Banking on KC – Mike Sinnett of Goodwill of Western MO and Eastern KS
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Kelly Scanlon:
Welcome to Banking on KC. I'm your host, Kelly Scanlon. Thank you for joining us. With us on this episode is Mike Sinnett, the CEO and President of Goodwill Eastern Kansas & Western Missouri. Welcome, Mike.
Mike Sinnett:
Thank you. It's good to be here.
Kelly Scanlon:
Well, I'm glad you're here because I think like most people, I thought it was a place that you could donate or that you can shop for secondhand items, but I've learned the organization's mission is much broader. So tell us about that broader mission.
Mike Sinnett:
Yeah, and I think that's a normal thing is people do see us as the thrift store. They've been donating goods to us for many, many years. They've been shopping our stores, but it's the back of house that we've got to get better at communicating with people what we do. The primary purpose is we help people with barriers get jobs. Last year we did over 500 people in new jobs. We served over 2,000 people, and it's through different programs, different training, and an individualized customized approach to everybody that walks through the door.
Kelly Scanlon:
You also have some programs for sustainability, for reducing waste, some really innovative ways of accomplishing those things. Tell us about those.
Mike Sinnett:
Yeah. We really participate in the community in a number of different ways besides selling gently-used goods and clothing. We take those donations through a social enterprise approach. Take the donations, we put it on the sale floor, we sell it to a market that needs that, that fits their budget. Average price of our items are just low of $5 a piece. What we don't sell, we take over to Front Street to our retail outlet center where we sell it by the bulk, and then what doesn't get sold there, we put into recycling, and we sell into the secondary market of recycles.
Kelly Scanlon:
Okay. Who would be your customers that are buying this in bulk?
Mike Sinnett:
Secondary market people. We actually have college kids that are coming in and reselling things on eBay or whatever. They buy novelty items that don't get sold in the stores, and they can buy it at a very discounted rate compared to the store. It serves the purpose. What it does is it puts things back into use that would normally go to a landfill. We're trying to avert the landfill choice and give options to people. That's a better green community if we do that. We had 18.3 million pounds of recycled material just last year.
Kelly Scanlon:
That's crazy.
Mike Sinnett:
Yeah, it is.
Kelly Scanlon:
A lot of people when you think about the recycle, they don't think about the reuse part of it.
Mike Sinnett:
Right.
Kelly Scanlon:
You mentioned workforce development. It's a huge part of your mission. What are some of the key programs that you offer?
Mike Sinnett:
Well, as I mentioned earlier, first is we offer a trauma and care informed approach to taking care of people. We meet them where they are in their journey. We don't try to paint them into a box that says, "This is what you need to be." We try to find out where they are in their journey, where they're headed, where they've been, and then we customize and tailor an approach to helping them get a job. We have the ABCs: a job, a better job, and then a career. Some people that have been coming through the process, sometimes they were in the workforce and they were doing a career, but something along their journey took them down a different path.
What we want to do is rediscover what is their goal? What is their long-term aspirations? Then what we do is build an action plan for each individual as to, "All right, do you want to go into our Bridge to Technology program? Do you want to go into Warehousing Certification? Do you want to do this? Do you want to do this with Google? Do you want to go back to school? What are the different things?" We have multiple community partners that we work with, including the Metropolitan Community Colleges, where we can actually get back into school and try to find them opportunities for more valued, more self-sustaining employment.
Kelly Scanlon:
When you talk about your job training programs, they aren't just for opportunities within Goodwill, they can be for any kind of industry basically, any kind of work.
Mike Sinnett:
Absolutely. Our Certified Manufacturing Association program is actually a certified program that when they go through the 10 weeks of coursework, they actually graduate from the program. We have business partners that come in that actually give jobs to them upon graduation.
Kelly Scanlon:
How does the jobs training that you're doing fit into the retail stores? They seem like such different types of goals. How does it work together?
Mike Sinnett:
Many of the people that come through our training programs actually do end up in our stores. 33% of our store employees are either veterans or they have some kind of documented disability, and we're very, very proud of that.
Kelly Scanlon:
You had a program during COVID, I believe, that was for incarcerated folks.
Mike Sinnett:
Yes.
Kelly Scanlon:
I believe it was called GoodPath, and it was a community reentry program. I know you're no longer offering that, but you have something similar. Could you tell us about that?
