Goodwill – Helping individuals and families build social and employment skills needed to achieve personal and economic independence
For more than 100 years, Goodwill has witnessed the Power of Work in peoples' lives.
Reverend Edgar James Helms, a Methodist minister, started Goodwill Industries International in 1902. From his church in Boston’s South End, he saw a need to help the people who lived in this forsaken part of town. Receiving donations of clothing from the wealthier residents of Beacon Hill, he began employing impoverished individuals to repair and refurbish the used items to sell. Initially he wanted to give the employees the clothing for free in return for their labor. These workers realized that they didn’t want a “hand out” but would rather receive wages for their work. So, from then on, he sold the clothing at a modest price and used that income to pay wages to the workers.
Goodwill’s emphasis from the beginning was on creating opportunity not charity. The system worked, and the Goodwill philosophy of "a hand up, not a hand out" was born.
11 W. Jackson St. Medford, OR 97501 tel. 541-772-3300 Fax 541-772-6158
