National Skills Summit

National Skills Summit
Innovative Initiatives: Targeted Populations

Goodwill Industries And The U.S. Census Bureau: A Partnership That Counts

The Challenge:

To transform the national phenomenon of the U.S. Census into a positive, temporary initial work experience for former welfare recipients and people with disabilities.

The Solution:

Develop a partnership between the U.S. government and an international employment and training program that can funnel first-time workers into the Census 2000 project.

The Partners:

Goodwill Industries International is a network of 184 local, autonomous Goodwill Industries organizations in the U.S. and Canada, and 45 international associate members in 34 countries.

U.S. Census Bureau, under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Commerce, trained and hired up to 600,000 temporary workers to conduct the U.S. Census.

U.S. Department of Labor provided a $20 million Welfare to Work competitive grant to Goodwill Industries in 1999 for census training.

The Story:

In 1999, the U.S. Census Bureau and Goodwill Industries signed a partnership agreement designed to recruit graduates of Goodwill's employment and training programs as Census 2000 workers. Many of Goodwill's clients are former welfare recipients and people with disabilities.

Goodwill clients who were employed by Census 2000 developed their organizational, interpersonal, and communication skills as they worked door to door across America obtaining statistical data for the census. These skills are now transferable to occupations such as telemarketing and empirical survey research for trade associations and industry.

Nearly 3,000 of Goodwill's clients passed the test to become census workers. Over 500 were actively on the streets working to ensure that every American is counted. The Census Bureau is filling thousands of positions to follow-up on non-responsive households, and Goodwill graduates will fill many of those jobs.

A Model of Innovation:

Chances to provide vast numbers of people with transferable skills are rare in today's economy and should not be missed when they arise. This innovative partnership capitalizes on a unique employment opportunity and enables trainees to contribute to a project that is of national import.

Contacts:

Jim Van Erden
Director of Workforce Development
Goodwill Industries
9200 Rockville Pike
Bethesda, MD 20814
(301) 530-6500 Ext. 4500 (p)
(301) 530-1516 (f)

Highlight Quote:

"This program taps an underutilized pool of eager employees. Our graduates are skilled, reliable and ambitious. By working for the U.S. Census Bureau they gain invaluable work experience to help grow their careers." -Fred Grandy, president and CEO of Goodwill Industries International

Highlight Quote:

"Goodwill has an established record of getting welfare recipients jobs. We are thrilled this network of community-based agencies is able to help us find the thousands of workers we need in order to conduct the census."

- Kenneth Prewitt, director of the U.S. Census Bureau