Mike Sinnett:
Yeah. That program originally was designed to work with inmates coming out of incarceration before their departure, and it just wasn't proving to be as successful. Now we're working with the Department of Corrections on people as they exit imprisonment and incarceration and put them into roles that ... We've fostered relationships with other partners that will take people that might have a record but be able to use them. Right now we have a lot of jobs open and a lot of need for jobs, and our job is to try to sort through all of the hassles and barriers that they experience in order to get to the right spot and get that job.
Kelly Scanlon:
Do they go through the other types of workforce training programs that you've already described, or is it a specialized program?
Mike Sinnett:
They can. It depends on where they are in their journey. What did they bring to the table, what kind of skills and attributes did they carry in? What do they still have? What did they get while they were incarcerated, if anything? And then where do they want to go? What is their interest? Do they want to get into technology? They want to get into construction, the trades, they want to be in retail? We kind of customize the approach to them.
Kelly Scanlon:
You mentioned one of the programs a minute ago. I want to dive a little bit deeper into it. It's called Bridge to Technology.
Mike Sinnett:
Yes. The Artemis Institute.
Kelly Scanlon:
Yes. One of the goals of that program is to increase diversity and equity in technology-based fields. How does the program work, and what are some of the outcomes that you're seeing, and importantly, how are you marching towards that goal to diversity and equity in technology?
Mike Sinnett:
Well, we help everybody that comes through our door, and we introduce possibilities to people that weren't introduced to before, and that's where we get our diversity. This course curriculum is Bridge to Technology, and what it does is it opens the eyes of an individual to what technology has to offer. They actually come in, they start working on computers, they start writing code. We've had individuals do website development, learn how to do that. We've learned how to build robotics. We use 3D printers. There's all aspects of this 10-week curriculum that we utilize in order to generate interest. If there's interest, then we can pursue and explore added possibilities beyond that. So it's kind of an entry level into technology. That's why we call it the Bridge to Technology because some people, they don't have computers, they don't have the smartphones, they just don't even have email addresses so how do we open these doors to them? This is part of that program.
Kelly Scanlon:
Yeah, so this 10 weeks is a foundational assessment of which direction they might go within technology fields.
Mike Sinnett:
We have some that come in and it's right up their alley. Some that come in and go, "Well, I gave it a shot. It's not really my thing." And that's fine. We're just going to explore options for them.
Kelly Scanlon:
Yeah. Where do you do all this training? Do you have locations within Goodwill?
Mike Sinnett:
We do.
Kelly Scanlon:
Okay. Tell us about those facilities.
Mike Sinnett:
We do. We do some offsite, but we have our lab, which is where we do, the Artemis Institute lab, where we have our computers, we have our 3D printer, we have all this different stuff that we use as part of our curriculum. We have an in-house teacher that does this. We do probably 11 sessions every year. Like to do more if I can find some additional funding. Then the ultimate goal is to have them graduate through the program. We bring in partners again, as we do with the Certified Manufacturing program. We do this, we bring in business partners that say they have a presentation, the employers get a chance to see that presentation, and oftentimes they'll issue job opportunities right there on the spot.
Kelly Scanlon:
So a little bit of a jobs fair, everything all in one.
Mike Sinnett:
It is. Yeah. It's very individualized because everybody that goes through the program gets to do a presentation, whether, "This is the website I developed, I did this or this coding I did. I started coding before I got into trouble. I'm doing coding now. I'm going back to it. This is where my brain is." We've had some very, very smart people come through the program that are clean now that go into some really nice paying jobs. Very excited about that.
Kelly Scanlon:
Collaboration. You mentioned that you do work with some businesses. Are there any partnerships or collaborations that have been particularly successful for you?
Mike Sinnett:
Yeah. These are probably our top five, and I don't really have a quantitative way to say these are the specific top five, but Literacy KC is a very good partner of ours, Metropolitan Community College as I mentioned earlier, the Transportation Center of Kansas City. We work with them. City Union Mission, we have people from their programs come over, be part of our programs. Then Sheffield Place, which is a digital literacy opportunity, so good business partners. That's just one of probably close to 100 that we have that we've developed over the years, and we want to continue to develop and build, because again, we want to explore all of the possible options available to the individual.
Kelly Scanlon:
Can you point to any success stories that you're especially proud of?
