesses current programs and services through multiple approaches. The Ray Marshall Center conducted a qualitative process analysis of workforce development services and a quantitative outcomes analysis of employment and earnings to examine the value and effectiveness of employment and supportive services in the Job Source Services, Community Rehabilitation Programs, and Youth Services departments of Goodwill’s Workforce Development Services division.

These programs serve challenged populations, including the homeless, physically or mentally impaired individuals, criminal offenders, non‐custodial parents, and youth who are at‐risk or have not completed secondary education, as well as persons who face language or other barriers to employment. Center researchers also elicited insights from informed community professionals — including researchers, advocates, policy advisers, foundation leaders, and program administrators — about Goodwill’s current program contributions and ways to improve them, as well as opportunities for introducing new offerings. Additionally, researchers scanned innovative and notable programs at Goodwill agencies throughout the nation that may be applicable to setting promising new directions for GICT. Informed by these multiple research approaches, Center researchers formulated hypothetical scenarios integrating observations and options from the research for Goodwill and its stakeholders to consider. In sum, this report is intended to help guide Goodwill’s strategic positioning process as it advances beyond this initial phase and moves toward planning and design phases” (p.viii). (Abstractor: Author)

• “The workforce services and outcomes analyses document Goodwill’s efforts at helping disadvantaged workers connect to jobs, as well as the modest earnings and tenuous attachments to ongoing employment as documented through matched quarterly UI wage records data” (p.127). • “Researchers have identified exemplary programs across multiple service areas (e.g., education, skills training, housing, veterans services, ex‐offender services, employer services/engagement, youth services, entrepreneurial training), as well as 128 models for comprehensive community and One‐Stop career centers. Ray Marshall Center researchers formulated five hypothetical scenarios integrating observations and options based on the research” (p.128). • “Jobs Source Services, Community Rehabilitation Programs, and Youth Services serve distinct population groups; labor market outcomes, as well as performance expectations, vary accordingly… Understandably, given the differences in the populations served, there is wide variation in quarterly employment rates and earnings across programs. Former Job Source and Youth participants who are working have generally had rising earnings over time, whereas earnings for working CRP participants have remained flatter and lower” (p.128). • “The 2007 Youth Services sample cohort has maintained an approximately 50 percent employment rate, and the 2008 annual cohort is heading in that direction. The employment rate for the 2009 Youth Services annual cohort was at 34 percent entering the second half of 2010, well below the other cohorts, but improving” (p.128). (Abstractor: Author)

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2011
• Author(s): O’Shea, Dan; King, Christopher T.
• Organizational Author(s): The Ray Marshall Center for the Study of Human Resources at the University of Texas at Austin
• Funding Source: Goodwill Industries of Central Texas
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Wesley Peterson
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies