Job seekers speak with representatives from several area businesses at the "Employment: Expanding Our Opportunities" job fair.

Toni Simmons believes in second chances. As a trainer for Goodwill’s Employability and Life Skills program at the Sarpy County Probation Center, Toni works to help people on probation find their place in the workforce. Participants work with Toni on life skills training, preparing resumes, mock interviews, and searching for jobs. After employment has been found, they continue to follow-up with her to assure the new job is going smoothly.

As another resource for her participants, Toni helped organize the “Employment: Expanding Our Opportunities” job fair on Wednesday, May 16.

She organized the event to be held at the probation center so she could observe the participants’ interactions with employers. Even if the participants didn’t land a job from Wednesday’s job fair, Toni can help them learn from the experience and continue to build job skills.

The job fair brought employers Sitel, Job Source USA, West, Hilton, Gallup and Creighton University. LaQuela Weathers, the “Coupon Queen,” offered advice on using coupons and checking store sales to save money. In just two hours, 71 job seekers made their way through the fair.

KETV stopped by and talked to a couple job seekers. Learn more about some of them at KETV.com.

The job fair is open to the public.

Individuals are encouraged to dress appropriately and bring their resumes as some interviews will be conducted during the event.

Companies participating in the event include: UPS, KwikShop, Sitel, Job Source USA, WEST, Hilton, Gallup and Creighton University.

LaQuela Weathers, “The Coupon Queen”, will also be on-hand to share her secrets to couponing success.

For more information contact Toni Simmons at 402-593-1523 or Julie Micek at 402-593-4416.

• Five easy ways to go green, from Daily Danny. These aren’t your usual no-brainers. Take this one, for example: “Take a minute to pull your refrigerator a few inches away from the kitchen wall. By allowing extra air in the back, the condenser coils will work more efficiently because of the increased air circulation.” He has four more where that came from.
• Make a candle holder out of a used water bottle, from Crafting a Green World. And while you’re at it, if you insist on buying bottled water, here are ten more.
• Do you want a garden but have no yard? Check out this drawbridge window garden from TreeHugger, or this pallet-to-garden tutorial from Life on the Balcony.
• While you’re stuck on your little fire escape / balcony / non-yard, maybe you’d be interested in this portable deck.
• I can’t match that segue, but speaking of Segways and two-wheeled transportation, here is a brief tutorial on how to restore an old bike.
• Remember our Month of Erin Wearin’ Goodwill? If you liked that, you’ll love Coriander’s One Dress for One Month project. She’s wearing one dress throughout the entire month of May.

Have a great weekend!

This love of gardening and my ever-expanding arsenal of crops means that I need a good way to identify my plants and a good way to start them.

sustainablog.org

One of Sustainablog’s 5 DIY indoor gardening projects is to use a phonebook as a seedbed. They’re biodegradable, they’ll help your seedlings grow straight, and — best of all — no matter how much you wish otherwise, someone is going to bring you a new one every year!

So how do you remember what you planted? Sure, if I wait long enough, I’ll be able to figure out which ones are the tomatoes and which ones are the spinach, but TreeHugger has put together a tutorial on using old drink cups to make plant tags. And while it doesn’t have the legitimacy of an accompanying online tutorial, I also use old plastic drink cups — bottoms cut off — to protect my seedlings from birds. The rabbits in my yard are either too polite or too dumb to go eat the things in my garden, but I’ve found that my neighborhood birds see seedlings and think “I should pluck that.” So by placing a drink cup upside down with the bottom cut out, the little guys can get their sun and water while also being shielded from the birds.

It’s not too late to plant your garden, so grab your empty fast food cups and phonebook and get started!

From Growth to Green Growth — A Framework

Green growth is about making growth processes resource-efficient, cleaner and more resilient without necessarily slowing them. This paper aims at clarifying these concepts in an analytical framework and at proposing foundations for green growth. The green growth approach proposed here is based on (1) focusing on what needs to happen over the next 5-10 years before the world gets locked into patterns that would be prohibitively expensive and complex to modify and (2) reconciling the short and the long term, by offsetting short-term costs and maximizing synergies and economic co-benefits. This, in turn, increases the social and political acceptability of environmental policies. This framework identifies channels through which green policies can potentially contribute to economic growth. However, only detailed country- and context-specific analyses for each of these channels could reach firm conclusion regarding their actual impact on growth. Finally, the paper discusses the policies that can be implemented to capture these co-benefits and environmental benefits. Since green growth policies pursue a variety of goals, they are best served by a combination of instruments: price-based policies are important but are only one component in a policy tool-box that can also include norms and regulation, public production and direct investment, information creation and dissemination, education and moral suasion, or industrial and innovation policies.