Mike Sinnett:
Well, graduation day is a big day in our company. Everybody from senior leadership to middle management come in. They participate in the graduation ceremony. We applaud when they get their diplomas. We're there to meet the collaborators that come in, the businesses that come in, the job opportunities. So just that building a relationship and building a support foundation for them, cheering them on. Graduation day is probably one of the funnest days that we have.
We had one example that I thought was particularly exciting. It was a young man's opportunity to stand up and give his presentation. His mother was there, and she's very proud of the fact that he was here. He was accomplishing this. He gets a phone call, and he takes the phone call just as he's getting ready to go up and present. Of course, she's like, "What are you doing? What are you doing? You're supposed to go up." He says, "It's a job offer, mom. I'm taking it. It's a job offer." Somebody was calling him right then. He was on the phone. We went to the next one, circled back to him, but he actually got a job offer while he was there.
Kelly Scanlon:
Oh my gosh. That's like something that happens in the movies. I
Mike Sinnett:
I Know. Isn't it great?
Kelly Scanlon:
Crazy.
Mike Sinnett:
I just love that story. I sat right next to him. I'm like, "Hey, dude, you got to be getting ready for this." No, that job offer was way more important.
Kelly Scanlon:
You have an adult high school as well. Tell us about that.
Mike Sinnett:
Well, we're hoping for a brand new adult high school. We just got approval from the State of Missouri to open an adult high school. Very, very excited about that. It's an opportunity for us to open an actual school for adults that do not have a diploma. It's not a GED program, it's not a HiSET program. It is an actual high school program that we will actually have a principal, we'll have teachers, we'll have guidance counselors. We're hoping to serve between 250 and 300 students. They have to be over the age of 21 to get in it.
60,000 adults in the Kansas City area do not have a high school diploma. 60,000. We're very excited about this opportunity. We have a sister Goodwill in St. Louis. They've already started this. They've been doing this for about five years. We've watched what they've been doing, and now we're in a position where we got approval from the state who will help fund this for us. We will be opening in the fall of '25. We don't have a location yet. We just got approval for this. But we're out next week, this week looking for new sites.
It'll be in Jackson County, it'll be for Missouri residents. It's very exciting because having a high school education and a diploma just opens so many more doors to you because the power of work is really what makes the individual. It allows them to contribute to the community, it provides a sustainable life, it adds for their value of their family quality time, and it gives you dignity, self-respect for what we can do in maybe two years. We'll be very excited about. We'll provide life coaches, we'll provide case management. We'll help them with barriers if they've got a learning disability barrier or some kind of a residence, transportation, any of the above. We are actually planning to have a child care center on site. No charge.
Kelly Scanlon:
Yeah, with adults there's bound to be children that will be involved.
Mike Sinnett:
With adults you got to do that.
Kelly Scanlon:
So 2025, fall of 2025 is not that far off.
Mike Sinnett:
No, it's very close.
Kelly Scanlon:
Yeah. You've got a lot of stuff to do.
Mike Sinnett:
Yeah, we do.
Kelly Scanlon:
Including getting that site. It'll function just like a regular high school in addition to some of the things that adult learners would need, such as the life coaches and so forth. But otherwise, they show up every day and go to school.
Mike Sinnett:
They will. They'll enter into a eight-week cours.e before we bring them in we'll go through an intake process. We'll find out how much schooling they have, if any. We'll go get those records and understand where they are in their journey. Then we can actually build from what are ... They may be one credit hour away from graduating. We'll work with them to help find exactly where they are in their transcripts and their journey, apply that to our program, and then offer classes. Right now, our plan is to hire six teachers. More as we need it. We hope to be able to open satellite locations down the road.
Kelly Scanlon:
This is a huge thing, but are there any other new projects on the horizon?
Mike Sinnett:
Yeah, we're constantly looking at grant opportunities to add to our workforce development. We're constantly working with the trade associations, trying to understand where we can assist them because as you know, the trades are really desperate for good people. We have one class that we just added is a virtual welding class. You actually put on the mask and you put the gloves on and you actually virtually weld, which is really cool. So technology there is something we can do. We're constantly looking for how do we stay relevant in the needs of the community for workforce development and workforce placement. We're constantly working with other employers in the community, working with city of Kansas City, working with other legislators just trying to figure out where is our niche and how can we best serve.
