About Goodwill Industries

Goodwills mission is to provide employment services to individuals with a disability or disadvantaging conditions to achieve their highest level of personal, social and economic independence.

Founded in 1902 by Edgar Helms, a Boston Methodist minister.
He gathered discarded items (household, clothing) from his friends.
Helms hired people in need to fix donated items for resale; these were people considered unemployable because of mental and physical conditions.
Helms believed strongly in jobs as a way to help people out of poverty; the Goodwill motto: A hand up, not a handout was coined and serves as a core value of Goodwill ever since.
Goodwill represents the first model of urban outreach ministry and social innovation, as relevant today as when it was founded more than 100 years ago.