Goodwill to open outlet store and adult high school

By John Sharp

Goodwill of Western Missouri and Eastern Kansas, a nonprofit charitable organization that covers the bistate metropolitan area and helps prepare people for gainful employment, has announced it’s opening a retail outlet store in March at the long vacant approximately 150,000-square-foot former Homefield building at 5000 E. Bannister Rd. that was a recreational and sports training facility.

The charity also announced that about 20,000 square feet of the building will be used as an Excel Center to give adults 21 and over an opportunity to earn Missouri high school diplomas and specialized training certificates for no cost that is scheduled to open in late August.

The retail outlet store will offer gently used items (and a few new items) such as adult’s and children’s clothing & shoes and household items including cooking items and furniture that did not promptly sell at the organization’s 18 retail stores in the metro area for discounted prices for sale by the pound.

The majority of the items available at Goodwill’s retail stores and this outlet store are donated clothing according to Anita Davis, Chief Mission Officer of Goodwill of Western Missouri and Eastern Kansas. Davis said the outlet store replaces Goodwill’s current outlet store at 1800 N. Corrington in KCMO that is being closed. She said it is expected to employ about 40 people.

She said the Excel Center is expected to employ about 20 persons, and that she hopes it will start with serving about 250 students and eventually grow to serve about 500 students, most of whom will average about a year to complete their studies for their high school diplomas. She said about 60,000 adults in the metropolitan area don’t have a high school diploma which restricts their ability to qualify for many good paying jobs. She said the school will have its own entrance, a student lounge and classrooms and will provide on-site childcare for children from 6 weeks to 12 years old.

Davis said the school will allow students to enroll in classes for dual high school and college credit to help them earn college associates degrees and also provide training for specific careers such as customer service and manufacturing and award certificates for completion of such training.

For more information about the outlet store, Excel Center or other job readiness services such as finding housing or transportation to jobs, persons may go online to Goodwill’s website mokangoodwill.org or contact Davis at adavis@mokangoodwill.org or 816-317-5512.