Goodwill Industries Indiana to launch retail, social programs in Puerto Rico

Goodwill of Central & Southern Indiana is working with the Puerto Rican government and private sector to lay the groundwork for what will be the nonprofit’s debut on the island later this year, as Goodwill de Puerto Rico.
Kent A. Kramer, president of the Indiana operation, sat down for an exclusive interview with News is my Business to outline plans to launch two approximately 20,000-square-foot stores in the San Juan metropolitan area, creating 45 to 50 jobs each, and several social programs.
“We’re looking at October to be our first opening and another store probably in December. So, we’re getting really close,” he said, adding that the operation will include a warehouse and eventually, an outlet location. “We’ll begin accepting donations in Puerto Rico, giving people a great place to recycle their goods.”
The Indiana Goodwill operation set its sights on Puerto Rico, as it was one of a few U.S. jurisdictions without an assigned location.
“Our Goodwill has been around since 1930 and has been pretty aggressive in growth and trying to provide opportunities for people and we’ve been building in our territory and adding stores and adding programs and services [in Indiana], and we’ve been looking at where else we could do that,” said Kramer. “And with pretty much all of the U.S. being assigned with the exception of U.S. territories, we just raised our hand and said, what about Puerto Rico?”
“We knew that Goodwill has never had a presence in Puerto Rico and then we started doing research around retail and about some of our social service programs that we felt could be a fit,” he said.
Several of those programs already stand out as ideal for Puerto Rico, he said, including the Senior Community Service Employment Program, or SCSEP, which is an “on-the-job training and employment program designed to help those aged 55 and older update their jobs skills, build work experience and confidence, and continue to have economic security and well-being,” according to the nonprofit’s description.
SCSEP is a national employment and training program funded mostly by the U.S. Department of Labor, for which Kramer said Goodwill is applying to establish in Puerto Rico.
“We hope to have news for that by July or so,” he said.

Goodwill of Central & Southern Indiana also operates 16 adult high schools — which it licenses across other operations in North America — that it wants to establish on the island.
“With 550,000 working-age adults who don’t have a high school diploma in Puerto Rico, we think this is an opportunity for success here as well,” he said. “We’ve served about 5,000 students, graduate more than 1,000 adults every year and place them into competitive jobs after that. You could be 25, 30, 35 years old and earn your high school diploma and additional certifications at no charge and get placed in a job that meets your interests and needs.”
A third initiative, the Nurse-Family Partnership program, is a community health program through which Goodwill matches registered nurses with expectant mothers from the first trimester of pregnancy until the child is 2 years old.
“The ongoing visits [are] aimed at assisting parents and families in providing the very best start for their children during the earliest, most developmentally critical years,” according to Goodwill’s description.
The program is also federally funded “and we’re researching it and trying to figure out if that would be a good program for Puerto Rico,” Kramer said.
Goodwill to hire locally
Goodwill will scout locally for its programs, hiring social workers, nurses and teachers, as well as create job opportunities for individuals with disabilities or other barriers to employment, Kramer said.
“We employ a lot of people with disabilities, somebody with Down syndrome whose potential may be to work 10 hours a week at a retail outlet, or maybe a returning citizen who served time and they get out and need workforce training, and need life skills training and need a job that helps take care of the needs of their family. That’s a little different. They need 40 hours a week, right? You know, plus benefits and opportunity to grow,” Kramer emphasized.
“Our mission is to help people increase their independence and reach their potential, and the best way to do that is through employment,” he stressed, noting that he met this week with Puerto Rico Labor Secretary Gabriel Maldonado to discuss ways to increase Puerto Rico’s labor-force participation rate.
He also met with Manuel Cidre, secretary of Puerto Rico’s Department of Economic Development and Commerce, although Kramer noted that Goodwill is not receiving government incentives to bring the operation to Puerto Rico.
The ‘thrifting culture’ is in Puerto Rico
As for its retail operations, Kramer expressed excitement about joining Puerto Rico’s “thrifting culture,” which he said is as strong among the 20-something crowd as it is for the older groups.
“The thrifting culture is here. The 20-something demographic, they even call it ‘thrifting’ here as well. We’re really excited about that. I’ve been at Goodwill for 22 years now and one of the things I really appreciate about our shopper base is that it could be little kids looking at toys, it could be, you know, teenagers, and they’re looking for that cool clothing item, and people in their 20s and 30s looking for household goods to start their home and dishes and furniture and those types of things,” he said. “There aren’t many retailers where you have that type of blend of shoppers.”
“But what we have seen in the last five years or so is just this huge uptick in that younger population in there thrifting; it’s a thing. When I was growing up, it was more of a necessity type thing. And we still cater to the individuals who may have this necessity,” Kramer added.
The nonprofit will accept individual and corporate donations, “and we will be good stewards of that donation. We’ll put it to good use,” he said.
The executive noted that the revenue generated at the local Goodwill operation will be pumped back in to support local job creation and programs.
In anticipation of its arrival, Goodwill has joined several local trade groups, including the Puerto Rico Chamber of Commerce and the Puerto Rico Retailers Association.
Good evening my name is Anna Tubens and when I lived in Orlando I shopped Goodwill weekly. Now I live here in Carolina, PR and I’m so happy it’s coming to town. How can I fill a job application THANK YOU