Goodwill Center for Education and Employment opens in Pikeville

Goodwill hosted the ribbon-cutting Wednesday for Kentucky's fifth Center for Education and Employment.

The center offers free career coaching and soft skills classes for people in the area who are seeking employment opportunities. It also offers expungement sessions and connects unemployed people with opportunities for bettering their future.

"We work on attitude, dependability, self-presentation - how you present yourself- conflict resolution," said COO Rena Sharpe.

She said the Pikeville center joins Louisville, Lexington, Bowling Green and Somerset in being a hub for Goodwill's Soft Skills Academy.

She said the program is ideal for people who come from a criminal background, addiction recovery or people who have been unemployed for a long time.

"We have hundreds of thousands of individuals in Kentucky who are not working," she said. "What we know is there's many people who are not working because they can't get a job. And many times that's because of barriers in their background."

She said the new center will work to help people in that situation free of charge. The classes are paid for by the funds raised through Goodwill's thrift stores.

Pikeville will also be seeing a new Goodwill storefront in the Lee avenue area by fall 2020, according to Sharpe. She also said Goodwill is working to create a jail program in the wake of the news of Floyd County's prison re-opening.