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EP # 229 Goodwill's Mission in Southwest Florida Uncovered
Ashley Price from Goodwill of Southwest Florida joins us to share her remarkable journey from academia to becoming a key player in local fundraising. Learn how Goodwill is changing lives in Southwest Florida through workforce development, small business support, and affordable housing initiatives. Ashley addresses common misconceptions about the organization, highlighting its local governance and unwavering commitment to meeting the unique needs of communities in Collier, Lee, Hendry, Glades, and Charlotte counties. She also delves into how Goodwill is stepping up to assist families caring for loved ones with intellectual or developmental disabilities, making Medicaid waiver applications more accessible and the process less daunting.
In our conversation, Ashley passionately discusses Goodwill's community engagement efforts and their enthusiastic participation in local events. Her excitement about making a positive impact in the region is infectious, and she invites listeners to suggest local businesses for future features on the Good Neighbor Podcast. Discover how Goodwill serves as a supportive neighbor and explore opportunities to get involved with an organization that's dedicated to making a meaningful difference. Whether you're interested in philanthropy, community service, or just love stories of local heroes, this episode is not to be missed.
Goodwill Industries of Southwest Florida
Ashley Price
5100 Tice Street Fort Myers, FL, United States, Florida 33905
239-995-2106
info@goodwillswfl.org
goodwillswfl.org
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, cabo, jim Schaller.
Speaker 2:Welcome Good Neighbors to episode number 229 of the Good Neighbor Podcast. Today we have Good Neighbor Ashley Price from Goodwill of Southwest Florida. Welcome.
Speaker 3:Hi, thank you for having me.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Always a pleasure to get to meet people in the community and share with our listeners what they do, so let's jump right in and watch you share a little bit about what you do over at Goodwill.
Speaker 3:Sure. So I always like to say I have the honor, but also the challenge of fundraising for Goodwill Southwest Florida. I say that because there's a lot of misconceptions about Goodwill and what we do, so anytime I have the opportunity to share that, I'm really happy to do that.
Speaker 2:Absolutely so. Let's talk about how you got involved in all this to start with.
Speaker 3:Sure. So I actually started my career about eight years ago at the University of Miami Business School. I did alumni relations and development there, but I'm originally from Southwest Florida. I grew up in Naples, and so it was always my hope to come back home, and so, during lockdown in 2020, I saw that there was a job that popped up in Southwest Florida for Goodwill, for what I do, and I came here, fell in love with our mission and, you know, fortunately got the job, and now I'm here four years in.
Speaker 2:You're our back and loving it Absolutely, helping out the community. So let's talk about challenges. You mentioned fundraising. Are there challenges involved in doing that?
Speaker 3:Absolutely. I mean, I think in general, fundraising is a challenge because you're essentially a salesperson for the best thing you could sell, which is something that is going to better the local community, and then, of course, a lot of people don't understand what Goodwill does, and so it's really having to make sure you find educated donors and educate the community along the way. So that is a challenge but, I, enjoy doing it.
Speaker 2:You know that's it. It's a good challenge. You got to be passionate about what you do and love what you do, and it sounds like you do. So let's talk about myths or misconceptions surrounding, maybe just Goodwill in general.
Speaker 3:Sure.
Speaker 2:That we could clear up for our listeners. Absolutely so.
Speaker 3:Goodwill in general Sure that we could clear up for our listeners. Absolutely so. Goodwill is a nonprofit. We are all anonymous agencies. So Goodwill Southwest Florida is Collier County, lee, hendry, glades and Charlotte. We have our own board of directors and our own CEO. So we are local. Because Goodwill was set up to understand and address the fact that people in Maryland, where GII is the Goodwill Industries International, they can't really tell us in Southwest Florida what really hurts us, what makes us thrive, what we're seeing every day, unless we're governed locally. Absolutely yeah, so it's really. It's really important for people to understand that because we always get the question you know, you know your CEO doesn't even live here. He makes you know there's this made up man called Mark Curran which doesn't even exist and he's made two point five million dollars. And you know we don't help the community.
Speaker 2:You just give us our donated goods, we sell it and we're sitting on top of a bunch of money which is just absolutely not true and hurts us every day but also really hurts the people we're trying to support and serve in Southwest Florida, Absolutely, and then they give in goodwill, just like you said, in general gives you the opportunity to address the local needs and so forth as well too, right yeah?
Speaker 3:absolutely so. Our mission programs there are four focuses, because that's what our local community needs. So we focus on workforce development, small business development, housing, affordable and attainable housing for low-income, seniors and individuals with physical disabilities, as well as adults with disabilities. There's amazing nonprofits for children, but when they grow out of the school system, it's a desert of resources. And so those are the four focuses in the kind of sectors that we focus on.
