Goodwill is announcing plans for a $20 million campus near Charlotte-Douglas International Airport. The campus will serve as Goodwill’s new regional headquarters and provide job training and social welfare programs.
The new Goodwill Opportunity Campus will sit just off Wilkinson Boulevard. Goodwill estimates it will serve more than 10,000 people with food and nutrition services, child care, and legal help. But Michael Elder, CEO of Goodwill Industries of the Southern Piedmont, says the main focus of the new campus will be on employment.
“Most people know that Goodwill is a place where you donate your stuff," he says, "But our true mission is all about job training, job placement, and job creation.”
When the campus opens in 2016, it will include two retail stores, a mock store, a cafe, a credit union, and satellite locations for other nonprofit agencies.
Goodwill has already raised $16 million of the needed $20 million for the campus. $4 million of that comes from corporate donors and nonprofit groups, like the United Way. The organization is now reaching out to the public for the remaining $4 million.
Goodwill hopes to break ground early next year.
