Success Stories
Judge David A. Shaheed
The Honorable David A. Shaheed understands that real-life learning makes a difference in students’ lives. Opening his courtroom at the Marion County Superior Court Civil Division, he provides Indianapolis Metropolitan High School students with internships that offer insight into the judicial system. He also models the value of professional skills, such as promptness, engagement, courtesy and listening.
“It’s important for me to be involved in the mentorship of young people because as we discuss how to reform education, how to make education meaningful for all students, the classroom is not the only venue for learning,” Judge Shaheed says.
“Professionals and people of all occupations should take an interest in the students that are coming along,” he added. “I don’t think it’s too early to start working with high school students to give them a sense of what it takes to be a professional.”
The judge’s student interns have completed projects that include mock trials covering student rights, examinations of ballistics evidence and reviews of different types of sentencing, all the while earning credits that count toward graduation.
“What Judge Shaheed has done with us and for us is unbelievable. He has taken kids into his courtroom and given them lessons,” says Scott Bess, Chief Operating Officer, Goodwill Education Initiatives, Inc. “The students take those lessons, and they come back here, and you can tell the difference.”
Tim Brown
For more than 30 years, Tim Brown was a steady and dependable employee in Goodwill’s Commercial Services Division. However, Tim’s lack of self-confidence kept him from pursuing other job opportunities presented to him by his counselors.
Then one day, with absolutely no fanfare, Tim told his counselor he was ready for a job someplace else. The job that he and his counselor found seemed daunting at first. As a mail clerk at Fifth Third Bank, Tim would need to learn the names, departments and locations of hundreds of employees.
Tim conceived the solution to this challenge by himself. He went through the company phone directory, compiled all of the names in a notebook and categorized them by department. Each day, he painstakingly checks and updates his list. He also documented in his notebook each step of the many tasks he performs and added motivational passages to bolster his self-confidence.
Tim says his job at Fifth Third Bank, which he’s held since 1998, has given him a chance to “get out and be able to work and meet people.”
Facing physical and mental barriers that might stop some people altogether, Tim has not only succeeded in his job; he has carved out his own place in the work world.
“I love my job,” Tim said. “I look forward to it every day.”
Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center
For more than 10 years, the Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center has worked with Goodwill Industries to develop opportunities for people with disabilities through a service contract with the federal government under Ability One, a program established by Congress to increase employment opportunities for people with severe disabilities.
“At the Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center, we provide health care to the Veteran, such as surgical, medical, psychiatric and rehab, both inpatient and outpatient,” said Sylvia Clark, Assistant Chief, Environmental Management Service for the Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center. “However, to provide good health care, we have to have a clean hospital. Goodwill provides services in our outpatient department as well as in our administrative areas in keeping the hospital clean.”
Today, the contract has grown to provide employment for more than 65 individuals – most of whom have significant disabilities. Employees provide 24-hour, 365-day-a-year janitorial services for 300,000 square feet at the Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center’s main campus on 10th Street and for portions of the center’s Cold Spring Road and optical lab locations.
“The Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center has worked with Goodwill over a long time and through these contracts has provided a lot of opportunities for people with significant disabilities to have a good job, good wages and good benefits in the community,” says Frank Langan, director of operations for Goodwill Commercial Services. “And for the future, the VA continues to look at us for additional opportunities, and we continue to look forward to the strength and the longevity of that relationship.”
Personnel at the Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center have demonstrated their commitment in working with Goodwill and understand the value of the relationship.
“The relationship between the Goodwill Industries and the VA Medical Center is a win-win in that it helps hire Veterans, it helps keep the hospital clean and it provides jobs to those that Goodwill serves,” Sylvia says.
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