Every year during the first full week of May, Goodwills across the world come together to celebrate Goodwill Industries Week – and this year, we’d love you to join us with a Celebration Sale and a Virtual Career Fair!

“At Goodwill, we’re committed to helping people earn a living and improve their lives, families and communities,” says Jim Gibbons, president and CEO of Goodwill Industries International.

Right now, the economy isn’t as great as we’d like, but here at GoodwillNyNj, we place 4 people in jobs every hour of every business day. We’re here to help our community get back in the economic mainstream, both with our NY/NJ events like last month’s Job Forum and with larger, international resources like this week’s on-going Goodwill Industries Virtual Career Fair.

We’re here for the fundamentals like programs and services, and we’re also here for the fun, like sales and promotions. This week, for example, is filled with great deals just for you in honor of Mothers Day and Goodwill Industries Week.

To keep the Goodwill going, we’ve also made financial donation a ton easier with our new online donation system. At GoodwillNyNj, 92 cents of every dollar supports direct services for more than 100,000 New York and New Jersey residents annually.

And of course, we are always beyond delighted to receive your material donations at any of our stores or donation centers during open hours, making sure your no-longer-neededs are either reused or recycled, keeping roughly 60 million pounds of usable clothing and household goods out of landfills a year.

Enjoy the Celebration Sale, best of luck at the Virtual Career Fair, and Happy Goodwill Industries Week to each and every one of you!

Goodwill Industries Week is right around the corner (May 6-12, 2012 to be exact). To celebrate, we’ll be participating in Goodwill Industries International’s first-ever Virtual Career Fair next week, offering a fantastic digital resource for job seekers to help round out your search.

This May 7th through the 10th, kick your job search into high gear with the support and resources of Goodwill Industries International!

Goodwill has been providing job training and job placement services for more than 110 years, and building strong relationships with employers who have jobs available. As a result, every 38 seconds of every business day, someone helped by Goodwill earns a good job! When Goodwill hosts a job fair, we make sure that participating employers have jobs they are hiring for now.

The Virtual Career Fair will be held May 7-10, and is free to attend. Help move your career to the next level, and find your next job at this virtual event. Register now to complete your profile which can be used to connect with employers when the fair begins. For more information and to sign up, visit http://bit.ly/GWVCF this week!

Did you get a Spring Break adventure this year? Thanks to your donation and support, 16 of our Beacon 141 middle school students did!

Without your support of GoodwillNyNj and human services, this fantastic Spring Break field-trip would never have happened.

This past Spring, Beacon 141 took 16 middle school students on an overnight trip to Washington D.C. The stay was filled with famous sights, from the Lincoln Memorial to the  Jefferson, the National Air and Space Museum to the FDR Memorial, the Holocaust Museum to the Martin Luther King Memorial. Spicing things up, the group even got a tour of the Voice of America, where students saw a live radio show and spoke with a journalist.

None of this would have been possible without your support. To donate this Spring, just drop off any of our accepted donation items at any of our region’s stores or donation centers during open hours. Thank you for spreading the Goodwill!

Last week, GoodwillNyNj held its first ever Job Forum, “A 360ᵒ on Jobs: Policy, Economy, Training, and Employment” – a big-picture discussion of Greater New York and Northern New Jersey’s economy with a focus on ideas of how to move forward.

Our economists' panel shed light (and bright color) on how unemployment breaks down across the US. While it's not a pretty picture right this moment, there's hope if we pull together to make change.

The event included a keynote address by Department of Labor Assistant Secretary Jane Oates; an economists’ panel with Dr. Paul Harrington from Drexel University and the Honorable Edward Montgomery from Georgetown University; a civic engagement panel with representatives from JP Morgan Chase, The New York Community Trust, Ford and Kessler Foundations.

So what did we learn? More than you can imagine – and we’re hoping to share it with you.

Thanks to @NyNjGoodwill on Twitter, we were able to live tweet the discourse as it occurred. Click below to read our tweets from the event, full of insight into how the NY/NJ economy became what it is, how it compares to the rest of the country, and how, hopefully, we can pull ourselves out of this slump ASAP and help our community get back to work. Take a look:

Last week our blog visited the GoodwillNyNj Contract Shop at our Headquarters (complete with Vincent’s brilliant smile) – today we’re going taking you one step further into our Goodwill Tour with Goodwill Industries International spokesperson and Clutter Diet founder Lorie Marrero to the one, the only: the GoodwillNyNj Donated Goods Processing Center. Take a look!

GoodwillNyNj's Director of Production Victoria Nikci and Clutter Diet's Lorie Marrero show off the bales of donated goods destined for repurposing.

Yesterday was Earth Day, and if you donated to Goodwill this past week/month/year, you’ve helped Mama Earth. In 2011 alone, GoodwillNyNj kept more than 60 million pounds of usable clothing and household goods out of landfills. How? A smart combination of resale (for the best donations) and re-purposing (for the damaged goods).

GoodwillNyNj is so much more than just stores – but the Processing Center is a very fun place to spend time if you’re a thrift fashion fan. Here is where donated items are sorted, the repurposed materials are packed together into techinicolor bales, the resellable items organized and shipped out. Something’s always happening here. In fact, even we were surprised by the newest development: gift baskets!

Take a look at the Processing Center's newest idea: handmade made-for-baby gift baskets full of fantastic, never-been-used donated goods.

There was a whole table of these gorgeous gift basics, this season styled especially for new parents and filled with never-been-used donated items like pink and blue bibs, rattles, bottles and more. The ones we saw ranged from $10-30 and are destined for stores all across our region… maybe even delivered by stork.

Please help us keep helping our planet, our community and our fashion-seeking shoppers. Please shop and donate today!