Speaker 2:Now speaking alongos. Do you notice anything changing or trending lately?
Speaker 3:Absolutely, and we thankfully have a very agile board and that really lets us kind of change with the need of the community. And I'll give you an example. So we go and speak to our legislators every year you know, collier County delegation, lee County and I go and speak about what we do so that the legislators can know and tell their constituents, right, they run into the problem. Well, goodwill can help you. You know, go there, we always stay for public input and at the end a lot of individuals had people that they cared about that had a disability, mostly children that were aging out of the school system, and they were like I need to help with funding.
Speaker 3:Well, the legislators are like well, there's this thing called Medicaid waiver. It's out there, but the problem is is there's a gap of reaching that resource? It's very complicated. You know, I'm I'm educated, I work in the sphere and that form, just, you know, crazy to me and so there's a great need there. So back in 2023, and now 2024, we've been helping families sign up for that Medicaid waiver and really just sitting next to them during that journey, and it's all a free service that we provide. But there's such an uptick of individuals in Southwest Florida that are or are caring for a loved one with intellectual or developmental disability. So you know we're definitely seeing an uptick. There are caring for a loved one with intellectual or developmental disability.
Speaker 2:So you know we're definitely seeing an uptick there. Like you mentioned, most people are I don't want to say diverse, but it's it's. They have trouble asking for help number one. But then when you make that process difficult, that makes it even more intimidating for them and you know, having people like you help walk through that I'm sure helps a lot of families.
Speaker 3:A lot of these families are living in survival mode too. Right, they're just trying to get day to day and through it and facing their own challenges outside of their loved one. Right, they might not even know fully how to use a computer. They've never been educated in it, they don't know how to access these services, and so you know, we definitely try to address the family holistically as well.
Speaker 2:Perfect, perfect. So you mentioned you were from here originally and now you're back. Welcome back. But I'm sure your job is very demanding and you have a little bit of free time. So when you do get that opportunity, what do you enjoy doing outside of work?
Speaker 3:So I have a seven year old, so obviously first and foremost love being with him and watching him grow and taking him to play dates. But I also love hiking. I didn't realize, even though we're so flat here in Southwest Florida there's some gorgeous trails and really enjoying just getting out in nature and connecting and kind of slowing down. You know we're all so fast-paced and it's stressful and we all have so much on the line, but getting out in nature and kind of being away from it all really, you know, calms me and helps me even better the next day.
Speaker 2:And that's the beauty of living in Florida is we do have that opportunity to get out and do a lot of that. And you know there's a lot that most people haven't explored or even realized that we have out here.
Speaker 3:I had no idea I had never been down a hiking trail in Southwest Florida until I got back here. So it's been. It's been really nice to discover it.
Speaker 2:Love it Perfect. So until I got back here. So it's been really nice to discover it, love it Perfect. So is there one thing you wish our listeners knew about Goodwill, that maybe they wouldn't be so familiar with.
Speaker 3:Sure, I mean really that you know we are out in the community. Our stores help fund and employ over 1,100 individuals in just our five-county area, so those are 75% of which self-identify with a disability or disadvantage. So our employees are our mission first, and then, with those four focuses I mentioned earlier, we support about 25,000 people each year and when a hurricane comes through that'll jump up to 35,000, 40,000. Helping people with vouchers, getting FEMA support out there and I just want listeners to understand you know we're here, we're in the community, we're local and we're just so ready to help the community as it grows and and helping people thrive, because when we all do better, we all do better as a community.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. And then you mentioned as the community grows, which it has been for some several years down here in Southwest Florida, so does the need as well.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:So how would our listeners go about contacting you if they wanted to learn more or make a donation?
Speaker 3:Absolutely. So you can go to goodwillswfl. org forward slash gift and you can give directly online. 93 cents of every dollar that's brought into our organization goes directly to our mission services, which is a really great standard along nonprofits. We do that because we're a very small admin team. I overlook our development, overlook our events, I overlook our government advocacy, and so you can trust that when you donate with us at our online or you reach out to me personally, that you are making an investment that will have a true impact.
Speaker 2:Very good, any last words for our listeners?
Speaker 3:I mean just that we're so excited to be here and we're really doing a lot to get in front of people and please, just if you see something and you feel like Goodwill can help, or it would be a great opportunity to have Goodwill at a certain service fair we're really excited to be there.
Speaker 2:Perfect Ashley. It's been a pleasure getting to know you and learn a little bit more about Goodwill. Thank you for being such a good neighbor and I hope to see you out in the community soon.
Speaker 3:Thank you Jim.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast, estero. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNPEstero. com. That's GNPEstero. com, or call 239-296-2621.