LIBERTY, Ohio – After six months of unemployment, John Hahn found a job at Youngstown Area Goodwill Industries, and he’s worked there for nearly five years.

“I struggled during my childhood with speaking, unfamiliar places and sensory issues,” Hahn said Thursday morning during the second annual Goodwill Mission Fundraising Breakfast at Woodland Estate. 

Funds raised will support Goodwill programs.

Hahn, who is autistic, and his mother, Holly, were among those who shared their stories during the event. In 2019,  he learned about a Goodwill-funded program and signed up.

He started packaging books to be shipped and learned to scan books to be sorted based on their values and to operate a pallet jack to move pallets of books.

“It’s changed my life for the better,” Hahn said. “I went from six months of being jobless to nearly five years of being a valued, working member of society.”

His mother said she’s proud of her son and how far he’s come, and she attributes much of that progress to Goodwill. He graduated in 2019 from high school, where he was in special education classes, leaving her and her husband uncertain about his future. 

“I don’t have to worry anymore what his future looks like,” Holly Hahn said. “He works in a safe, nonjudgmental environment. He has friends at work.”

He’s excited to talk about his job, she said, and he has a 401k.

But, most importantly, he has a purpose that she and John’s father are proud of, Holly Hahn said.

Michael Dent, a 30-year Goodwill employee, has ADHD and grew up in an environment where some of his friends and family members were murdered. His mother is the one who jump-started his employment at the agency.

“She pretty much told me, ‘Hey, do better than I did,’” Dent said. She told him he had potential and that he shouldn’t let anyone else tell him that he couldn’t do something he wanted to do.

Kathy Gerberry, a longtime volunteer and Goodwill board member, talked about her late sister, Diane Schrum, who worked at Goodwill, starting in the textile department in 1991. 

“Goodwill taught Diane to balance her checkbook, and she learned self-confidence,” Gerberry said. “Goodwill taught Diane to ride a city bus, and she learned self-esteem. Goodwill gave Diane a paycheck, and she gained pride.”

She was a vibrant, active community member who paid her taxes and voted. The food pantry at Goodwill is named for Schrum, who retired in 2019. In 2022 she died after a heart attack.

Goodwill CEO Shelley Murray said the organization was founded with the idea that it should not be content until every vulnerable individual has the opportunity to achieve their potential.

“I will tell you that at Youngstown Area Goodwill Industries, we live that principle to this day,” she said.

The organization last year worked with the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber for a community workforce assessment and is working to address the issues it found. Goodwill also started a Good Community podcast and launched a pilot program in January working with the Rescue Mission of the Mahoning Valley.

One of the most significant challenges facing people at the mission is transportation. The hours of public transportation don’t always align with the work schedules of those residents.

“So we looked at our resources. We had an underutilized vehicle, and we had someone who was willing to move into that position of driver,” Murray said. “So now we drive our employees from the Rescue Mission to the store outside of public transit hours.”

The driver is a former Rescue Mission resident.

A second pilot program is called A Good Start, a retail training program designed to help those in addiction recovery. 

“Our goal is for them to reach their goals,” Murray said.

Pictured at top: From left are Shelley Murray, Michael Dent, Holly Hahn, John Hahn and Kathy Gerberry.