At Goodwill NY-NJ, we understand jobs. After all, we’re one of the largest workforce development organizations in the metropolitan area. We place 7 people in jobs each hour of every business day. Our programs generate an extraordinary return on investment. In 2010, the participants we placed earned over $211 million during their first year of employment, saving taxpayers $110 million in public assistance expenses.

In the land of opportunity, it's tougher that ever to find a job. Why - and how can we change this? We're about to find out. (Photo by Emiliano Marin)

Sure, we understand jobs, but when it comes to today’s job market, even we have some questions. Why is it so tough to find a job in New York right now? What can businesses do to make it easier? How can we all find a balance so that the people who want to work and are ready to work are actually given a job and the chance to work?

Today, we’re going to tackle those questions and bring back some answers. Goodwill Industries of Greater New York and Northern New Jersey hosts its first job forum this morning, “A 360ᵒ on Jobs: Policy, Economy, Training, and Employment,” examining the systemic unemployment in the metropolitan region.

If you won’t be attending, but are still curious about today’s job market, be sure to follow us at @NyNjGoodwill from 8am to 12pm when we’ll be live tweeting the event.

The forum will include a keynote address by Department of Labor Assistant Secretary Jane Oates; an economist’s panel with Dr. Paul Harrington from Drexel University and the Honorable Edward Montgomery from Georgetown University; a civic engagement panel with representatives from JP Morgan Chase, The New York Community Trust, Ford and Kessler Foundations.

Where would you be without human services? We’re talking child care, job services, rehabilitation programs, support networks for people with disabilities, after-school options for inner-city kids, domestic violence programs… The list goes on and on.

Today, April 18th, from 12pm to 2pm, we’re joining the Who Cares? I Do campaign at  the #WithoutHS Virtual Rally held on Facebook and Twitter to tell Mayor Bloomberg to protect human services funding in his executive budget.

Join us, @WhoCares_IDo and other NY-area human service organizations to protect programs that keep this city strong, offering hope and support to millions who might otherwise have nowhere to turn.

Show up and tell your story. When this time comes, tweet or Facebook post about where you would be without human services – videos, photos, words, whatever you have, please share. Make sure you use the hashtag #WithoutHS and tag your posts @Who Cares? I Do. on Facebook and @WhoCares_IDo on Twitter. For more information, check out https://www.facebook.com/events/186100074841621/

If you don’t have a story to share, share ours. Retweet or repost anything you like from our Facebook or Twitter pages. We’d be grateful for the added exposure. Please help us spread the word that New York needs its human services.

Thank you for helping us save human services and help countless New Yorkers and Northern New Jersey residents rebuild their lives.

As promised, today we’re sharing even more about the recent Goodwill Tour with Goodwill Industries International spokesperson and Clutter Diet founder Lorie Marrero. So put on your virtual walking shoes, Goodwill fans – to we’re covering the GoodwillNyNj Contract Shop:

Goodwill is much more than stores – it’s about providing people outside the economic mainstream with the support they need to get back to work, from ESL classes to resume services to summer camp for kids so parents can keep up the good work. But here’s a little known secret – Goodwill creates jobs for such populations. Not just in our stores, but in our Astoria headquarters.

Meet Vincent – Vincent works in the Goodwill Contract Shop. He couldn’t wait to explain his job to us, clearly excited to show off his work. Take a look:

Vincent shows us how its done - all with a fantastic smile, no less.

Vincent’s job involved rolling up the green donation bags that we put out to encourage donations. Maybe you’ve used one? If it looked as crisp and tidy as this, we’re betting it was one of Vincent’s!

Not every job ties back to Goodwill shopping and donating. Keep reading to see more…

Yesterday, Goodwill Industries International Spokeswoman and Clutter Diet Founder Lorie Marrero came to visit our Astoria headquarters and giveaway signed copies of her fantastic book at our Greenwich Village Boutique.

Lorie (center) joined District Manager Gidget Despiau and Store Manager Coco Ogilvie at the Village Boutique yesterday to meet fans, give our books and tackle the topic of clutter.

We’ll have a full post on what Lorie saw on her visit next week, but for now, we wanted to show off a few key people she met along the way – all of whom thank you for your support, enabling them (and us) to do a job that matters, i.e. to create jobs, to stop landfill growth, to celebrate reuse, and to spread Goodwill.

Lorie and Wilberto Alverez, Contract Shop Supervisor, find a bit of open space for a photo in the bustling contracts shop.

With a background of donation bales, Victoria Nikci, Director of Production, showed Lorie what happens to donations that aren't fit for resale. Don't fret - donate! Even those items (stained, ripped, etc) are kept out of landfills.

Thank you, keep donating and enjoy the weekend!

Today’s the day! Join us at the Goodwill Boutique (44 West 8th Street, NYC) at 3pm to meet Lorie Marrero, Goodwill Industries International spokesperson and founder of The Clutter Diet, dedicated to helping you streamline and declutter your closet/office/life.

From tax drawer clutter to bursting wardrobes, Lorie's an expert on what to keep and what to let go - and she's ready to share her best secrets with you today, Thursday, April 11th at NYC's Goodwill Boutique!

We’ll have books to sign and give away and an opportunity for you to ask Lorie any Spring Cleaning questions you might have. Expect great tips and a revived spirit ready to tackle the overflowing dressers and drawers back home. This is an event you won’t want to miss!

Meet and Greet with Lorie Marrero, The Clutter Diet

Spring Cleaning & Organization Expert

Thursday, April 12th at 3pm at the Goodwill Village Boutique

44 West 8th Street (between 6th Avenue and MacDougal Street)
New York, NY 10011
(212) 477-7024

Hope to see you there!