Idalba Tabares honored in Women of Influence awards

Goodwill manager lands jobs for immigrant clients

Native of Colombia

From Goodwill Industries of Middle Tennessee:

Idalba Tabares, Career Solutions manager at the Berry Road location, has been named one of Nashville Business Journal’s Women of Influence in the Community Supporter category. Idalba was chosen because of her tireless efforts to help her clients, many of whom are immigrants.

When she first started working with Goodwill three years ago, most of Idalba’s clients came from Nashville’s Hispanic community. Today, she is also working with the area’s growing Somali and Sudanese population. As a native of Colombia, Idalba understands and empathizes with the immigrants she works with and the numbers speak for themselves. In the last two years she has placed 493 clients in jobs, most of them outside of Goodwill. Of the clients she has placed, 93 percent remained on the job 90 days or more.

Idalba’s success is due in large part to her networking with employers. She is challenged to find businesses willing to hire legal immigrants. In addition, she looks for jobs where the employees will not only feel comfortable, but will also thrive. Her success is apparent because many of the employees she has placed return to her as long as a year later hoping to find even more challenging work.

A luncheon to honor Idalba, and all the Women of Influence, will be hosted by the Nashville Business Journal on Friday, February 6, 2009 at the Renaissance Hotel in Nashville. The honor from the Nashville Business Journal is the second this year for Idalba. In October, she was awarded Goodwill’s Career Solutions Employee of the Year.

More information about the Women of Influence awards is available at the Nashville Business Journal.