Goodwill to Hold Event for National Mentoring Month and MLK Jr. Day

January 13, 2016, Press Release

Goodwill Will Honor 22 Volunteer Mentors with Presidential Volunteer Service Award

JOHNSTOWN, PA, January 13, 2016—In conjunction with January being National Mentoring Month, and in honor of the legacy of Martin Luther King (MLK) Jr., Goodwill of the Southern Alleghenies will hold a day of celebration on Saturday, January 16 from 10:00 am until 2:00 pm to recognize volunteer mentors in the GoodGuides Youth Mentoring Program. The event will be held at the First Presbyterian Church located at 309 Lincoln Street, downtown Johnstown.

GoodGuides will honor 22 volunteer mentors with the Presidential Volunteer Service Award (PVSA), the premier volunteer awards program that encourages citizens to live a life of service, for investing at least 25 or more hours in a 12-month period in 2015. Twenty of the volunteer mentors will be recognized for a combined total of 1,077 volunteer hours. The time is applied to a required group total of 200 hours of direct mentoring. Two of the volunteer mentors will be recognized for the distinct service of 100 or more individual hours in a 12-month period.

This GoodGuides Super Saturday Event will feature guest speakers focusing on a new vision for our community. Representatives from Vision 2025, the Discover Downtown Partnership, and the local chapter of the NAACP will give brief comments on community initiatives.

Collectively, the youth and volunteers will brainstorm regarding projects for 2016 for service learning. The main focus is to enable youth to have a voice in community change, helping to build a sense of community.

Community partners that annually collaborate with a MLK Service Learning project include: Pennsylvania Mountain Service Corps, AmeriCorps; NAACP Johnstown Chapter; NAACP Youth group, and the Foster Grandparent program of Cambria County.

The GoodGuides Youth Mentoring Program is a national mentoring initiative operated locally by Goodwill through a grant by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. It’s designed to help youth between the ages of 12–17 who may have barriers to success. The program focuses on helping youth to build career plans and skills as they prepare for school completion, postsecondary training, and productive work by providing them with structured and supportive relationships with adult mentors.

Goodwill offers all mentors a complete GoodGuides Orientation and Training that teaches the importance of the structured mentoring program and how they can make a difference in the life of youth. Mentors are asked to volunteer four hours per month or one hour per week for at least one year. Goodwill is also seeking community members and businesses to organize career talks, workshops, and company tours, and to provide educational guidance. GoodGuides serves youth in Cambria and Somerset counties.

For more information on GoodGuides, please contact Cindy O’Connor, GoodGuides Program Manager at (814) 536‐3536, ext. 304 or goodguides@goodwilljohnstown.org. To learn about Goodwill’s many services and programs, visit www.gogoodwill.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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