NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
January 18, 2012
Goodwill Helps Youth and Women Succeed
Young People and Women Need Your Help this Mentoring Month
Concord — January is National Mentoring Month and Goodwill Industries of Northern New England is helping area youth and women succeed by helping them overcome disadvantages and avoid delinquency through two unique mentoring programs. GoodGuides® is a youth mentoring program that works with at-risk youth at the Sununu Youth Services Center in Manchester. Youth are matched with trusted adult mentors to help them build career plans and skills, prepare for school completion and help with the transition to productive work or post-secondary training. Goodbridges is a mentoring program for women with a criminal background. Mentors work one-to-one with women on career awareness and work readiness skills to help with a successful transition back to the community.
Mentors and mentees in the Goodbridges mentoring program.
Through the GoodGuides mentoring program, mentors work specifically with youth returning to the Concord, Manchester and Nashua communities. In the first year of the program, GoodGuides has successfully matched 40 youth with mentors. The Good Bridges program matches adult, professional women with women leaving the state prison system. Mentors provide support, encouragement and assistance with career awareness and work skills as they prepare to re-enter the communities of Concord, Manchester and Nashua. In the first year alone, over 30 successful matches have been made.
“Goodwill has a long history of helping people find work,” said Kelly Paquette, Program Manager for the GoodGuides and Good Bridges programs. “A crucial part of that history is making sure that people have the resources they need to be successful. Both our mentoring programs can help keep both at-risk youth and women with a criminal history get on the right path, stay away from trouble and move toward a better future. That’s good for everyone involved.”
The Good Bridges program is made possible through a two-year, $300,000 grant to work with women in Concord, Manchester, and Nashua who are leaving prison and seeking work in their local communities. New Hampshire Child and Family Services received a three-year grant of $625,000 to assist juveniles leaving the Sununu Youth Development Center in Manchester. As a sub-grantee, Goodwill will provide mentoring and employment counseling for the youth. Funding for both of these grants originate from the federal Second Chance Act.
Goodwill will be holding a celebration on Monday, January 30, from 6 to 7:30 pm at Salon Lavena (1 South Main Street, Suite 2011) to celebrate the many accomplishments of area youth and women in the past year. To learn more about how to become a mentor and help someone in your community, please contact Kelly Paquette, Program Manager, at kelly.paquette@goodwillnne.org or (603) 369-3010.
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Goodwill Industries of Northern New England has a 78-year history of providing innovative services that eliminate barriers to opportunity and help people in need reach their fullest potential through the power of work. We serve individuals through job training and placement, career counseling, family strengthening services, youth employment opportunities, brain injury programs, and other community support services for people with disabilities. Our programs are funded by revenue from our 26 retail stores, grants, fees, and financial gifts. Please visit www.goodwillnne.org for more information.
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Contact: Michelle Smith, Communications Manager
michelle.smith@goodwillnne.org
Office: (207) 699-0724
Cell: (207) 239-7225
