Catching up with… Keith Parker

Parker has served as president and CEO of Goodwill of North Georgia (GNG) since 2017. Prior to that, he was general manager and CEO of MARTA. These are edited highlights of an interview.

 What does Goodwill of North Georgia do?

Photo contributed.

I give a lot of speeches to rotary clubs and chambers of commerce and neighborhood associations, and I always start by asking, ‘How many of you have shopped at or donated to a Goodwill?’ Almost 100% of the folks raise their hands. Then [I ask], ‘How many of you know what we do with the profits?’ I’d say about 30% know that. We use the retail to generate income to invest in workforce development. We are the No. 1 workforce development nonprofit of all the Goodwills [in the country]. Our mission is very simple. We put people to work. We cover as far north [of Atlanta] as the border states and go as far south as Griffin. In those 45 counties, we have a total of 69 stores, another 45 attended donation centers and 14 career centers.

Over the last several years, we’ve made a focus of getting people into higher-paying positions. When I started, only about 15% [of the people we helped find employment] met the MIT calculation of what is a living wage for the Atlanta region. That number is now 81% of the people we help find jobs.

 What kinds of job seekers do you work with?

We help a lot of folks [who have] tremendous barriers to employment. They might be homeless or coming out of the criminal justice system. They may be great employees who have been good team members but want to do something different. Lots of veterans come through our doors. We have lots of folks who are older. We have a lot of people who are in a low-paying job and want to pick up a skill that helps them go into something that pays better.

 What other services do you offer people?

Everything a person would need for success is how we try to position ourselves. Some people need somebody to review their resume. We’ll see that person for one hour, and they’re gone. Some people come in with a whole host of challenges. They may need referrals to drug and alcohol intervention; they might be homeless. We work with our partners to get them stabilized.

We may put someone in a long-term training program. We have programs that focus on apartment maintenance. We have a technology career program. We offer free transportation. We pay people while they’re in most of our programs.

 How do you work with businesses that need employees?

We have an extremely vibrant ecosystem with over 5,000 different businesses here in North Georgia, including companies as big as The Home Depot, Coca-Cola and Amazon. I mention Amazon specifically because at one point we were the No. 1 provider of their employees here in North Georgia. We also work with mid-sized and smaller firms as well. We have career counselors who call on these various institutions and state and regional employment organizations. We have dozens of career fairs every year.

 What’s something that may surprise readers about Goodwill of North Georgia?

Three big things. One, we do this for free – computer access, use of our business centers, training, 100% free. Second, they are surprised by the scope of people we help, from people who are fighting homelessness to mid-career executives. We also help people start their own companies. We have a program called GoodBIZ!, where we’ve helped hundreds of entrepreneurs create their own businesses.

Third, the different elements of support that we provide. We can help almost anyone improve their employability, improve their ability to get promoted. We’ve become adept at helping build the skill set of folks coming out of the criminal justice system. We have found that [for] people who have employment when they come out of prison, the odds of them ever going back is reduced to single digits.

We’ve been blessed to be able to change the lives of tens of thousands of North Georgians. Since I took over, more than 120,000 people we’ve placed into jobs have moved over 52,000 families out of poverty into the working middle class.