AUSTINTOWN, Ohio – As a former client, Steven Spear knows firsthand the challenges of getting to and from work when you live at the Rescue Mission of the Mahoning Valley.
When he moved to the Valley from Florida, he stayed at the rescue mission and relied on public transportation to get to and from work at the Goodwill store in Austintown, with bus changes amounting to a longer day.
Youngstown Area Goodwill Industries launched its Good Commute pilot program to address that problem by transporting rescue mission residents who work at the Goodwill store to and from work. But they needed a driver.
“When they brought it up that they were going to start something like this, [I said] definitely, I’ll do it because I needed that kind of thing when I first got here and it wasn’t available,” Spear said.
It was also a way for him to repay Goodwill, which gave him a job and helped him get his driver’s license. He no longer lives at the rescue mission and owns a car.
“The Good Commute program is a program that came out of our Community Needs Assessment,” said Angela Poffenberger, Goodwill district manager.
Needs Assessment
The Community Needs Assessment last year by Goodwill and the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber found transportation to be the biggest workforce development challenge in the Mahoning Valley. Child care and mental health ranked second and third.
The assessment involved input from employees and stakeholders throughout the region.
Spear picks up Austintown Goodwill employees who live at the rescue mission and takes them to the store for their shift. He also transports them back to the rescue mission after their shifts. Employees use public transportation too, but Good Commute is available for employees whose shifts don’t coincide with bus schedules.
“They’re able to work outside of the hours of the bus system, which is what we hire for,” Poffenberger said. “Until 8:30 at night, you could work. So we need people that work that late, and the buses don’t run that late.”
Heather Yeager, Goodwill’s director of retail operations, said store employees also work Saturdays and Sundays, but buses don’t run Sundays.
“This is something we started when we saw the need … to help people that want to work and want to be gainfully employed,” Yeager said. “They just struggle with the transportation part.”
Rescue Mission
Mark Henry, director of men’s services at the rescue mission, said most clients rely on the bus routes.
“If a job is not accessible by bus, there has to be some other way for them to get there,” he said. “And for the majority of our clients, just getting a first-time job is a big deal.”
Some clients have physical or mental disabilities that prevent them from working in a warehouse, for example.
“This kind of environment is much better suited to them,” he said of the Goodwill store. “The barrier of transportation will always be one of our biggest issues.”
Some clients won’t apply for jobs not on the bus route because they have no way to get there, Henry said. And paying for rides only works for so long.
Good Commute may expand to provide transportation from other locations.
Robert Mitchell, Goodwill’s career services manager, said the pilot program is just one way the agency helps people.
“We have resources other than just trying to find a job,” he said. “People are looking for housing, food, driver’s permit, trying to get their records expunged, trying to find their niche, whether it be health or whatever. We try to point them in the right direction that they might need.”
Goodwill schedules two or three resource fairs annually at the rescue mission.
The rescue mission helps its residents improve their lives in other ways, Poffenberger said, such as requiring residents to put aside a certain amount of their earnings to save for housing or a car, to help them get back on their feet.
While the three people being transported via Good Commute are all men, Salli Bydo, Austintown store manager, said a woman, who works as a sorter, is completing her training and will begin using the service soon.
Other Benefits
Henry said there are benefits to the Good Commute program beyond employment and improved finances. Staff members witness a mental health decline in clients who don’t leave the shelter for a job or other activity. The pilot program eliminates the transportation barrier and helps people work.
“You see the whole demeanor change because they’re not just working to make money – they’re being productive,” he said.
Maurice Dikken, a mission client, rides to and from his job at the store with Spear through the Good Commute program. It’s made a big difference for him.
He started in October as a donations attendant.
“It’s actually one of the better jobs I’ve had in my time,” Dikken said.
Before Good Commute started, he relied on the bus to get to and from work. That meant a longer day and sometimes no breakfast. To get to work on time, which involved a bus change, he sometimes had to leave the rescue mission at 7 a.m. when breakfast started.
That’s no longer a problem. “And I’m actually working on trying to get my own car” and license, Dikken said.
Last week, he was promoted to donations supervisor.
While a promotion after six months isn’t unusual for a Goodwill store employee, it is unusual for an employee who lives at the rescue mission.
“Because they have to have open availability,” Poffenberger said. “They didn’t have open availability because of transportation.”
The pilot program removed that barrier for Dikken, she said.
Pictured at top: Steven Spear and Maurice Dikken.