LINCOLN HEIGHTS : Goodwill Gives Its Workers a New Start

It’s all bustle at the Goodwill Industries loading docks, where workers every day haul off 10,000 pieces of donated clothes and 600 pairs of shoes, and an untold number of mattresses, clocks, radios and other items worth repairing for resale at Goodwill stores.

Lives and livelihoods are also under repair at the Lincoln Heights plant, many of whose 700-member work force cope with mental and physical disabilities and problems such as alcoholism and illiteracy as they train for jobs and independent living outside the plant.

‘The goal is always to find people jobs outside of Goodwill,” said Sophia Chavez, who works in community relations at the Lincoln Heights location, 342 San Fernando Road, the main center for the 75-year-old, nonprofit organization in Los Angeles.

“They learn the skills here and find employment somewhere else.”

In the stores, $2 out of every $3 goes back to the job-training programs for salaries and supplies, Chavez said. The organization itself takes no federal or United Way donations, she said. It is 95% self-sufficient, to serve as an example to workers that they must become independent, she said.

One employee, Lices Ramirez, 25, has worked her way up at Goodwill from telephone operator to secretary to her new job as a counselor in the organization’s Special Projects program.

The program, started about a year ago, helps people through drug or alcohol addiction, emotional problems and other obstacles that keep them from being productive workers. While in the program, the workers perform job tasks that also serve as training for future jobs.

Ramirez was named the Goodwill Achiever of the Year for 1994. She serves as inspiration to the workers because she has lived most of her life without her hands.

As an infant, Ramirez had her hands amputated after being severely burned in a house fire. She hopes to become a counselor for people with disabilities.

“Sometimes we don’t know how to manage our own problems and then they tell you their problems and you have to think about them as well as yourself,” she said.

Part of Ramirez’s job is to teach people responsible behavior, such as getting to work on time and communicating and working well with others. When workers get depressed over their situations, she said she tries to explain that the productive work they do today will help them get into more rewarding jobs in the future.

“It’s so hard for me to tell them (to do what they should do), but you have to,” Ramirez said.

In other parts of the plant, workers assemble bar stools, package drinking straws and seal dog food for businesses that contract with Goodwill. A Job Club connects job-seekers with a coordinator who helps them hone their interview skills, find jobs through classified ads and other sources, and even arranges transportation to job interviews. Chavez said the program, open to the public, has an almost 100% success rate in helping people land a job.

The programs placed 165 people in outside jobs last year, Chavez said.

The Home Depot in Glendale employs three Goodwill-trained workers, said assistant manager Maurice McLeod. One of the men works in the lighting department cleaning the light fixtures and replacing lightbulbs. Two others work in the garden department watering and arranging plants and sometimes assisting customers.

“(Hiring from Goodwill) is just something we’ve done for quite a while to put people to work who have, shall we say, limited abilities,” McLeod said. “They do good work and they really work hard at what they do.”