Christine Porter’s hands shook as she picked up the cell phone, her breath burning a hole in her chest. A long, bitter custody battle was coming to a head today, and this call would inform her if she had been successful in winning her son back, a son she lost while in the grips of addiction and caught in the revolving door at the county jail.
Christine Porter
A lot of ground had been covered between that version of Porter and the one that stood here today. She had completed rehab and sober living, got her life together, and demonstrated over and over again that she had turned a corner or was preparing to. That included completing the transitional employment opportunity program offered by Goodwill Industries of Arkansas, a program aimed at helping the previously incarcerated get back on their feet. Through that, she took a job working in Goodwill’s warehouse and poured into everything her assigned reentry specialist said.
“I can literally talk all day about what Goodwill has done for me,” she said. “Goodwill is so incredibly unique. It’s so incredibly amazing because of the atmosphere and the type of people that they employ and how the mission — what we call our ACE culture, Amazing Customer Experience — is not just something in an employee handbook. It’s really a way of life in this company.”
If it were just another Main Street firm, Goodwill Industries of Arkansas would be one of the most celebrated business headlines in the state, mentioned in the same sentences as Arkansas’ other wild-beyond-their-dreams success stories.
According to the organization’s latest annual report, the organization generates $85 million in revenue, the vast majority of which comes through its 35 retail locations. Goodwill represents a $93.3 million economic impact to the state, part of which is shelling out more than $25 million in projected annual wages to nearly 1,400 employees across Arkansas.
Those business metrics, impressive though they are, barely scratch the surface of what makes the nonprofit one of the most important and impactful forces for good in the Natural State. Ultimately existing to serve those seeking a second chance in life — be it through educational opportunities, job training or employment readiness — Goodwill served nearly 22,000 individuals in fiscal years 2023 through 2025.
That includes the 6,000 professional credentials awarded over that time via the group’s job training program, dubbed The Academy. The program’s two locations in Little Rock and Springdale deliver certification training in four of the state’s top business sectors: healthcare, information technology, skilled trades and business/administration, resulting in about 2,100 people finding work over the past three years alone.
Perhaps even more impressive, Goodwill’s Excel Center continues to shape lives and improve families by offering individuals 19 and older the chance to earn their high school diplomas. The program, which has expanded to two campuses in Little Rock and Springdale, has graduated more than 300 individuals in its history and nearly 120 last year alone and is arguably the most impactful of everything Goodwill does. The group reports statistics that those with a GED or no high school diploma earn less than $16,000 per year on average, but the center’s graduates, more than half of whom are first-generation high school graduates, more than double that annual income.
“Every day in Arkansas, someone is standing at a crossroads, unsure of their next step, their future, or their chance to begin again,” said Brian Marsh, president and CEO, in a message written for the 2025 annual report, “[but] here’s the truth: The landscape is changing for Arkansans, and they need us more than ever before.”
Indeed, one glance at the company’s report bears out Marsh’s comment. The number of people Goodwill served overall has increased each of the past three years, and certificates and credentials awarded also jumped year over year. Meanwhile, Excel Center graduates in 2025 outnumbered those from 2024 and 2023 combined — all that while maintaining the same number of retail stores, which generate 90 percent of the group’s revenue.
Such an equation would likely be unsustainable without additional sources of income, which is where Gala for Good comes in. The group’s annual fundraiser, set for Oct. 24 at the North Little Rock Event Center, is critical to Goodwill Industries of Arkansas’ continued ability to reach those looking to turn the corner to a more productive life.
Kara Luther-Chapman, director of development and community engagement, said the group’s successful programs have made the Arkansas organization’s reputation, so much so that she was excited to join the group, coming from its Oklahoma counterpart where she worked for five years.
“Goodwill Industries of Arkansas is known for so many things,” she said. “The main thing is our two adult high schools, and then after that are the academy programs. Workforce training is just inherently Goodwill everywhere you kind of go, but the emphasis on making sure people have a high school diploma was one of the reasons I wanted to come here.
“I also saw myself fitting into building stronger partnerships, building the community that leads to a career. We’re working closer with a couple of those partners, such as Arkansas Children’s and CARTI, training people to be medical assistants, and from there, they can get an even better job or take advantage of a tuition program that’s going to pay for someone to become a nurse. Our big goal here is a job, a better job, a career.”
The fourth annual Gala for Good, recognized as AY About You’s 2025 Best Charity Event, helps pay for all of these efforts and more. The 2026 event, themed “Rooted in Purpose,” will feature food, crafted spirits, entertainment, a silent auction and some other attractions still being finalized at this writing. Encouraged attire is Western chic, which explains the while-you-wait custom Western hat station that will operate during the evening.
The event, for which AY Media Group is presenting media sponsor, will also feature several awards presentations. Graduate of the Year recognizes an outstanding Goodwill graduate and Achiever of the Year honors someone who has overcome significant barriers to reach meaningful professional milestones. Also being handed out will be the Values in Action Award recognizing an individual who brings to life Goodwill’s ICARE values — integrity, collaboration, attitude, respect, explore — and the Partners in Purpose Award showcasing a business or community partner whose support expands Goodwill’s impact across Arkansas.
In addition, attendees will be treated to some inspirational testimonials from individuals who have benefited from the organization’s programs and services, of which Luther-Chapman has many to choose. Stories of hope and renewal abound at the Goodwill campus, tales of lives changed, families strengthened and brighter futures, people who have stumbled but refused to fall and those who have fallen but refused to stay down — people like Christine Porter.
“Addiction didn’t just make me lose the physical sense of everything. I really lost who I was as a person. I truly believed that there would never be a day that I wasn’t a user,” she said. “I remember telling my family once, ‘Just leave me in [jail] because when I get out, I’m just going to do the same thing. I’m going to die over this.’ They were like, ‘Absolutely not,’ and they worked it out to where I could get out and get the help that I needed.
“When I was accepted into the TEO program at Goodwill, it was a means to an end. Like honestly, I just needed something, anything. It turned into a way that I could finally contribute to society rather than taking away from it and taking away from my family. For the first time in a long time, I felt proud, you know?”
As for that fateful phone call, Porter, who had been promoted to receptionist and now serves as office manager at Goodwill’s Excel Center, got the ruling she had waited so long for, allowing her son to move back in with her in time to start his senior year of high school. It was the first time, she said, that she felt the future was not foretold by her past mistakes, destined to be repeated.
“I found out he was going to come home to live with me while I was at work,” she said. “I was surrounded by my coworkers, and I just fell to my knees. I was like, ‘I got him. He’s coming home,’ and every single person at Goodwill, my managers, my reentry specialists, they just fell on top of me, hugging me and celebrating with me, and you know what? It was the day that I turned a year sober.
“To have someone know the truth about you and celebrate you anyway, that’s what Goodwill gave me, and it’s a phenomenal feeling that’s so hard to put words to. It’s just amazing.”
Photos provided by Goodwill Arkansas
SEE THE FEATURE BELOW AND IN OUR SEPTEMBER 2026 ISSUE OF AMP
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