Nearly half of 25-year-olds with autism have never had a paying job and only 16% of persons with autism ever live independently, so when twin brothers Andre and Austin Archer connected with Goodwill Disability Services in 2016 and said they were eager to do both, our team got to work. 

In 2015, Georgina Palma-Santos was pregnant with her first child at the age of 16. Her traditional high school was not designed to support students with children. Seeking other options, Georgina enrolled in an online school but felt like the lack of structure was difficult to manage while raising a newborn. When she heard about The Excel Center®, Goodwill’s high school for adults, she was relieved to have a school with a childcare option. 

Each year, Goodwill of Central & Southern Indiana selects a Retail Site of the Year to honor the accomplishments of a location that did an exemplary job meeting production goals as well as providing employment opportunities to people with barriers like a disability, criminal history or lack of a high school diploma. This year, we’re honoring the team at our Richmond retail store. With more than 70 sites in central and southern Indiana, it’s quite an accomplishment to receive this award. 

There are 460,000 working-age Hoosiers who lack a high school diploma. Prior to The Excel Center, Goodwill’s free high school for adults, there were few options for people like Jacob Barrett who wanted to earn one. 

Indianapolis Metropolitan High School is a best-fit school for students experiencing circumstances that may present a barrier to education, including teen pregnancy or parenting, homelessness, involvement with the foster care or criminal justice system and more. The school places an emphasis on ensuring students enroll in college or enter into a career that offers a higher wage post-graduation.

When Jesse Hendrickson first walked into Goodwill for his court-ordered community service in 2016, he was homeless and recovering from a decade-long drug addiction that had isolated him from his family. 

Even before the mass outbreak of COVID-19, the World Health Organization had declared 2020 as the Year of the Nurse and Midwife, and the American Nurses Association extended the traditional National Nurses Week to a month of recognition in May. Did you know that Goodwill of Central and Southern Indiana employs over 60 nurses? 

Being a first-time mom can be so many things — stressful, nerve-wracking, terrifying — the list goes on. For Laketta Booker, 26, it was all of those things until she enrolled in Goodwill's Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP)® and met her nurse, Ketta Mason.

Launched in 2011, Goodwill’s Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP) program pairs first-time, low-income moms with a registered nurse who makes home visits through pregnancy and up until a child’s second birthday. In February 2020, we celebrated 3,000 babies born as part of the program, along with families like the Deahls, whose lives were changed significantly after the arrival of their son, Allistor.