Goodwill Industries of Central North Carolina Blog

Editor’s Note: Triad Goodwill recently partnered with The Queen’s Foundation, Inc. to host the 13 attendees of the PowerHouse Project for a morning tour of the corporate facilities and to get outfits for their upcoming mentoring events.

13 Girls On The Path To Greatness
by Nadia Shirin Moffett, Executive Director of The Queen’s Foundation, Inc. (TQF)

I now know all about the saying for Goodwill, “I had no idea.” –a marketing concept created for the many Americans that have little to know true understanding of all that Goodwill does for people, communities and the environment.  For me, my first real interaction with Goodwill Industries that lead me to really having “an idea” of all that it does for our world was on my first visit to the Central North Carolina corporate office in April.  Along with one of my board members, I had a meeting with the marketing team of Goodwill Industries of Central North Carolina, also known as Triad Goodwill, to discuss how both organizations could partner together for TQF’s newest initiative launching summer 2011.

This summer, TQF has launched The PowerHouse Project,  selecting one high school, High Point Central High School (HPCHS) to participate in the pilot. After 45 nominations, we selected 13 young ladies to participate in the pilot. These young women come from various backgrounds, economically, culturally, and socially.  However for this summer, they would all live, work, and serve together and find their common denominator – which I like to call “powerhouse.”

The 13 “power girls” going through The PowerHouse Project were about to embark on an experience of a lifetime, exploring what TQF believes are the six characteristics of a powerful woman: Beauty, Character, Talent, Confidence, Accountability, and Vision. The girls would go through training under each of these characteristics.  In our quest for attacking the beauty component, we had partnered up with Linda Eisenstein of Clothes Befitting, a company to help women dress their best for their body type.  We planned an evening during the girl’s leadership training week for Linda to consult one-on-one with each of the girls.  This would assist the girls in understanding the right clothing choices to making each girl feel 100% and look her best in life and in her summer internship.  In our quest to do this, we knew we had to follow-up this training with implementation, so our brains began to turn about how we could find a sponsor to support our clothing needs for these girls before starting their internships!  Little did we know this idea would turn into an entire pamper day for the girls, including hair, facials, manicures and makeup.

I had no idea my eyes would be opened to a new world within Goodwill Industries, learning how beautiful a business model they have and how it equates to a powerful community impact.  So after several meetings, a proposal submitted by TQF, and a true expression of support from Chris Gorham, Director of Marketing at Triad Goodwill, and his entire team, we had a beautiful partnership created.

During the leadership training week (June 13-18, 2011) for our first class of The PowerHouse 2011, our 13 girls took a tour of Triad, learning all of Triad Goodwill’s services and business model initiatives. This tour ended in a surprise shopping excursion of Goodwill Industries. With a sponsorship of Triad Goodwill, Linda selected wardrobes for each of our powergirls already prepared for this Thursday visit.  Having just witnessed its impact and with a more “scholarly” understanding of what Goodwill does, the girls had a whole new level of appreciation for this opportunity, and believe me; they also had a blast trying on their new outfits!

In addition to their leadership training and internships, the 13 girls of The PowerHouse Project will be serving in their community, offering literacy programs to elementary school children falling behind in reading and writing. The tour and shopping trip were more than what I could have imagined, and now they were feeling prepared for their internship and powerful summer.

Goodwill Industries of Central North Carolina invested in these girls, knowing they would be advocates of change in our communities and inspiration to others.  This alone made the investment of donated clothes, a “business-worthy” win-win situation.  Through the girls’ tour that day, they had a chance to see all that Triad Goodwill does for our community and how businesses can make a significant difference.  Did you know that the store is only a very small part of the business model for Goodwill?  What I learned through TQF’s partnership with Triad Goodwill is that Triad Goodwill’s mission to change lives starts with giving people hope.  From offering classes, training, resources, and paid work while in transition, it is the catalyst to helping people who may have either at one time lost their way or just need a helping hand, get work and careers that they can then use to be positive contributors to their families and communities. Before this partnership, I just had no idea!

Goodwill Industries is a business that uses its profits (gifts) solely to invest it back into the lives of the adults it reaches to build their skills and confidence to be role models and providers to their families.  This kind of impact makes it easy to see how Triad Goodwill makes positive contributions to our community. This is why when I saw our 13 girls walk through the hallways of Triad Goodwill, I was so thankful to have built this partnership. On this day, they were able to see purpose in action. We together, TQF, Goodwill, and so many other non-profits tackling social and community needs, are touching lives and changing them for the better, for greatness.

Thank you Goodwill Industries of Central North Carolina for believing in and supporting The Queen’s Foundation and our mission.  We look forward to continuing a great partnership!

Moffett is the former Miss North Carolina USA 2010 and Executive Director for The Queen’s Foundation Inc. (TQF). TQF is a non-profit organization she founded in 2010 after her reign. The Queen’s Foundation’s mission is to inspire women for greatness by offering character building and life purpose promoting programs to middle and high school young women across the state of North Carolina. Programs target young women at various stages of development, from the young women who may have lost their way and need to be inspired back in the right direction, to the young women who are already on the right track and need that extra boost to understand their untapped potential and their social responsibility to their communities.