The Promise and Problems of Pricing Carbon: Theory and Experience

Because of the global commons nature of climate change, international cooperation among nations will likely be necessary for meaningful action at the global level. At the same time, it will inevitably be up to the actions of sovereign nations to put in place policies that bring about meaningful reductions in the emissions of greenhouse gases. Due to the ubiquity and diversity of emissions of greenhouse gases in most economies, as well as the variation in abatement costs among individual sources, conventional environmental policy approaches, such as uniform technology and performance standards, are unlikely to be sufficient to the task. Therefore, attention has increasingly turned to market-based instruments in the form of carbon-pricing mechanisms. We examine the opportunities and challenges associated with the major options for carbon pricing: carbon taxes, cap-and-trade, emission reduction credits, clean energy standards, and fossil fuel subsidy reductions.

Next Generation Recycling and Waste Reduction: Building on the Success of Pennsylvania’s 1988 Legislation

The Municipal Waste Planning, Recycling, and Waste Reduction Act (Act 101 of 1988) keeps millions of tons of materials out of landfills every year. It supports a multi-billion dollar industry that provides tens of thousands of jobs. It also probably affects human environmental behavior more than any other statute in state history. And it reduces greenhouse gas emissions at the same time because of the materials and energy that are saved.

Yet the program is now rudderless and drifting. While the Act contains specific goals, those goals have either been met or ignored, and no new goals have been set. It is impossible to say with a reasonable level of confidence whether recycling of Act 101 materials has increased or decreased over the past decade, let alone by how much. Per capita waste disposal is about the same now as it was when the Act was passed, and was much higher before the current economic downturn.

This Article is a collaboration with law students who learned to “reduce, reuse, recycle” in elementary school. They are part of the first generation who grew up under Act 101.

This Article recommends that Pennsylvania set new and more ambitious recycling and waste reduction goals, use accurate and accessible data to measure progress, and once again give priority to public education on recycling and waste reduction. This Article also contains many specific recommendations for reducing the amount of waste that is disposed of, and for increasing the amount of material that is recycled. These include expansion of the municipalities required to recycle as well as the materials to be included in recycling, greater emphasis on commercial and institutional recycling, requiring the use of “pay-as-you-throw” systems, use of the grant program to support innovations in recycling and waste reduction, and creation of an honor roll to recognize companies for their contributions to recycling and waste reduction. Finally, it recommends stable and permanent financial support for the program.

These recommendations would lead to a more dynamic and effective program – a program more capable of turning waste into economic opportunity and job creation. These recommendations provide a platform for a serious conversation about the future direction of this program. To ensure that the opportunities of this program are fully available to the next generation of Pennsylvanians, including children who are now in elementary school, that conversation needs to begin now.

AbilityOne received a special visitor last month!

Representative Lee Terry visited Offutt Air Force Base’s onsite day care Friday, April 6, 2012 which houses Goodwill’s very own AbilityOne custodial crew.

This visit was scheduled for several reasons — first of all, to meet and greet the hardworking AbilityOne employees as well as the managers and team leads, and secondly, to encourage Rep. Terry to become an AbilityOne Champion. An AbilityOne Champion is a federal government employee who fully believes in the mission of the AbilityOne Program and is doing everything in his or her power to provide employment opportunities for people with disabilities.

Rep. Terry visited with all of the AbilityOne Community Rehabilitation Programs in Omaha and Bellevue, which include the Black Hills Program on Offutt Air Force Base as well. His visit gave him the opportunity to hear firsthand about the AbilityOne Program and how successful our employees have been in the program.

Rep. Terry gained valuable knowledge about the AbilityOne Program, which we hope will fuel his fire to advocate for the program in the near future.

Rep. Terry (left) and a member of the Offutt daycare staff chat with Sara Crawford (right), an AbilityOne Team Lead.

From left to right, a member of the Offutt daycare staff, Rep. Terry, AbilityOne Program Manager Herman Brown and another member of the daycare staff.

• We hear all about how the latest Drive for Drives went…
• We meet Jennifer Croudy, our newest Manager of the Quarter, and Heather Carrico, our latest Employee of the Month…
• We hear about a potentially scary incident at the Denney Building where safety prevailed…
• And we learn about the success of the Denney Building’s recycling services…
• We find out about the expansion of Goodwill Omaha’s grounds maintenance services…
• YouthBuild students weigh in on a classic “men vs women” debate…
• Another exciting word search…
• Birthdays, anniversaries and new hires…
• …and more!

Visit our Publications page to download your copy today!

Work Experience Trainer Sarah Lorsung Tvrdik / omaha.com

In Creating niche from passion for fashion, reporter Valerie Novotny profiled Sarah, one of our Work Experience trainers, for how she has taken her interest in fashion and turned it from a hobby to a freelance career as a stylist, costumer and writer.

She got into the styling game through her husband, Jonathan Tvrdik, whom she met in high school and who is one of the co-founders of local film production company H-Minus Productions. When her husband struggled finding a costumer for various films and videos, he turned to the most stylish person he knew: his wife.

Through her work with her husband’s films, Lorsung Tvrdik found other jobs costuming for local independent theater companies and area fashion photo shoots.

She was an unconventional costumer. Instead of sewing pieces from scratch for the productions, she would turn to one of her favorite hobbies, thrifting.

“Working full time at Goodwill really helped when it came to finding costumes,” she said. “I was in the stores all the time anyway.”

