Goodwill® Encourages Holiday Giving With #GiveGoodwill Campaign

ROCKVILLE, Md., Dec. 22, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- The holiday season provides the perfect opportunity to give thanks and to give back to youth who are facing challenges within our communities. In days of uncertainty, there are still people who are providing direction and mentoring to high-risk youth to help them succeed in spite of the unfortunate circumstances they may have encountered. Many studies indicate that a young person's success can be greatly enhanced by an advocate or mentor — an adult who consistently helps a young person stay on track to graduate and make better life choices. Goodwill's GoodGuides program is the source of many modern-day mentoring success stories.

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The GoodGuides program provides mentoring to youth, ages 12–17, who are at risk of dropping out of school and/or falling into delinquency. The program helps them finish school, transition into the world of work and prepare for success by pairing them with trusted adult volunteer mentors. Mentors help youth overcome disadvantages such as failure in school due to poor grades or low attendance, or avoid delinquency due to issues such as abuse, disability, drug or alcohol dependence, family violence or gang membership.

One such youth is Hannah Strope. Although she has had a few mentors through the program, Orbi Rosario was the most influential. Their bond grew stronger after Strope was involved in a serious car accident and struggled to stay in high school. With his support, she overcame financial struggles and family instability to become the first person in her family to graduate high school. She now attends college, serves as a peer mentor, and plans to pursue her Ph.D. in counseling and psychology.

"I never had anyone push me to do something until I met Orbi," said Strope. "From him telling me never to give up, that motivated me to finish high school."

The GoodGuides program helps youth build career plans and skills, and prepare for school completion, post-secondary training and productive work. Most importantly, mentors serve as trusted and reliable resources to help mentees fulfill their goals and find job success.

"We always encourage those generous enough to give wisely," said Jim Gibbons, president and CEO of Goodwill Industries International. "Do your research and educate yourself about the recipient's goals, financials and efficiency. At Goodwill, we're using the revenue generated from the public's donations to help people like Hannah overcome hardships, and ensure they have the support they need to graduate high school, transition to college, and find a fulfilling career path."

Those who choose to give to Goodwill, whether during the holidays or anytime during the year, can be confident that their financial gifts and donated goods provide exponential benefits throughout their community. Monetary gifts can be given safely and securely through Goodwill's website, and they go directly to helping members of the community, such as Strope. A donation of clothing or household items gives belongings a second life and reduces waste. Goodwill's donation impact calculator provides detailed feedback on the effect even the smallest donations can have for people in the donor's community.

For more information about how your financial gift, donated goods and store purchases support efforts in local communities, visit goodwill.org/givegoodwill. For more information about GoodGuides, including how to become a mentor or mentee, visit goodwill.org/goodguides

Share your Goodwill donations on Facebook and Twitter using the hashtag #GiveGoodwill. Give smart this holiday season. #GiveGoodwill.

MORE ABOUT ORBI ROSARIO

Orbi Rosario, 38, is the director of the GoodGuides mentoring program for Goodwill Industries of Central Florida (Orlando), where he is dedicated to helping teens avoid making the choices he once made. Rosario relates to the youth, as he was a high-school dropout and has been homeless three times. Rosario turned his life around several times. When he dropped out of school at 16, he was a gang member and his mother sent him and an older brother back to Puerto Rico to live with their father. As an adult, Rosario moved back to Florida, where he helped run a community center, launched his own nonprofit ministry and worked as a substitute teacher. But it was when he joined Goodwill as part of the GoodGuides program in November 2010 that he found his true calling.

MORE ABOUT HANNAH STROPE

Hannah Strope and her twin sister are the first in their family to graduate from high school. Growing up, Strope was abused and didn't know her father. Due to family instability, she went to four different high schools across Florida. When she met her GoodGuides mentor, she was still in high school, working two jobs to support her mother (who is on disability) and extended family of 10 people all living together in one house. The pressure on her was immense and she dropped out of high school for a time. She felt destined "to be a statistic" and never graduate. In the midst of all this, Strope was in a car accident. When she hit the windshield, a previously undiscovered tumor ruptured. She credits Rosario to supporting her through the long recovery process. Despite missing a few weeks of school following the accident, she was able to graduate high school at age 16. The GoodGuides program not only gave her the willpower to finish high school, it also connected her with a volunteer opportunity at United Cerebral Palsy of Central Florida, where she worked with young people with disabilities. This has inspired her future career plans and she is now enrolled at Valencia College where she studies education and psychology, and plans to earn her PhD. She also works at Nike full time.

ABOUT GOODWILL INDUSTRIES INTERNATIONAL

Goodwill Industries International is a network of 165 community-based member organizations in the United States and Canada with a presence in 13 other countries. Goodwill is one of America's 20 most inspiring companies (Forbes, 2014). Goodwill organizations are innovative and sustainable social enterprises that help fund skills development, job training programs, employment placement services and other community-based programs by selling donated clothing and household items in more than 3,000 stores and online at shopgoodwill.com^®. Goodwill also keeps textiles and other goods out of landfills. Local Goodwill organizations also build revenue and create jobs by contracting with businesses and the government to provide a wide range of commercial services, including packaging and assembly, food services preparation, and document imaging and shredding. In 2014, more than 426,000 people in the United States and Canada used Goodwill's intensive one-on-one career services to prepare for employment. In addition, more than 24 million people used computers and mobile devices to access Goodwill education, training, mentoring and online learning services to strengthen their skills. To learn more, visit goodwill.org

To find a Goodwill location near you, use the online locator at Goodwill.org, use the Goodwill Locator app at goodwill.org/apps, or call (800) GOODWILL. Follow us on Twitter: @GoodwillIntl and @GoodwillCapHill, and find us on Facebook: GoodwillIntl.

SOURCE Goodwill Industries International