THOMASVILLE — On March 15, the Goodwill Community Career Center held an event in collaboration with Success for Life in celebration of their first anniversary of being active in Thomas County.

Tanya Gavin, the manager of the center, said that the partnership for the event worked out well, because it introduced Success for Life to the community alongside their celebration.

“We have been open for a year and that’s their introduction to our community and it kind of worked out as a good thing,” she said.

She said that the community career center was a place that helped those in need of professional advice and training, as well as aid in getting a job, started.

“We are a center that somebody can walk in, we can help them build a resume, set up accounts with Indeed or any other job searching entities,” Gavin said. “When someone walks in, they are usually looking for one of three things.”

Those three things, she said, consisted of either needing a job, needing additional training to grow within a job or needing certification, all of which the center supplies for no charge with the help of local funding.

“So we have training for a variety of things, probably about 10,000 courses at our fingertips,” Gavin said. “Goodwill in general partners with Google, so we have a whole IT series, as well as, we’re currently teaching a prep course for the Florida CNA certification, we’re doing that through a hybrid course, which is our typical way to teach.”

Courses include computer basics, digital media, financial literacy, preparation for getting a GED, food service, healthcare, housekeeping and many more, alongside an upcoming partnership with Georgia Tech to provide certifications for training in supply chains and logistics.

The center also offers a rotation of 12 workshops on Tuesdays and Thursdays that prepare attendees for jobs and gives them tools to thrive within new workspaces.

“I teach one called Upscaling Your Communication,” Gavin said. “So, I talk about pieces of communication in the workplace that we can improve upon, changing our perceptions and our perspectives so that we can have better communication and we also have a resume writing workshop.”

To aid in their mission, Gavin said that the Goodwill Community Career Center even has a career navigator for those needing assistance with the step-by-step process of getting to their next professional goal.

“We have a career navigator on staff that is very well-versed in taking someone from where they are to where they want to be and building those steps,” she said.

Celebrating the work they’ve done over the past year, Gavin said that they introduced Success for Life, a reentry organization, to attendees.

“Their mission is to help reentry participants gain success in their next phase of life,” Gavin said. “So, they’ll help with housing, they’ll help with getting stabilized in all their basic needs, and also, the way we’ve partnered with them is through our training. They have a case worker that works directly with them and we work with that case worker and the participants in tandem to help develop their success rates of avoiding recidivism.”

Giving recently released inmates a support system, Success for Life works within 14 local counties and will be holding monthly meetings in Thomas County.

Gavin said that the celebration and introduction consisted of a simple presentation that offered snacks to attendees, adding that the event really pumped up the center staff for the next year.

“We learned about Success for Life in their powerpoint presentation,” she said. “We kept it pretty simple, we had snacks and treats. We pumped ourselves up to win another day!”

More information on the Goodwill Community Career Center can be found at their physical location on 1955 GA Highway 122 or by calling 229-262-3768.