CAC Career Center and Goodwill Combat Cost of Living

The Community Assistance Center (CAC) and Goodwill of North Georgia have joined forces to provide jobseekers in Sandy Springs and Dunwoody with expanded career services offerings. Additional opportunities will include connecting job seekers to high demand careers through job training and credential attainment through Goodwill.  CAC’s newly-opened Career Center pairs jobseekers with volunteer career advocates to help navigate the job search process from resumes to negotiating an offer, while building ties with local companies to identify open positions. Goodwill’s online job database, workshops, training, and information sessions will enhance and multiply the Center’s efforts. Through this partnership, CAC is positioned to help neighbors improve their financial situations to combat recent rising costs in housing and other necessities.

CAC is a community leader in human services, helping over 6,000 households annually in emergency situations meet basic needs such as food, shelter, and clothing each year. Rent, utility, food, and gas price increases in recent months have left many Sandy Springs and Dunwoody residents in a position where their existing salaries cannot cover their usual expenses. Often, they find themselves in a position of having to choose between necessities: do they pay rent on time, or buy groceries for their family for the week?

“It’s been eye opening: most of our Career Center clients already have full-time jobs, but are no longer making enough money to make ends meet,” shares George Northrop, Career Center Director at CAC. “Our newly-opened Career Center helps our neighbors in finding better, higher-paying jobs with more long-term career potential by providing resources to find a new job, switch careers, or supplement their job skills. Goodwill’s job search resources provide an extensive array of tools to further help our clients in their job search.”

“We are excited to partner with CAC, given their long-established footprint in the Sandy Springs and Dunwoody communities,” states Lisa Brown, Career Center Manager at Goodwill of North Georgia. “CAC’s Career Center will connect jobseekers with our established job search and skills tool, Career Connector, as well as host digital literacy training, job fairs, and information sessions. We look forward to sharing those resources with Dunwoody and Sandy Springs residents,” states Glorivee Cruz-Velazquez, Region 1 Career Center Director at Goodwill of North Georgia. Almost 20,000 north Georgians found a job with the help of Goodwill in 2021.

CAC’s Career Center is now assisting clients, and will begin integrating Goodwill’s offerings in mid-May.