Goodwill is proud to announce that Robert Frank, a Donation Attendant at our Goodwill Store & Donation Center in Downers Grove, Illinois, has been named the Goodwill Industries International Achiever of the Year for 2019!
The award is given each year by Goodwill Industries International (GII), a network of 161 community-based, autonomous Goodwill organizations in the US and Canada. The Achiever of the Year is a person who shows great progress and accomplishment in overcoming challenges to finding employment, and still benefits from the Goodwill work environment or receives services to support employment at a community site.
“We are so thrilled for Robert as he is recognized as the Achiever of the Year,” says Jackie Hallberg, president and CEO of Goodwill Industries of Southeastern Wisconsin, Inc. “He has overcome many obstacles, challenges that for some would be insurmountable. He found courage and hard work to be the catalyst for change in his life. Robert truly personifies the Goodwill Mission.”
Robert’s journey in life was often not an easy one. Frank suffered severe physical and emotional abuse throughout his childhood, including blows to the head that left him with a cognitive disability. He tried to hide the fact that he couldn’t read and write, and he struggled to find a job that made him feel useful and accepted. For many years, he worked as a coat check attendant, dishwasher and cook.
Robert Frank came to his local Goodwill store five years ago looking for a job that would give his life purpose. Before Goodwill, Robert struggled to find a job where he felt like he “fit.” Store Manager Lauren Maddox noticed Robert having difficulties reading and filling out furniture tags and forms. He didn’t always know how to spell the words, and Lauren could sense his frustration. Periodically, he also brought in his mail and asked Lauren the meaning of certain words. “I had to ask my coworkers how to spell this or how to spell that, and it was so embarrassing,” Robert explains. At that point, Lauren knew a Goodwill Way Guide could help.
Goodwill Way Guides provide supportive, case management services to our Retail employees, which help them become more successful at their jobs. Requests received by Goodwill Way Guides are varied - they can range from helping locate and fill out forms, to finding transportation options and assisting employees in crisis. The goal is to provide employees with a resource they can use to navigate issues that arise in their personal lives, which helps them better balance home and work. We see our Goodwill Way Guides as a resource to help make our employees successful in all facets of their lives.
Our store management connected Robert with Goodwill Guide Lauren James. There was an immediate connection between Robert and Lauren, whom he calls Miss James. Lauren and Robert formed a strong friendship, and Robert felt comfortable sharing the struggles he had with reading.
Knowing he lacked confidence, but not the willingness to learn, Lauren began by using online reading tutorials, employing worksheets so Robert could begin to fill the gaps in his reading and spelling. Robert took this work seriously, and Lauren was astonished at how quickly Robert finished his lessons. Soon Robert could spell the words on furniture tags without assistance, and he began reading and writing independently. It wasn’t long before his managers and coworkers began to see a new and more confident Robert. He recalls one of his best moments as when he was able, for the very first time, to read a book completely unassisted.
“This is coming from my heart; when I came to Goodwill, I was a nobody. I don’t know where I would be without Miss James and Goodwill,” he says. Robert’s perception of himself was clouded, but the Goodwill Way Guide Program was his path out of the darkness. Soon Robert could see in himself what others had been seeing all along.
At Goodwill, we see the power of work in action every day. We see how work transforms lives. We see the transformation that work creates. With Robert, we see all of this, and more. We see confidence, we see grit, we see determination and hard work. We see that you do not have to be the product of a negative past. And we see that when someone believes in you, it brings forth a belief in yourself that was always there, but you didn’t know existed.
Robert is described as self-reliant, independent, courageous and proud. Words that years ago he would have never thought attainable. For many of us, asking for help is difficult because it shows vulnerability. But from his first day, Robert was not afraid to ask for help. Sometimes it bothered him that he couldn’t read a word, or had trouble spelling because it made him feel ignorant. But, what we see in Robert, is his unique desire to learn, and these were stronger than the negative feelings of despair. For Robert, failure was never an option.
“Robert is flourishing because he found the support structure he needed to help him learn and grow,” said Steven C. Preston, president and CEO of Goodwill Industries International. “At Goodwill, we provide many different services, all with one goal — helping people with life challenges move into and advance through the workforce.”
Frank says his job at Goodwill makes him feel independent, trustworthy and happy. “When you’re a nobody, then you become somebody, that’s an amazing feeling to have,” he said.
Congratulations to our very own Robert Frank, Goodwill’s 2019 Achiever of the Year!
For more information on the Goodwill movement in the US and Canada, go to Goodwill.org.
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