The Reverend Edgar Helms, a Methodist minister who was seeking ways to help residents in Boston's impoverished South End, founded GOODWILL at the turn of the century in 1902. Helms collected used household goods and clothing in wealthier areas of the city, then trained and hired immigrants and financially challenged citizens to mend and repair the used goods. The goods were then resold, or given to the people who repaired them. The system worked and the Goodwill philosophy of "a hand up, not a hand out" was born.
strengthening families through programs connecting them with resources building economic and social independence
The organization was formally incorporated in 1910. Known at the time as Morgan Memorial Cooperative Industries and Stores Inc., (a reflection of its headquarters in Boston's Morgan Memorial Chapel), it provided job skills training programs and even a rudimentary placement service. The name GOODWILL Industries was later adopted after a Brooklyn, New York workshop coined the phrase. Helms had described GOODWILL as an industrial program as well as a social service enterprise.
Today, Goodwill Industries International is the largest provider of vocational services and not-for-profit employer of people with disabilities and other barriers to employment in the world.
strengthening families through programs
