Goodwill Awarded Grants from Community Foundation for the Alleghenies for Mentoring

February 5, 2013, Press Release

JOHNSTOWN, PA, February 5, 2013 — Goodwill of the Southern Alleghenies has been awarded two grants from the Community Foundation for the Alleghenies totaling $26,000. A $25,000 grant from the Community Foundation’s Community Initiatives Fund was awarded for the development and sustainability of Goodwill’s GoodGuides® Youth Mentoring Program to enable exciting new ventures and activities for mentoring relationships to be created and flourish. A $1,000 grant made possible through the Robert Waters Charitable Trust of the Community Foundation has been awarded to further develop the GoodGuides Program and Community Intervention Program by increasing the community’s capacity for mentoring, developing new venues, and activities.

Goodwill’s GoodGuides matches caring adult and peer volunteers with youth ages 12–17, creating a valuable support system for youth to build positive relationships with adult role models. GoodGuides also provides youth with opportunities to gain the skills they need to succeed in high school, postsecondary education and training programs, and future careers. Goodwill works in collaboration with the Community Foundation under its Community Intervention Program and with many community partners.

Since Goodwill launched GoodGuides in November 2009, this growing community-based mentoring initiative has achieved noteworthy milestones, including:

  • More than 100 volunteer mentors have received extensive training and passed stringent state and federal clearances including the FBI clearance. More than 100 youth have been matched with trained mentors in one-on-one and group settings and have received a minimum of two hours of career development time per month.
  • 13 sites in at-risk neighborhoods have been identified and secured as “safe,” where interactive mentoring can take place.
  • School-based and after-school mentoring chess clubs continue at Greater Johnstown High School, its East Side Elementary, and its Alternative School, and at Alternative Community Resource Program/St. Michael’s School.

For more information about Goodwill’s GoodGuides Youth Mentoring Program, please contact Cindy O’Connor, GoodGuides Program Manager at (814) 536-3536, ext. 304 or coconnor@goodwilljohnstown.org.

Goodwill Industries of the Conemaugh Valley (GICV), Inc. is an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization established in 1962 to empower individuals and families with employment barriers to achieve their fullest potential in the community through work services. Headquartered in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, GICV serves individuals with disabilities and disadvantages, dislocated workers, youth, and other job seekers throughout south central Pennsylvania in the counties of Bedford, Blair, Cambria, Huntingdon, Indiana, Somerset and a portion of Westmoreland by providing education and career services as well as job placement and postemployment supports. GICV is a community-based member organization of Goodwill Industries International, a 179-member network in the U.S., Canada, and 13 other countries. Learn more at www.gicv.org.
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