GED Preparation

Goodwill Industries of the Chesapeake, Inc., in conjunction with Baltimore City Community College, offers General Equivalency Diploma (GED) preparation classes for clients who want to improve their basic skills or prepare for the GED.

The class offers individualized instruction in reading, math, and writing and students are taught the skills needed to pass the GED test.  Students also are taught life skills such as maintaining checking and savings accounts and filling out job applications and timecards.

Enrollment is open year round and adult learners may take the class for as long as necessary to pass the GED exam or reach their academic goals

Prospective students are given a placement test and begin their studies at the level they are currently functioning at.

Contact:

Baltimore City Community College, ask about their G.E.D. Program and ask to take the classes held at Goodwill.  Call 410-462-8000.

In an effort to increase family support and provide services to expectant mothers and parents with children birth to 3 years, Goodwill began operation of the Waverly Family Center in 1999. The Waverly Family Center offers stable support systems in which parents and children have a comfortable environment to learn and develop career and parenting skills. This includes child development services. The goal is interrupt the cycle of poverty among families, and link them to resources in the community to help them achieve self-sufficiency.

The Waverly Family Center provides community-based support, education, employment and family support services to strengthen families. The programs are voluntary and parents participate as partners in the working relationship. Since its inception the Center has served over 2,900 adults and 3,600 children, and works in collaboration with over 25 partners in the community.

Call 410.235.0555 for more information.

Goodwill is currently working with Bon Secours of Maryland Foundation (BSMF) as part of their Working Families Initiative. The Working Families Initiative and the Operation ReachOut-Southwest (OROSW) Community Coalition, represent a new framework for helping residents of Southwest Baltimore achieve economic self-sufficiency and a decent quality of life.

Goodwill’s partnership with Bon Secours includes participation in Our Money Place Career Development Program a job placement, career and financial asset building program that helps adults overcome barriers to achieving self-sufficiency. The program is the result of a partnership that comprises 15 churches, 12 community-based and 10 nonprofit organizations, five businesses and Bon Secours Hospital, West Baltimore’s biggest employer. The other partner is the Bon Secours of Maryland Foundation, the hospital’s community development arm. The two groups joined in the mid-1990s to tackle a bleak set of problem.

Visit the Bon Secours Website

Since 1986, STEP has been a pioneer in the formation of the supported employment movement for people with psychiatric disabilities who are also economically disadvantaged, placing them in competitive employment.

STEP joined Goodwill in 2005, as both organizations focus on placing those with special needs into employment. At STEP, experienced Rehabilitation and Employment Specialists assist clients in learning the tasks necessary for successful job performance. Upon employer and employee satisfaction, the support is gradually withdrawn and the client is absorbed into the regular world of work. STEP is noted also for its training participants to work as para-professionals in human services as well as for its computer skills training. Both training programs are certified by the Community College of Baltimore County. Additionally, the staff provides ongoing support to help program participants adjust to the workplace.

Through its Baltimore, Westminster, and Easton offices, STEP serves Baltimore City and Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Harford, Queen Anne’s, Talbot, Caroline, Kent, and Dorchester Counties. STEP annually works with approximately 300 clients, placing more than half of them in competitive employment. In 2006, STEP was re-licensed by the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene as a psychiatric rehabilitation program and as a provider of supported employment to adults with psychiatric disabilities. Services are also certified by the Division of Rehabilitation Services. STEP was awarded a one-year grant from the Abell Foundation to establish a Ticket to Work Program, enabling Social Security disability recipients to become financially self-sufficient through employment.

Through demand from other geographic jurisdictions around the State, STEP plans to open additional offices in Harford and Anne Arundel Counties while also expanding its services to Cecil County and the Lower Eastern Shore in 2007. It is expected to serve an additional 80-100 people with psychiatric disabilities through this expansion.

Call 410.625.1877 for more information

For more than eight years The Lower Shore Career Center has served residents in Salisbury, MD. The Center provides job readiness skills training, Clerical & Computer Skills training, job placement assistance and career counseling to residents of the lower Eastern Shore by working with a variety of local agencies such as the Department of Rehabilitation Services, Department of Social Services, Health Department, One-Stop Job Marker and many more in an effort to assist folks with obtaining employment.

The Clerical & Computer Skills training is a comprehensive 12-week self-paced program designed to prepare individuals for entry-level work in a clerical field or office setting. In this program, students learn Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Corel WordPerfect, Data Entry, Keyboarding, Office Skills, Business, and English and participate in a series of Career Development workshops. Upon completion, students are publicly recognized in a graduation ceremony and receive a certificate of completion along with a final grade report. Individuals who do not have an agency sponsoring their training, may be eligible for a "Career Center Scholarship" valued at $2600 to pay for their training. In exchange for the scholarship, students will have to complete a minimum of 25 hours of volunteer work in the retail store prior to graduation.

Project Reconnect is a program that assists ex-offenders and offenders who about to re-enter with employment and career related services such as those listed above. This is done either one-on-one or in a group workshop setting. This program also works with area correctional facilities such as Poplar Hill Pre-Release and the Eastern Shore Correctional Institution [ECI]; courts such as Wicomico County Drug Treatment Court, Parole & Probation, local employers, and social service agencies to assist ex-offenders and offenders with the re-entry process.

Contact 410.219.9216 for more information.