Goodwill North Central Texas has officially opened the agency’s new headquarters and career center on Airport Freeway.
Among those cutting the ribbon to open the new facility were Fort Worth Congressman Marc Veasey, City Councilman Chris Nettles, Goodwill North Central Texas President & CEO David Cox and members of the Goodwill board of directors. Also participating were representatives of the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, Fort Worth Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and Fort Worth Metropolitan Black Chamber of Commerce.
Along with the May 4 ribbon-cutting ceremony, Goodwill hosted an open house with food trucks stationed onsite to celebrate the occasion.
The new headquarters and career center are situated on 2.28 acres at 4200 and 4304 Airport Freeway just northeast of downtown Fort Worth. The campus includes two buildings positioned side-by-side with nearly 650 feet of frontage along Texas Highway 121.
The facilities will enable Goodwill North Central Texas to significantly expand its mission services by adding a career center to serve the northeast Fort Worth area, the agency said in a news release. In addition, relocating administrative staff to the new location will allow Goodwill to repurpose space at its 4005 Campus Drive facility for existing program expansion.
A donation from philanthropist and author MacKenzie Scott made it possible for Goodwill to take advantage of an opportunity in early 2021 to purchase the two-story 27,718 square foot administration building along with a 10,474 square foot single-story building suitable for expansion of Goodwill’s Workforce Development offerings, the release said.
The administration building features a large community room, while the single-story building will serve as a career center and offers additional classroom space for mission services, including Goodwill’s career school, the North Texas Institute for Career Development.
The facility provides additional training and education space for at-risk youth; innovative classroom space for foster care and independent living skills training; programs for ex-offenders and re-entry training; and expansion of Goodwill’s credentialing programs. Goodwill expects to hire 56 full-time staff to run new programs and serve an additional 35,000 individuals over the next five years.
“In 2019 Goodwill embarked on what would’ve been a long journey and set an ambitious goal to raise $12 million dollars to expand facilities and classroom space,” said Cox, “COVID-19 forever shifted the lives of the community we serve and shifted our plans as well.
“Education and employment are the only proven pathways out of poverty. Indeed, the need for Goodwill’s services has never been greater and we are excited to expand employment and education services to break the cycle of poverty for those in our community.”
About Goodwill North Central Texas: Goodwill North Central Texas is based in Fort Worth and serves 18 counties in the region. The nonprofit’s 27 area retail locations provide revenue through the sale of donated goods to support Goodwill’s mission of creating lives of independence and building a stronger local community. Services include job training and career services programs for people with physical and mental disabilities or other barriers to employment, including lack of education or work experience and homelessness.
For more information, please visit the Goodwill North Central Texas website.