www.goodwill-suncoast.org
Goodwill Industries-Suncoast, Inc.
Summer 2011
Goodwill Transforms a Building and Lives Public officials and members of the community attended an open house at Goodwill's newly renovated Largo Residential Re-entry Center (LRRC) on July 15. The center serves nonviolent offenders transitioning from Florida correctional facilities, preparing them to successfully rejoin society. Participants live at the center for three months to two years. During that time, they obtain jobs in the community and attend counseling, life skills and GED classes. They also volunteer for community organizations. Once employed, residents pay taxes, fines, restitution and child support and start saving for after their release. The center recently underwent extensive renovations, including the addition of a new building for an employment center and classroom. Visitors at the open house were able to explore the entire complex, from the state-of-the-art control room to a vegetable garden maintained by program participants. Staff members were on hand to explain the center’s many “green” features, including motion activated lighting and water faucets, a recycling program, a hydroponic gardening system, and an irrigation system featuring four 1,000-gallon rainwater collection cisterns. The Largo facility is the largest male work-release center contracted by the Florida Department of Corrections. Goodwill also operates work-release centers in St. Petersburg and Tampa.
Making the Grade
Dr. Latoya Lane, director of re-entry for the Florida Department of Corrections (right), learns about employment services offered at Goodwill's Largo Residential Re-entry Center. Also pictured (from the left) are Goodwill Chief Operating Officer Debbie Passerini and Employment Specialists Dee Vickers and Sandra Bowles.
When Marianne Yarson arrived at Goodwill’s St. Petersburg workrelease center, she had an eighth grade education, yet she dreamed of going to college and studying veterinary medicine. Now, thanks to the GED preparation program at Goodwill’s St. Petersburg and Largo work-release centers, Marianne has the credentials to pursue her dream. She passed the GED in May. More than two dozen men and women finishing prison sentences at Goodwill work-release programs earned their GED during the past year, and others are working toward that goal. Attendance at GED preparation classes is required for program participants who have not completed high school. “One thing we push very hard is that they obtain their GED,” says Goodwill Director of Community Corrections Paul Norris. “When they graduate from our program they can choose to be law-abiding citizens or go back to what got them here. Having a GED significantly increases their chances for success.” .
Renovations were completed in June on the building that now houses the LRRC classroom and employment center.
Diggin’ Downtown Tampa
Students prepare for the GED exam during a class at Goodwill’s Largo Residential Re-entry Center.
A crew from Goodwill’s Hillsborough County Residential Re-entry Center beautifies Tampa’s Ashley Street in June. The six Goodwill volunteers greened up the area with 1,000 plants in one day as part of the Adopt-aMedian project. Participants in Goodwill-Suncoast corrections programs volunteered 4,759 hours for community organizations last year.