Kelly Scanlon:
Along with these new initiatives and projects that you're talking about, I don't want to overlook the retail stores. You have a good foundation, but I know you have more plans. Tell us about what's in store for the retail side of things.
Mike Sinnett:
Yeah, we're very excited. We have 17 stores, two of which we just opened this past year. We opened a new store in Waldo, and we just opened a new store in Olathe. We have two more planned for this year, one in Belton and one at Midtown, about 37th and Main Street right on the streetcar line. That's bringing us into markets that we think we can serve. They're underserved markets now. As I mentioned before, a big part of the people that come through our program go into our stores. Each store is between 35 and 40 employees, so that'll be 80 new employees we add to our payroll in the coming year. Many of those will have barriers. Many of those will have some kind of known disability.
Kelly Scanlon:
Those who are inspired by all of this, by all of this good work and might want to get involved, what are the best ways that they can do that? First of all, what are some of the ways, and then what's the best way to get in touch with you to let you know that they're out there and want to participate?
Mike Sinnett:
Yeah, you bet. You can go to our website where we have a lot of information out there. As far as donations. We are a non-profit 501(c)(3), so we welcome any and all donations. We are revitalizing our volunteer program. During COVID it kind of fell to the wayside. Now that everybody's exiting out of COVID and feeling good about getting back out, we're going to have volunteer opportunities. One would include mock interviews, resume writing, coaching skills, life skills, some different programs done by our volunteers, budgeting classes, those kinds of things. All those life skills that are very necessary. We want to be able to provide those at no cost to these participants. That's the other thing I wanted to stress. None of this costs anything to them. This is all provided through our resources that are available to us through grants and through the store sales.
Kelly Scanlon:
I'm curious about how you ... You're a former banker.
Mike Sinnett:
I am.
Kelly Scanlon:
Sitting here in a bank recording a podcast episode. How did you get drawn into this line of work?
Mike Sinnett:
After 40 years of banking, I was ready to give back. I had a good friend who was active in the non-profit world in Denver where I was living at the time, working for Community Banks of Colorado. I went to breakfast with the president of Catholic Charities of Denver, and I said, "How can I give back? How can I help you? What can I do?" He said, "Well, I need your business acumen. I want you to come be part of our senior team." I was with Catholic Charities in Denver for seven years where I ran homeless shelters for single women and families. When I started, we had four shelters. I was about ready to leave, go into full retirement, and then COVID hit and I said, "Well, I can't leave this team. I can't leave these people on the streets." So we opened four more shelters. When I left last July, we had eight shelters, and we had over 800 souls on board every night. Single women and families. It's an amazing need, and it's not getting any easier.
Kelly Scanlon:
How did you get to Kansas City? What brought you here?
Mike Sinnett:
Well, this is proof to my children you never burn a bridge. The attorney that I used when we were in Colorado with the bank was Wes Stinson. He was on the board at Goodwill. Called me up one day and says, "Hey, would you ever think about coming back to Kansas City?" I said, "Well, what are you thinking?" Long story short, here I am.
Kelly Scanlon:
Well, we're glad that you're here and all of the good work that you're doing, you and your team, thank you so much for doing that. We wish you the best.
Mike Sinnett:
Well, thank you.
Kelly Scanlon:
Yeah, and if anybody wants to go out and help, go to mokangoodwill.org, and there's information for how you can reach out and learn more about volunteer opportunities, donation opportunities, and all the different things you talked about today.
Mike Sinnett:
That would be great. Thank you so much.
Kelly Scanlon:
Pleasure having you here today.
Mike Sinnett:
It was my honor.
Joe Close:
This is Joe Close, President of Country Club Bank. Thank you to Mike Sinnett for being our guest on this episode of Banking on KC. As Mike pointed out, Goodwill's mission extends well beyond its thrift stores to include workforce development and employment opportunities, an innovative recycling program that has saved millions of pounds of material from landfills and new initiatives like adult high school and Bridge to Technology. These efforts are significantly impacting our community by enhancing access to education and careers, especially in the technology sector, and fostering a more sustainable and inclusive Kansas City.
At Country Club Bank, we are dedicated to providing opportunities and supporting local endeavors. Goodwill's mission resonates with our commitment to serving and uplifting our Kansas City family, working toward a brighter, more inclusive future. Thanks for tuning in this week. We're banking on you, Kansas City. Country Club Bank, member FDIC.