The Goodwill Association of Michigan was formed by the ten independent Goodwill organizations in the state in the early 1990s. The goal of the organization is to help each of the state's Goodwill organizations to increase collaboration and to provide better services to people with disabilities and barriers to employment. This grant will allow the Goodwill Association of Michigan to continue to serve the state's Goodwill organizations and will allow it to develop a framework to provide greater workforce development services throughout the state.

Through its GoodTemps staffing service, Goodwill Industries of West Michigan is providing jobs for people with barriers to employment. As one of the only alternative staffing services in Michigan, GoodTemps is a base for expanding this effective workforce development technique to other Goodwill organizations across the state. This grant will provide partial support for the client services offered through GoodTemps and will initiate a process to increase alternative staffing in Michigan.

This grant will promote continuous learning and collective work regarding green workforce development through a Michigan community college Learning and Action Network using virtual and other means. This will include on-call project coaching by Jobs for the Future, on-site support from National Wildlife Federation field coordinators, a best-practices and educational product website with interactive features, an employment "pipeline" approach to build strong partnerships between community colleges and regional green sector employers, and an innovation fund to provide mini-grants for a number of capacity or technical needs.