It has been around six months since the City of Bowling Green, Warren County and Goodwill Industries of Kentucky entered into a partnership for Goodwill’s Another Way program, and Goodwill Career Services head Chad Spencer is pleased with the progress.

“That feeling of ‘someone sees me as a human and wants to help me,’ it goes miles to helping them,” Spencer said. “The community of Bowling Green has really accepted the program, and the people that we service have really accepted it.”

Another Way is a service offered by Goodwill that offers job skills training to individuals along with “work-based learning opportunities” which serve as an alternative to panhandling.

It has been active in Louisville for the past three years. The program began in the summer after the Bowling Green City Commission gave unanimous approval to a funding agreement with Goodwill totaling over $81,000 for the program.

Goodwill enlists up to four people twice a week to work four hour shifts at different job sites around town. Those who complete their shifts are given a $50 stipend, while those who don’t are given a bus pass.

Participants are also connected with resources at Goodwill’s Opportunity Center which Spencer said allows those folks to “relieve those barriers to employment, whatever that barrier may be.”

In November, Spencer said, the program saw 18 new clients join. Several of these individuals went on to access medical care while some gained housing and two moved on to full-time employment.

Spencer said Another Way is performing “a little better” than expected in Bowling Green.

“We have more new riders than I thought we would have, which in turn, is connecting more new people to the Opportunity Center twice a week,” he said.

Those who participate in the program gain access to more than employment opportunities. Spencer said one part of the program provides $5,000 per year for dental care for clients.

“We want to holistically look at the person and the needs of that person, meet those needs that need to be met right now first, and then we’ll work our way into employment,” Spencer said.

The agreement with the city funds the program for one year, which will come up in the summer of 2025. Spencer said at that point, Goodwill will return to the city for a possible reinvestment.

He is hopeful the program can expand in the coming year.

“I would love to go to a six passenger van or eight passenger van to pick up more people as we go out, because I want to introduce as many people as I can to this opportunity center,” he said.

Like Spencer, City Manager Jeff Meisel is happy with the results the program has seen.

“I think it has been successful, given that we’re only doing it two days a week, four hours a day,” Meisel said. “I think that we’ve been able to help some people.