Commentary: Donating your old stuff means training, jobs for others

Do you know what’s lurking in your garage? Under your bed? In your closet?

It’s opportunity.

For the last 90 years, Goodwill of Orange County stores have used revenue from the resale of donated goods to fund programs and services that help local people — including veterans and individuals with disabilities — find employment and receive job-skills training. It also pays for a growing and increasingly valuable set of services, including Wellness for Work initiatives, physical therapy and fitness classes designed especially for people with physical disabilities or chronic illness, all available at the Goodwill Fitness Center.

The money raised from reselling your old stuff connects unemployed individuals with employment opportunities, helping them achieve personal and professional goals. Goodwill helps people with cognitive and physical disabilities achieve independence through work.

In other words, your donations help those with barriers to employment become a productive presence in society. Not a bad second act for old clothes.

In Orange County, the lives of more than 16,000 program participants are changed every day because Goodwill is giving them the training and opportunities to work. The power of work changes lives.

For example, the Goodwill Employment WORKS program provides individualized job placement and retention services to adults with a mental illness. Each program participant works with an employment specialist to identify promising job opportunities and succeed in the workforce.

Our Assistive Technology Program introduces innovative technologies to people, helping to give a voice to those who cannot speak and more engagement in life to those with physical, cognitive or neurological impairments.

Meanwhile, our Enduring Independence program reaches out to local businesses to highlight the benefits of hiring a veteran, while providing vets with job training to help them transition into civilian life.

This is the power of unwanted “junk.” Every pair of jeans donated allows someone in the community to receive six minutes of career counseling. Every book donated funds an additional minute. Every DVD pays for three more minutes of training.

This holiday season, as you make way for new stuff, clear out what you no longer want and turn it into the opportunities for neighbors truly in need.

FRANK TALARICO JR. is president and CEO of Goodwill of Orange County.