U of Maryland BioPark Partnership

Goodwill’s newest retail and training venture to serve the residents of Southwest Baltimore, employees and companies operating in the University of Maryland BioPark and in the surrounding Baltimore communities is a new store unlike any otehr Goodwill store. Located on 1 North Poppleton Street, the first ever Goodwill Boutique— built on a smaller scale than traditional Goodwill outlets and offering high quality name brand merchandise— opened in February 2009 in the new retail space in the University of Maryland BioPark garage near the 800 block of West Baltimore Street.

The Goodwill Boutique is a natural progression for an evolving non profit business leader such as Goodwill whose mission goes beyond simple charity to helping people help themselves. The Boutique is the first such store that incorporates a fully developed retail-training program in store management for employees. With only two full time employees and three trainees per quarter the 3,000 sq ft store will be an amazing opportunity for those interested in retail management to get hands on experience.

The Goodwill Boutique is an exciting new venture for Goodwill that promises to be a great new shopping destination while at the same time helping the residents of Southwest Baltimore acquire the skills and experience needed to begin a career in retail management.

The neighborhood associations in the area are working actively to build a viable retail sector along the “main street” that is West Baltimore Street.  With some 10,000 faculty, staff, students and medical workers at the University and the University of Maryland Medical Center, the BioPark location is ideal for Goodwill’s new initiative in retail sales and workforce development.” 

Visit our POPPLETON TRAINING STORE, located at 1 N. Poppleton St., for an opportunity to see our SOWEBO readiness program in action!  As you are shopping the designer labels at this Goodwill Boutique, we expect that you will be impressed by the customer service provided by the young people who are participating in our Retail Management Training program. Once they’ve completed the SELF readiness curriculum, SOWEBO youth interested in retail careers are interviewed for the opportunity to spend an additional 12 weeks of on-the-job training in all areas of Goodwill retail operations.