Ohio Valley Goodwill Honored with Community Inclusion Award from Butler DD!
Team Goodwill 2021 at Community Recognition Awards
The evening of June 24th marked the occasion of the 2021 Community Recognition Celebration presented by long-time Goodwill partner, Butler County Board of Developmental Disabilities (Butler DD). With a baseball-themed event held at Joe Nuxhall Miracle Fields, the Goodwill team; along with several hundred other guests, were treated to an evening filled with inspiring remarks from Keynote Speaker, Teddy Kremer, as well as those of Superintendent Lisa Guliano. In addition to the Community Impact awards presented, there were six additional major award categories . All of the award recipients were featured in videos where they shared their own personal stories of inclusion.
The 2021 Community Inclusion Award was presented to Ohio Valley Goodwill’s Employment Services and Job Coaching team represented by Employment Services Manager, Mark Leugers, during the Community Recognition event. The Community Inclusion award honors an outstanding provider who goes above and beyond to support people with disabilities to live their lives fully in the community. The Community Inclusion award was given to the Goodwill team in recognition of their extraordinary response to helping individuals adversely impacted by the pandemic. Ohio Valley Goodwill was also a featured Home Run sponsor of the 2021 Community Recognition event.
In March 2020, when mandatory business closures took effect, more than 150 people whom the organization’s Employment team had successfully placed in community employment were either laid off or jobs were eliminated. The abrupt sudden loss of these jobs was devastating to the placed individuals as well as to Goodwill’s team of Job Coaches; who provide the supports needed once individuals are placed into employment. Without warning, these team members very quickly had to provide a ” virtual” system of supports to keep individuals engaged and to work with employers to either re-instate the individuals once the mandates were relaxed or to create new positions. For the next three months, Goodwill’s Job Coaches worked diligently to help more than 125 people to return to their work situations and/or obtain new employment. All 150 individuals continue to receive support services through Goodwill. See the Community Inclusion Award video here https://youtu.be/9FqaqwyhZRI
It was this remarkable effort on the part of the Employment Services and Job Coaching team offered through Ohio Valley Goodwill which merited the recognition of the 2021 Community Inclusion Award. The organization congratulates our Job Coaching and Employment Services team members and is grateful for their on-going dedication and commitment to the individuals whom the organization serves.
In addition, three of Goodwill team members were singled out for the 2021 Community Impact award: Lisa Schneider, Asst. Director of DD Services; Lois Kramer, CARE Program Supervisor and Summer McGriff, Pre-Vocational Program Supervisor. All of these team members displayed extraordinary efforts in supporting individuals served by Goodwill who were negatively impacted by the pandemic. Our most sincere congratulations to these outstanding team members and a very sincere thank you for your efforts to help the people we serve to recover successfully from the challenges of the past year. Thank you to the Butler County Board of Developmental Disabilities for this important recognition of Goodwill’s commitment to community inclusion.
For more information about Goodwill’s award-winning Employment and Job Coaching services, please visit www.cincinnatigoodwill.org/services.
