A drive past the Vaughn Square Shopping Center, near where Furys Ferry Road merges into Washington Road will show some construction in progress at the site of Helms College, the private career school run by Goodwill Industries of Middle Georgia and the CSRA, for which major expansion is underway.
“Today we are in the midst of construction of a new Helms College Welcome Enrollment Center, a student commons with a media center and a commercial bakery that will supply future Edgar’s Bakehouse locations, restaurants, resorts clubs, all throughout the region,” said Jim Stiff, president of Goodwill Industries and Helms College.
The Augusta campus of Helms College, which includes Edgar’s Grille and the Snelling Conference Center, opened in 2012, after the Polly Long Denton School of Hospitality became the first Helms College campus in Macon earlier that year.
Helms College specializes in postsecondary education and workforce training for jobseekers with socio-economic hindrances. The Augusta location offers programs in culinary arts, and students receive experiential learning at Edgar’s Grille and Edgar’s Bakery.
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Development began last November, Stiff says, with negotiations with Duckworth Construction and the breaking ground around the beginning of this year.
“We’re finishing it in phases,” he said. “The first thing that should be finished should be the Welcome Center.
Stiff explains that the bank building that currently sits near the edge of the plaza will become the sophisticated work site of a whole new admissions and marketing communications team that Goodwill Industries has hired over the last four months.
“They’ll be recruiting for Helms College as well as managing the whole marketing communication for our 35-county organization out of that building,” said Stiff.
He hopes the Welcome Center will be complete by the end of July. By the end of August or the beginning of September, he projects the new, large commercial bakery and student common area, complete with a media center and library, will be finished.
The parking lot is to be ground up and repaved, with new islands added; and the façade of the whole campus building will be redone. Stiff says he expects this to be complete near September.
Another phase in the project will include adding health services programs and even cyber/technology programs.
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The project is supported by fundraising, in an investment campaign by Goodwill called “A Hand Up.”
“We’ve raised about $3 million to execute this Phase III-A,” said Stiff, referring to the current construction project on Walton Way. Phase III-B, which will be funded via another $3 million campaign, is the later addition of a School of Health Services and a School of Technology and Applied Learning. And then phase three will be the next $3 million fundraising campaign.
Helms College Augusta Campus is at 3145 Washington Rd. For more information visit www.goodwillworks.org or www.helms.edu. For more information about contributing to Hand Up, contact Ellen Harper, Director of Executive Affairs, at eharper@goodwillworks.org.
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter covering education in Columbia County and business-related topics for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
