Everyday, we are working to adjust to the new realities facing us as we navigate through these uncertain times. We are committed to keeping you updated on our status and how we are serving our community.  On March 16 we made the difficult but, we believe, necessary decision to voluntarily close our stores, attended donation centers and career centers to the public.

You may be wondering, however, especially in light of the Governor issuing a stay at home order last week, why some of our business operations continue.

  1. Our primary mission at Goodwill of North Georgia is to put people to work. With an increasing number of businesses closing, many have an immediate need for employment. Goodwill is here to help. Even though our career centers are closed, we are currently working with more than 35 companies with urgent staffing needs and hundreds of our neighbors who are looking for work. We have moved our career center support online exclusively to be able to continue to safely support our jobseekers. Those looking for work or using this time to prepare to return to the workforce can find a number of resources and one-on-one support from our job coaches at www.careerconnector.org or by calling us at 1.844.344.WORK.

  2. The generosity of our donors has continued and for that we are grateful. While we have closed our attended donation centers and greatly reduced operating hours at our store donor doors, we are still seeing our community support our mission by donating their gently used goods. We have taken steps to reduce the exposure of our staff and our donors with a contactless donation process and new procedures to safely handle donations. We continue to staff our donor doors to reduce the chances of dumping and vandalism as donations continue to come in. We ask for your help in these efforts and ask that you only make donations during our posted operating hours, Monday – Saturday 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM at our stores. Click here to find your nearest location.

  3. Our online shopping platform helps to support our mission work. With our brick and mortar stores closed, the revenue source that powers our mission has been greatly reduced, however we are able to continue our online shopping platform. We know as people are practicing social distancing, they are still shopping online. We can safely post items online daily allowing our shoppers an online treasure hunt and generating much needed resources to support our career services support needed for job seekers during the crisis.

We hope this information will help you understand how we are making decisions about our business during this time. Our top priority now and since the beginning of this unprecedented event has been the health and safety of our employees, shoppers, donors and jobseekers. It is, however, essential for us to maintain limited business operations to ensure that we are meeting the needs of our community now and that we will be here to serve you when this is all over.

Most importantly, we’ll be able to continue our work with jobseekers like Krystle Ives. Read her story here to see how she overcame her circumstances and worked with us for her second chance.

All of us at Goodwill of North Georgia look forward to greeting you warmly once our doors can safely reopen, but for now take care of yourself and others, stay safe and stay healthy. And as always, thanks for your support of our mission to put people to work.