43
Three grants totaling $35,000 help Goodwill
liberty
Youngstown Area Goodwill Industries received $35,000 in grants to help with a $220,000 project to update and renovate its Belmont Avenue facility.
The Youngstown Foundation contributed $20,000, the J. Ford Crandall Memorial Foundation, $10,000 and the Home Savings Charitable Foundation, $5,000.
The funds will be used to renovate the administrative, production and retail areas of the Goodwill facility on Belmont Avenue, said Michael McBride, executive director of Youngstown Area Goodwill Industries.
“Goodwill works with people who are disabled, disadvantaged or have other barriers to employment. We assist them through vocational rehabilitation, employment and other specialized services,” McBride said.
“The renovations of the three areas will help us to be more energy-efficient, improve operations and increase customer awareness,” he said.
Projects include window and signage for the Liberty storefront to increase customer awareness, glass- block windows throughout the plant to replace old windows, which will increase energy-efficiency and comfort of plant employees, and new lighting and drop-down ceiling in the administrative hallway to increase energy-efficiency and decrease noise.
Work recently has begun on several of the projects and will continue into early summer, McBride said.
He said the retail store looks like a warehouse, and one of the goals of the project is to dress up the exterior and interior to make it look more like a retail store.
Also, McBride said, improvements to the warehouse operation include replacing current inefficient windows with glass-block windows and installation of a more-efficient ventilation system for the 260 clients working there.
In addition to the $35,000 in grants for the capital project, Goodwill recently received a $10,000 grant through the Western Reserve Health Foundation, previously held under the bankrupt Forum Health, to help fund Goodwill’s visual-services program, particularly screening of preschool children for amblyopia, commonly known as “lazy eye,” McBride said.