10 Months at Goodman Community Center

It has been an honor to support the Goodman Community Center over the last ten months. In this time, I’ve seen how Goodman staff and volunteers are deeply committed to ensuring community support and working diligently to improve our responsiveness, resources, and connections to boost our community’s resilience.

At the beginning of this executive interim period in June 2025, our board and staff team identified several team goals related to staff connections, culture, finances and board support. As I prepare to depart my interim role, I am looking back on the progress we’ve made together.

One goal was to improve the connections among Goodman’s different program areas. Through intentional efforts, our staff have increased cross-program collaboration — high schoolers are coaching and serving as role models for elementary readers, our kitchen staff support our older adults and the pantry, and all staff have come together to enhance the overall safety of our spaces. Our programs continue to look for new ways to more intentionally support one another and make progress on our collaborative goals.

A related goal was to retain experienced staff and reduce turnover rates. In the last several months, we’ve deepened our collaboration among different program areas. We’ve hired and promoted several great leaders into supervisory roles. Leaders have engaged transparently with staff. We’re celebrating the good work of various programs each month with the Goodman Integrity Award, which is passed among different program areas. We’ve engaged in deep work on culture and shared mission, helping staff feel more supported and offered more resources they need to do their job well. Staff feel heard, seen and supported. We see the positive results of this work in both surveys of current staff and in a significantly decreased turnover rate.

A third goal was to ensure strong internal financial controls and share these controls with the community. We have worked hard to address past financial issues and improve nearly every aspect of our financial systems. In early August, we held a public Community Chat — along with articles in the Eastside News and our online newsletter— discussing the additional financial controls we put in place. We also met with many donors and invited them to learn more about the systems and controls.

We are now in a significantly stronger financial position, thanks to the many donors who have responded in the last several months. Goodman’s revenue is ahead, and expenses are below budget for this fiscal year. Many thanks to the collective efforts of our staff, supporters, and volunteers for making this happen.

The final goal was to work on clarity of roles and communication for our board. At our fall retreat, the board of directors collaborated to create a dashboard measuring board engagement and now has a set of key roles and expectations that will guide its actions into the future.

Goodman’s supportive environment and the spirit of goodwill is tangible and deeply integrated into our community. I’ve enjoyed collaborating with this team. I’ll miss working with everyone and will continue to support this amazing community resource.

As you know, the board has selected a new president who will begin on April 20. I’m looking forward to handing off the leadership to Chris Talton and supporting him as he gets up to speed on the good work of our team. Thank you to the Goodman community for all you do!