Director of Workforce Services Elizabeth Startzer also has a knack for thrifting, but she was featured in the paper for how she’s using second-hand and vintage items to decorate her wedding this Saturday.

Workforce Services Director Elizabeth Startzer / omaha.com

In Brides go vintage, save bucks, reporter Cara Pesek spoke with several brides-to-be, second-hand retailers and wedding planners about the growing trend in using antique, vintage or thrifted items to make their weddings more unique (and sometimes significantly less expensive).

“I just love old things,” said Startzer, director of Workforce Services at Goodwill Industries.

That will be evident at her wedding on Saturday.

Startzer will wear her grandmother’s earrings and will carry a vintage handkerchief that both her mother and her sister carried at their weddings.

She’ll decorate the tables for the reception with old vases and silver serving trays handed down from her grandparents or picked up at secondhand stores and garage sales. Rustic boxes made of barn wood will hold flower arrangements. And a makeshift parlor filled with vintage couches and chairs — trucked in via U-Haul by Startzer’s Illinois-based wedding planner — will give guests a homey place to sit near the dance floor.

Assembling these things has taken a lot of time and care. But Startzer, like a growing number of brides, turned to vintage for several reasons.

She’s using old things to keep her wedding price tag in check, to be sure, but that’s only part of it. Using vases and silver that belonged to her grandparents will ensure that even the centerpieces have special meaning. Her specific mix of old glassware, furniture and other decorations will be unique to her wedding. And perhaps most importantly, her personality and that of her future husband are reflected in their wedding day decor.

“Everything that we’re incorporating, it’s really us to a T,” said Startzer, who described herself as a “girly girl” and her groom as a “manly man” — hence the blend of antique vases and barn wood.

Slow Fashioned has put together six tips for making your wardrobe a little more eco-friendly:

ACCESSORIZE

Mixing up your basic wardrobe with a funky vintage hat, brightly colored scarf, or sparkling jewelry can afford you thousands of different combinations and unique looks! Accessories offer an endless array of combinations when added to a basic wardrobe.
1 Scarf x (worn 5 different ways) = 5 Different Looks

QUALITY OVER QUANTITY

Make your shopping decisions based on quality rather than quantity. Classic garments that won’t ‘go out of style’ quickly are a great money-saving, eco-friendly, and slow fashioned choice. When you choose higher quality you may spend more up front but your clothing will last much longer, this means you’re likely to save money over the long run.
1 Classic High-Quality Blazer > 10 Cheaply Made Blazers

There are four more where that came from, so head over to Slow Fashioned for more tips!

After my month of wearing Goodwill, I know that I can (and should!) get by with less clothing. Time to clean out my closet, share the items I no longer need with friends or donate to Goodwill, and start following the tips from Slow Fashioned.

Cars line up to drop off their donations at the row of trailers

Your trusty blogger surveys the scene

Most of you know that the weather wasn’t exactly stellar last Saturday, but you would have never known it from the collective energy and enthusiasm of the Goodwill retail staff in attendance. I showed up to work the event at about 10am, and everything was all set up. There were about 15 trailers lined up side-by-side at Werner Park’s parking lot. Each trailer has several staff ready to load it. Cars would be sent all the way to the last trailer with the following cars queued up behind. At times we would be unloading up to ten cars at the same time. It was an amazing design that Retail Operations Director Shirley Hall put together for the drive, and it allowed all the employees and volunteers to have a hand in unloading the cars and trucks as they arrived.

In between cars, there was plenty of time to talk. The people in my area used that time to make fun of me for a wide variety of reasons:

• My sunglasses made me look like Tom Cruise from Risky Business.
• I wasn’t helping enough.
• I was helping too much and getting in the way.
• I didn’t know what I was doing.
• I wasn’t taking enough pictures.
• I was taking too many pictures.
• I wasn’t getting in the trailer the right way.
• I wasn’t getting out of the trailer the right way.

And it went on from there. It really helped pass the time. There was also a huge debate about proper procedures for waving a car through. Overhand? Or Underhand/ZZ Top Style? We never formed a consensus.

After a while, the clouds moved in, and the rain soon followed. In the interest of safety, they sent everyone home before rain turned to hail or worse. But before we all left, we got to load all the pallets back inside the trucks. It was great. I got to wear work gloves and show off my truck-loading abilities.

Property Maintenance Coordinator and Safety Inspector Dan Borgaila directs traffic.

When it was over, we had accumulated more than 22,000 pounds of computer donations. That’s 22,000 pounds of material that might otherwise find its way to a landfill. So we all felt pretty darn good about ourselves.

These events are also a great chance to connect with Goodwill employees across the agency. People like Todd Milbrandt (Vice President of Federal Contracts), Tobi Mathouser (Director of Federal Contracts) and Pauli Bishop (Sr. Director of Accounting) had a chance to join the many retail employees who make all Goodwill’s work in the community possible.

It wasn’t a great day for weather, but it was great day for Goodwill.

Senior Director of Retail Kay Hilgenkamp addresses the swarm of Goodwill staff who helped with the event.

"998 ... 999 ... 1000! Ok, I'm done here."