Goodwill Industries and Coming Together Stark County Agree to Collaboration

October 28, 2020 – The Boards of Directors of Goodwill Industries of Greater Cleveland and East Central Ohio and Coming Together Stark County voted to enter into a collaboration with each other.

Beginning in November, the two agencies will be working together to combat prejudice and inequity, and to promote diversity and inclusion through cooperative efforts.

“Through the years, Goodwill and Coming Together have had the pleasure of working together on a number of fronts,” explained Goodwill Industries President and CEO Anne Richards. “This official collaboration between our organizations will create new opportunities for programming and outreach. Many of the same issues Coming Together strives to address; such as, systemic racism, chronic unemployment, generational poverty, limited access to quality healthcare, lack of consistent transportation, inadequate childcare, etc. impacts the very individuals Goodwill serves every day. Together, our collective missions complement each other as we strive to remove these societal barriers. Both organizations are very excited about this collaboration.”

Goodwill Industries is headquartered in Stark County but serves resident in 10 counties: Cuyahoga, Geauga, part of Lake, Stark, Tuscarawas, Carroll, Jefferson, and Harrison in Ohio, and Brooke and Hancock in West Virginia. The 102-year-old non-profit has 27 different outreach programs.

Coming Together Stark County was first established in 1998 as the Stark County Town Hall on Race Relations. More recently, they have been at the forefront of leading community conversations on racial injustice. The non-profit was one of the original partners at The Community Campus at Goodwill (now called The Ken Weber Community Campus at Goodwill).

“Our organization’s mission to fight prejudice and promote inclusion has never been more important following the racial justice protests of this past summer,” explained Connie Rubin, Board President of Coming Together Stark County. “We look forward to working closely with Goodwill to expand diversity training opportunities for businesses and organizations, as well as educational seminars to help individual citizens understand the complexities of prejudice and how they can play an active role in creating inclusive, welcoming communities and work places.”

Representatives from each organization will meet to further develop this collaboration in the coming months.