LOUISVILLE, KY. – Goodwill Industries of Kentucky is set to launch its primary initiative for combatting homelessness – the Another Way program – in Bowling Green on July 1. It’s a product of months of collaboration between the nonprofit, its community partners and the City of Bowling Green, which agreed to pledge more than $81,000 to support the program.
The Another Way program provides unhoused individuals opportunities to gain job skills and work-based learning opportunities rather than asking the public for money at stoplights and other rights of way. Program leaders will use Goodwill transportation to canvass highly trafficked areas of the city, such as homeless shelters, highways, byways and street corners, pick up willing workers and take them to worksites around the city for four hours of work. In return, the participants earn $50, lunch and an introduction to the internal and external barrier-reduction resources at Goodwill’s Bowling Green Opportunity Center.
“The Another Way program is exactly what it says: It will give our homeless population another way to earn a living, get introduced to the Goodwill programming and live their best life,” said Chad Spencer, Goodwill’s director of career services for the southwest region.
The program, which will operate on Tuesdays and Thursdays, will launch with one van that will accommodate up to four individuals per day. Worksites will vary and be determined by Bowling Green Parks and Recreation. Goodwill intends to increase capacity based on program success.
“The city is excited to partner with Goodwill Industries to start the Another Way program in Bowling Green that will provide an alternate workforce strategy to offer opportunities for unemployed individuals to gain job skills training and work-based learning opportunities,” said City Manager Jeff Meisel. “Through the Another Way program, Goodwill will offer transportation, same-day work for payment, as well as other connections to community resources at their Bowling Green Opportunity Center on 31-W Bypass. It is our hope that this program will redirect many of the unemployed individuals engaging with the public for money along sidewalks and rights-of-way, introducing them to a new and better way of life.”
The Another Way program began as a pilot in Louisville in 2019. Since then, the program has served more than 1,500 individuals. It has connected more than 600 individuals to self-sufficiency resources, transported more than 75 to substance abuse and/or mental health treatment facilities, placed more than 130 in temporary-to-permanent housing and helped more than 150 find employment.
About Goodwill Industries of Kentucky
Goodwill Industries of Kentucky is a 100-year-old nonprofit organization that operates in 103 of Kentucky’s 120 counties. The organization is committed to using resources from its 67 retail stores to help build pathways out of poverty for individuals who need a hand up in life. In 2023, Goodwill helped place 3,185 Kentuckians into jobs with its 1,330 employer partners and inside its own retail stores. Goodwill uses approximately 90 cents from every dollar generated in its retail stores to operate programs and services that help Kentucky’s hardest-to-serve job seekers build the life they desire.