Youngstown Area Goodwill Industries holds a regular Good Community Podcast and was recently joined by the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber to discuss the results of the Community Needs Assessment and ways to support the Youngstown workforce.

Brenda Linert and Ron Selak from the Regional Chamber met with Carol Holmes-Chambers from Goodwill to discuss the barriers to success that Youngstown citizens faced when engaging with the Youngstown local workforce.

The Community Needs Assessment was done as a collaboration between the two groups in 2024.

It revealed what many citizens suspected: major barriers to workforce participation included transportation, childcare, mental health and substance abuse issues and soft skills.

Armed with real evidence that these issues are impeding the people of Youngstown, Goodwill and the Regional Chamber are prepared to work with other groups in the community to make real progress.

"I think people want to work, but these barriers are real and some people who could work aren't because they just do not know how to get over these barriers. With the help of employers, stakeholders, the Regional Chamber, Goodwill and other organizations, we can overcome these issues and get a lot more people into the workforce," Linert said.

Lending another hand to the effort, the PNC Foundation issued a $50,000 workforce development chant to the Regional Chamber with additional funding coming in from the Community Foundation of the Mahoning Valley and the Youngstown Foundation.

"Collaboration is key. We really need to think innovatively and creatively about what we can do together. Taking a 'we over me' approach is what we really need to focus on," Holmes-Chambers said.