Goodwill Moves from Santa Cruz to Salinas

Expanded New Headquarters to Fulfill Mission to Communities It Serves

SALINAS — Goodwill Central Coast has completed a more than a year long process of planning, renovating, and moving their headquarters from Santa Cruz to Salinas. The move will increase its operating space, improve efficiency and better fulfill its mission to help people find employment.

Since Goodwill Central Coast covers Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Luis Obispo counties, moving to Salinas centralizes its headquarters and with a bigger, more modern facility, will boost its efforts to train people in new careers and find them employment.

“It was a big decision on our part,” said Ed Durkee, Goodwill Central Coast President and CEO. “But this new facility was needed to meet the demands of our environmentally conscious community. The building is more modern, safer, more efficient, more centralized, bigger and can take more donations.”

The new facility, located at 1566 Moffett St. in Salinas, is more than double the size of the Santa Cruz location, and will house administrative offices, e-commerce, a salvage center, a donation center, a processing area and an outlet store. The new headquarters will encompass 140 jobs. All employees who worked at the Santa Cruz headquarters have been offered jobs in Salinas or at other sites in Santa Cruz County. The relocation will also provide a chance to increase Goodwill’s employee base in a more centralized location and to better help the local community.

A grand opening ribbon-cutting ceremony with Monterey Peninsula Chamber of Commerce and Salinas Valley Chamber of Commerce will be held at the new headquarters from 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. on September 20th. The Mayor of Salinas will be on hand to cut the ribbon.

Goodwill Central Coast, which covers Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Luis Obispo counties, is one of the region’s largest social enterprise and operates three career centers, five donation processing centers, 25 attended donation stations, 16 stores, and a vocational school. It also employs about 600 in three counties.

For many people, the barriers to employment are too high to overcome alone. Barriers like homelessness, military service, single parenting, incarceration, addiction, and job displacement can define a person’s identity, even when they have so much more to offer.

“Goodwill’s goal is to ensure all of their community members know their worth and gain the skills and confidence to land a job that could turn their life around.” Anne Guthrie, VP of Workforce Services.

Each year Goodwill assists more than 13,000 job seekers to get back to work and reclaim financial and personal independence. Goodwill provides a positive learning environment that creates brighter futures through connecting people to meaningful work. Some of the ways Goodwill helps people find employment include programs on culinary arts, catering services, free tax preparation and subsidized job placement.

The Goodwill Central Coast chapter, a private 501(c)3 non-profit organization, began in 1928 in the city of Santa Cruz and today has expanded into three counties: Santa Cruz, Monterey, and San Luis Obispo.

Goodwill believes that everyone deserves the chance to join their team, which is why Goodwill Central Coast is an equal opportunity employer and an advocate for the Americans with Disabilities Act. To deliver their services, Goodwill relies on partnerships with federal and state workforce development agencies, as well as strong relationships with the local businesses that provide employment opportunities.

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Goodwill Central Coast, 566 Moffett St., Salinas (831) 423-8611 http://www.ccgoodwill.org