Goodwill Solutions celebrates continuing success

​​The University of Northampton’s social enterprise partner Goodwill Solutions held an event on Friday 18 September to celebrate its continuing business success and launch its new Job Corps Pilot Project – the new model for its outstanding social impact work.

As the UK’s leading logistics and warehousing social enterprise, Goodwill Solutions was founded in 2008 and has grown rapidly to an annual turnover of over £6 million. It operates as a Community Interest Company (CIC) and aims to help the local community by running projects such as the Back to Work programme, which gives ex-offenders, homeless people and disadvantaged youths the opportunity to train for employment in the logistics sector. Goodwill Solutions also supplies low-cost high quality furniture to local people and charities.

Michael Ellis MP, David Mackintosh MP, Professor Nick Petford and Professor Simon Denny from the University of Northampton and over 100 people from partner organisations attended Goodwill Solutions’ Friday’s event, to hear of the launch of Project Redemption and Project Cycl-Ops – two projects running in conjunction with Northamptonshire Police.

Project Job Corps is a new way of uniting organisations from the private, public and third sector to support people to move from economically inactive or with offending behaviours through to full, paid employment. Working with the Police, the Probation Trust, local charities and employers, Job Corps creates a pipeline for individuals to follow to change their lives.

Designed as an extension to Goodwill Solutions’ already successful Back-to-Work programme (70 per cent employment achieved), Job Corps goes further by working with other agencies to support clients through their transition.

Mike Britton, Managing Director of Goodwill Solutions, said: “Tackling unemployment will reduce anti-social and criminal behaviour, resulting in fewer people ending up in the criminal justice system. This will have a direct impact on our communities.”

Co-founder of Goodwill Solutions, Graham Tomkins, commented: “We have demonstrated that with our Back-to-Work programme, we can change lives. With Project job Corps we intend to change the world.”