Goodwill of North Georgia works with more than 5,000 local employers and community partners to connect job seekers to meaningful employment each year. Georgia Square Mall, located in Athens, Georgia, is one those employer partners. The mall regularly offers some of its 671,934 square feet of retail space to co-host annual job fairs for Goodwill’s East Athens Career Center.

Over the past three years, Goodwill has co-hosted seven job fairs at the mall and served more than 2,000 job seekers in the community. The most recent job fair, held on February 14, 2019, served 156 job seekers and 27 area employers. Of the attendees, 37 individuals were hired on the spot.

In addition to offering its facility for high-volume Goodwill job fairs, Georgia Square Mall’s Director of Marketing and Leasing, Monica Hawkins, advocates for Goodwill’s mission. “We always enjoy hosting Goodwill’s job fairs,” says Hawkins. “The fairs help increase foot traffic at the mall, which is good for our retailers, and we know we are also benefitting individuals in our community who find jobs.” Due to the mutually beneficial collaboration, Hawkins has connected other Hendon Properties malls to Goodwill career centers in their area. One of those locations is Greenbriar Mall, a Hendon Properties facility in southwest Atlanta that has seen similar success with Goodwill job fairs in its area. This year, Hawkins accepted the Mission Ambassador award at Goodwill’s 2019 Employer Event for her role as a valuable partner in Athens and a key player in expanding Goodwill’s mission footprint to new communities.

Pictured: Award recipient Monica Hawkins (center) with John Liu (left) and Carlos Gonzales (right), two of her colleagues from Hendon Properties at Goodwill’s 2019 Employer Event.