LOUISVILLE, KY. – Today, Goodwill Industries of Kentucky hosted the grand opening celebration for its new West Louisville Opportunity Center. The 125,000 square-foot, $50 million resource center is the largest mission-related investment in the 100-year history of the nonprofit organization.
After nearly two years of construction, Goodwill opened the multi-faceted resource center to a large crowd of West Louisville residents, business leaders, elected officials and other partnering social service agencies.
The Opportunity Center was built to help eliminate poverty in West Louisville, which is a nine-neighborhood community with a population of 65,000 mostly African American residents who have a median household income of $21,000.
“It’s great to see so many people excited about the look and feel of our new building, but we’re even more excited about what is going to happen inside the building,” said Amy Luttrell, president and CEO of Goodwill Industries of Kentucky.
Through a variety of self-sufficiency resources and barrier-removal services, the Opportunity Center is expected to serve more than 50,000 individuals each year who are experiencing addictions, justice-involved backgrounds, education deficiencies, limited workforce histories, child-care challenges, transportation, homelessness, mental or physical disabilities and more.
In addition to housing the headquarters and career services for Goodwill, the West Louisville Opportunity Center will also be home to nine co-located partners: Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Blak Koffee, KentuckianaWorks’ Kentucky Career Center, the Kentucky College of Barbering, Legal Aid Society, Park Community Credit Union, University of Louisville College of Dentistry, Volunteers of America Mid-States and the YMCA of Greater Louisville.
Together, Goodwill and its partners at the West Louisville Opportunity Center anticipate serving a minimum of 50,000 people every year through their programs and services. Goodwill, alone, expects to place 600 job seekers into jobs that pay nearly $15 per hour that will produce an annual economic impact of approximately $19 million in West Louisville.
“My faith teaches me the parable of the Good Samaritan. That story tells us that when we see our neighbors who are hurting, we don’t kick them while they’re down. We lift them up,” Gov. Andy Beshear said. “The $50 million Goodwill West Louisville Opportunity Center is going to serve 50,000 Kentuckians each year, helping them find jobs, transportation, child care and more as they reach for their goals and support their families. Thank you to this incredible organization and their partners, including Norton Healthcare, for living out our Team Kentucky values.”
The West Louisville Opportunity Center will host a collection of programs, services and amenities that will be accessible to the entire community. Local residents and program participants will have regular access to a café, child-care service, computer labs, dental services, second-chance banking, a business center, restorative justice services, workforce training, behavioral health therapy, meeting rooms and a prayer and meditation room.
The other free resources, technology and modern training tools available at the Opportunity Center will allow West Louisville residents to take advantage of high-quality employment and self-sufficiency training to ensure they are prepared to enter the workforce and excel in their chosen fields.
“The Goodwill Opportunity Campus is one of the most impactful and highly anticipated projects our city has seen, and I know it will be transformational for West Louisville and the families who live here,” said Mayor Craig Greenberg. “I am so excited to see how this facility helps support the more than 50,000 individuals served by Goodwill and its partners each year as it builds a future of collaboration, partnership and stability. On behalf of the entire city, I want to thank Amy and her team at Goodwill for making this project a reality and contributing to the ongoing growth taking place across the Parkland neighborhood.”
Goodwill and its partners will offer West Louisville residents free career coaching, job training, youth mentoring, soft skills training and expungement services in a convenient shopping-mall-style environment inside the Opportunity Center.
Collectively, there will be more than 200 jobs that pay an average annual wage of $60,000 and help place more than 600 job seekers into full-time employment with businesses throughout the region, targeting placements that provide defined career development and advancement opportunities.
In February 2022, Goodwill joined Norton Healthcare in announcing the commitment to build the Norton Healthcare Goodwill Opportunity Campus in West Louisville, which includes the Norton West Louisville Hospital – the first comprehensive hospital west of Ninth Street in more than 150 years. Goodwill then broke ground on the project in June 2022.
In attendance Wednesday were significant donors who helped make the development of the Opportunity Center a reality, including First Financial Bank, the Gheens Foundation, the James Graham Brown Foundation, Jewish Heritage Fund, Norton Healthcare, PNC Bank and The UPS Foundation.
In 2022, Goodwill launched a fundraising campaign to help cover the cost of building the $50 million facility. In addition to donations from the corporate and philanthropic community, Goodwill employees have also contributed to the fundraising campaign by generating more than $180,000 from over 200 part-time and full-time staff members who are committed to support the organization’s historic investment.
Hours before the grand opening event, Goodwill and the Legal Aid Society held a free expungement clinic where justice-involved individuals gained access to local attorneys who helped them navigate the process of clearing their records of previous offenses that may prevent them from securing employment opportunities. Following the event, Goodwill and KentuckianaWorks held a job and community resource fair that welcomed West Louisville residents to network with more than 20 employer and community partners.
To learn more about the West Louisville Opportunity Center, visit GoodwillWestLouisville.com. For more information about the programs and services provided through Goodwill, visit GoodwillKY.org.
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.