It’s not your father’s Goodwill.

So guests will see when Tacoma Goodwill inaugurates its Milgard Work Opportunity Center and headquarters a week from next Wednesday.

So 500 delegates from the U.S. and Canada will see next June when Tacoma Goodwill hosts the parent organization’s annual convention.

The vision of Tacoma Goodwill – to assist persons who are disabled or disadvantaged – remains much the same as it was when the organization was founded in 1921.

Since early in this decade, however, fresh executive leadership and a strong board of directors have worked to create both new partnerships and now a $21.7 million building of four stories and 63,000 square feet on a campus of six acres in Upper Tacoma.

It’s a place that will provide training and employment with dignity – along with the occasional bacon cheeseburger.

THE BUILDING

That bacon cheeseburger will be available at the center’s Neighborhood Bistro – part of Goodwill’s own culinary training program. And if you’re simply thinking of a cup of cappuccino, look for Coffee Buzz, a coffee bar that is likewise part of the program and operated in partnership with Starbucks.

Goodwill Tacoma has forged other partnerships with schools and agencies including Clover Park Technical College, Bates Technical College, Centro Latino, Job Corps, Metropolitan Development Council, Tacoma Community College, Tacoma Community House, Tacoma Public Schools, Vadis and Workforce Central.

”We’ve been working on this for four years, said Terry Hayes, Tacoma Goodwill CEO, earlier this month. “When we saw the need, we said we needed to do more.”

How much more?

 • There’s REACH, a partnership with the schools and agencies focusing on serving at-risk youth with training and counseling.

 • A distance learning theater will expand the outreach of Tacoma Goodwill to satellite offices in other counties.

 • Other services and amenities include an adaptive computer lab for persons with disabilities; a “playcare” space where adults can place their children while attending classes; a life-skills classroom where youth can master the rudiments of adulthood, including budgeting, cooking and laundry; and an “incentive” room where young clients can play video games, use computers and relax after earning the right by keeping up with responsibilities in the classroom.

 • Staff and peer “navigators” will guide newcomers to the available services, which include vocational assessment, case management, job search training, computer skills training, job placement and still more.

Designed by BCRA and built by Rushforth Construction, the center is so green it has earned qualification to the LEED gold level.

And some of that green comes in the form of tall vertical landscaping, with an outdoor garden wall that rises from a courtyard. Some of the green is blue, with a fountain and a trickling stream falling with the level of the hillside.

Otherwise the building is green because of the reduced water consumption and lighting cost, the recycled building materials used in construction and fittings and the recycled materials left after early demolition.

“We’re committed to being a green organization,” Hayes said.

But don’t go looking for green eggs and ham at the bistro. You’ll find those thanks to Dr. Seuss.

Which speaks to another idea Terry Hayes has developed.

“My hope is to be able to send home a book with every child who visits,” she said.

THE CAMPAIGN

The effort to increase Tacoma Goodwill’s visibility and construct a new building began some five years ago.

“We were the best-kept secret in town,” Hayes said.

“People associated us more with used retail goods than job services,” said Bruce Dammeier, former Tacoma Goodwill board president and current state representative from the 25th District.

“Tacoma really didn’t understand what Goodwill was doing,” said Buzz Folsom, the eventual co-chair of the fundraising effort that built the new center.

When Hayes joined Tacoma Goodwill as CEO eight years ago, the group had not held a capital fundraising campaign for 32 years.

And now co-chairs Buzz and John Folsom have raised all but $3 million of their goal.

“Terry and her team are the ones we should laud,” said campaign co-chair John Folsom.

The Folsoms and other fundraisers armed themselves with information about the benefits Tacoma Goodwill provides.

The nonprofit agency serves people in nearly a third of the state, in 15 counties from Clallam to Yakima and from Wahkiakum to South King.

Tacoma Goodwill helped 1,200 people the year Hayes arrived. Today the total has risen to 6,000, with a goal of 7,500 in 2010. A 2005 study said there would soon be 70,000 that could benefit from expanded services.

With her leadership, and with a strong board, the need is being addressed.

The agency’s operating budget in 2009 is $48 million, and next year she expects it to increase to $56 million.

“For every 1,000 people placed in jobs, we save $11 million in taxpayer dollars,” she said. “People see that return.”

Goodwill Tacoma counts 22 retail stores in eight counties – plus one online store based in Tacoma – and those stores have this year shown a 6.5 percent increase in same-store sales.

New stores are in the works for Des Moines, Puyallup and Bonney Lake, this following the recent opening of an outlet in North Tacoma.

People donated 55 million pounds of goods for resale in fiscal 2009, up 15 percent from 2008.

Tacoma Goodwill has built its GO2 business-to-business programs offering property maintenance, contract packaging and warehouse fulfillment.

“We’re always looking for business opportunities that will put people to work,” Hayes said.

It’s working. So are they.

That’s the message.

TELLING THE STORY

“We didn’t think it was going to be easy. We just thought that the story, and the work, is compelling. They’re all about job training and education,” said Buzz Folsom. “I don’t want to tell people what to do. I don’t want to tell people how to live their lives. I want to put tools in their hands.”

There are, she said, some “universal truths” at play.

“I think that we’re all the same. We want the best for our families. We want satisfying work. We want to be able to take pride in what we’re doing,” she said.

“To get these organizations to plan and work together, and to get these agencies to function in one place, that was remarkable,” said Jim Walton, former Tacoma Goodwill board president and former Tacoma city manager.

“I’ve never been involved in an organization where the working relationship between the board and staff was as good. They work very well together,” he said. “The building is evidence of that. You can see that something is working.”

Typically, he said, “the population that Goodwill serves – usually they’re served in some kind of a refurbished facility that is not uplifting at all. To have a place like this that speaks to success, and lifts your spirits, it’s just how things should be.”

“When I talk about Goodwill, it’s my heart speaking,” said Dammeier. “People respect that.”

One Tacoma nonprofit consultant – unrelated to Goodwill – salutes the agency and the campaign.

Liz Heath, executive director of The Nonprofit Center, said, “There are many nonprofits that do a good job. Goodwill is at the top of the ladder. I wish all nonprofits were as well run, and as well led, as Tacoma Goodwill.”

So far, 202 major contributors have pledged funds to the current campaign. A public campaign will begin soon to raise the balance of $3 million required to cap the project.

Then there’s the future.

COMING SOON

“The next thing on our plate – regional growth,” said Hayes. “We really are developing a game plan for 2010 and 2020. People on the board deserve the recognition. They decided we want to do more, starting in Pierce County and moving out. It means outreach to those outlying communities. And the board is embracing that. I work with a board that can share vision, and help.”

Some time after the dedication of the Milgard Work Opportunity Center on Sept. 23, a Goodwill worker will bury on the site a time capsule containing, among other things: photographs from the ceremony; an annual report; a list of board members and donors; and some dirt from the 1964 groundbreaking for the earlier Goodwill building.

Add the Bible owned by Methodist minister Herbert Michener, who founded Tacoma Goodwill 88 years ago.

C.R. Roberts: 253-597-8535

c.r.roberts@thenewstribune.com