Mission Moment | Goodwill Chattanooga

Transforming Potential into Opportunity: Solara’s Story

Solara Sain, Vice President of Retail Operations, Goodwill Industries of the Greater Chattanooga Area

During the Bosnian war in the early 1990s, many Bosnian citizens sought safety. Thankfully, Solara Sain and her husband, Dusan, were granted the opportunity to move to the U.S. through a Lutheran Church refugee program. With an English vocabulary of just 200 words, Solara courageously began building a new life.

Solara was eager to work, so she stopped in a Goodwill store to inquire about a job. She was placed in a sales associate position, and after just one year, she was promoted to assistant store manager. She was later promoted to store manager and then to the position of Regional Director of Donor Services. From there, Solara served other Goodwill organizations as a Vice President of Donated Goods Retail and then as a Chief Operating Officer. Solara is now the Vice President of Retail Operations for Goodwill Industries of the Greater Chattanooga Area.

Solara’s story is just one of many stories about how Goodwill helps people transform their potential into opportunity. We are thankful to have Solara here at our Goodwill!

(excerpts from Refugee to “C” Suite, Goodwill Dallas)

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The Goodwill Opportunity Center is excited to be working alongside the Chattanooga i-team. What is an i-team, you ask? The City of Chattanooga’s Innovation Team (i-team) utilizes the Path to Public Innovation, a methodology that centers residents and their perspectives in the process to design new solutions. In alignment with the City of Chattanooga’s One Chattanooga Works strategic initiative, the i-team is tackling complex challenges through data and community engagement, and working with city leaders, residents, nonprofit organizations, and other stakeholders to test and implement new ideas focused on workforce development. As part of this initiative, the i-team hosted in-person discussions and ideation sessions at the Goodwill Opportunity Center. During these ideation sessions, Goodwill participants and community members generated ideas about how to grow professional networks, find and access information and opportunities, better understand what jobs are currently available, and what skills, knowledge, and experience are needed for key career pathways. I-team Director Liza Soydan and her team are currently prototyping new solutions to help people gain exposure to available jobs in the Chattanooga area.