Unprecedented crisis calls for unprecedented solution

Unfortunately, the fact that unemployment in Metro Detroit has reached crisis level is no longer news. But, Goodwill Industries of Greater Detroit’s education, training and career services are more necessary now than ever before. From this necessity has evolved the one-of-a-kind “Broadcasting for Jobs” campaign that will commence at 6 a.m. tomorrow and last throughout the day. The effort will include a call to action broadcast across 11 top-rated Southeast Michigan radio stations simultaneously reaching out to a wide cross-section of individuals from all parts of Metro Detroit.

As you are driving to or from work, or even while you are at work during the day, we ask that you think about those in our community who have neither a commute to make nor a desk to work from because they need help securing employment. We invite you to be part the solution to the region’s unemployment crisis by tuning in to your favorite radio station tomorrow and urging others to do the same.

You and thousands of others will be encouraged to call (866) 964-GIVE or visit http://www.goodwilldetroit.org/ to donate to the fight against local unemployment. Just a few minutes of your time and a few dollars can help fellow Metro Detroiters secure job opportunities and take their lives in a positive new direction.

The stations on which Goodwill will be “Broadcasting for Jobs” Friday are:

· WCSX-FM (94.7)
· WDVD-FM (96.3)
· WJR-AM (760)
· WMGC-FM (105.1)
· WMXD-FM (92.3)
· WNIC-FM (100.3)
· WOMC-FM (104.3)
· WRIF-FM (101.1)
· WWJ-AM (950)
· WXYT-FM (97.1)
· WYCD-FM (99.5)

As many of you know, in just the past two years of our nearly 90-year history, Goodwill Industries of Greater Detroit has placed more than 2,500 Wayne, Oakland and Macomb county individuals into new jobs and provided assistance to thousands more in the region. Your support of Friday’s “Broadcasting for Jobs” effort will help us make a positive impact on an even greater number of our unemployed friends and neighbors.

To maintain that momentum, “Broadcasting for Jobs” will embrace a powerful medium to deliver a message of hope to an entire region. Please listen and contribute, if you are able. Your support will help our community become trained, trusted and ready to work.

Focus on the Economy, Creating Jobs

Well, this week, the Presidential races changed quite a bit for both Democrats and Republicans, as the field narrowed down to two candidates per party.

Now, it’s easier to focus on what each of the candidates are saying. For those of who are in the job creation business, now is the time to see what each of them have to say about how the U.S. economy can be improved and how we keep creating good jobs for our citizens.

Goodwill Industries of Greater Detroit excels creating opportunities within our own organization for good jobs or with our partners in the corporate community. Some of those corporate business relationships span many years.

For example, our partnership with DTE has been successful for more than 60 years and with Ford for more than 80 years.

A relationship you might not expect is ours with Downtown Detroit Partnership and the Clean Downtown partnership where Goodwill had and has more than100 employees and trainees working to keep Downtown Detroit clean and ready visitors at all times. The next time you are Downtown look for the Clean Downtown folks and know that many of them are getting a great chance to work through Goodwill - earning a first paycheck, getting a bank account for the first time and for many of them, reconnecting with their families.

That is what the power of work does for a person and that is what Goodwill is all about.

Unemployment: Numbers and Solutions

The State of Michigan’s unemployment rate is now at 7.6%. That was the lead sentence, more or less, in several recent news stories. But, the last line in one of the stories was most startling:

“The state’s labor force declined by 40,000 in 2007.”

Think of it this way, it’s like the entire city of Lincoln Park being out of a job.

Painful? Yes. Devastating? It doesn’t have to be.

There are actually thousands of job openings across the region and across the state. We just have to train the thousands of motivated people who want those jobs so they are qualified to fill them. That’s where Goodwill comes in.

We are focusing new efforts to train the future health care, customer service, restaurant and retail workers who will be qualified to fill the current and future job openings. We won’t be satisfied until everybody who wants a job gets a job. Until then, we are doing our part to bring down that unemployment number.