Library Collections: Document: Full Text

Figures alone do not reveal the dividends of Goodwill. More revealing are the basic purposes and accomplishments.

A primary purpose, of course, is to provide training and employment and rehabilitation for the handicapped. By handicapped is meant those who for physical, mental, emotional, or social reasons are not readily accepted into normal occupational employment. Goodwill employment is both an end in itself, providing work suited to people with limited facilities for work, and a means to an end, giving training and confidence which fit the handicapped for jobs in regular industry.

Giving employment is not the only purpose, however. Once a handicapped person is employed, his work training is intended to help develop him to his fullest capacities. Just a job isn't enough, so the job must be one that rehabilitates as well as produces income. And when the handicapped person discovers he can work, his mental capacity is enlarged. He sees his own abilities and seeks to utilize them. Out of such new development of capacities comes a spiritual growth -- an awakening of appreciation for self and others, a renewed faith in man and God and a recognition of the beauties and joys of living.

Recognition of self-worth by the handicapped individual is important enough to be an objective by itself. Often the growth of self-confidence -- especially after years of idleness -- is a principal factor in rehabilitation. The man with one arm learns he can operate a baling press, the blind boy learns he can press ties, the girl with shriveled legs learns she can sew and the aged man learns his hands can still paint. Fears and doubts disappear. Time and clouds roll back.

An extra word might be said about the dividend of spiritual stimulation in Goodwill Industries. Having root in the Methodist Church, whose early promotion, interest, and financial investments have been important factors in growth, Goodwill Industries approaches the rehabilitation program from the point of view that man does not achieve abundant living unless his spiritual as well as physical wants are supplied. All Goodwill Industries have chapels where services or assembly programs are conducted regularly.

Goodwill Industries are interdenominational. Local boards of directors represent many faiths; and persons regardless of race or creed are given opportunity in the workshops. The religious program is aimed to stimulate spiritual wants and encourage workers to attend the churches of their choice.

The human rehabilitation objectives of Goodwill Industries must be considered part of the dividends of Goodwill. Earning an income is an important thing, it's true; but the mental, the psychological, and the spiritual values bring returns in happiness that money alone cannot buy.

Goodwill pays dividends, also, to the community. Details of such community service will be reported later, but they can be mentioned here. When people are so handicapped that they are unable to work at normal jobs, they would become relief burdens if it were not for the opportunity to work in a place where their limited skills could be utilized. A chance to work and earn their own living is far more satisfactory than depending upon pensions or the aid of others.

Opportunities in a Sheltered Workshop like Goodwill helps fit handicapped people into society, too. Their feeling of inferiority is overcome by the knowledge that they can live as others do. They join in community affairs, feeling no more out of place than they do at their jobs. In times of need, such as in the present wartime period, the handicapped have been able to help fill manpower requirements in essential industry. Thus they serve society and the nation; and they have an opportunity to become vital workers in the war effort.

Society gains, also, from the rebuilding and reconditioning of the discarded household goods in Goodwill plants. The tragedy of waste in old materials is eliminated; for nothing that has value is wasted at a Goodwill plant. Besides the regular industrial operations that pay dividends in human and social rehabilitation, other activities are carried on by Goodwill Industries to serve society. Such activities include social settlements, recreational and summer camps, farms, day nurseries, and many other services to meet unmet religious and social service needs in their community. In addition, Goodwill Industries cooperate with many community enterprises.

The many dividends of Goodwill are made possible through the investments of contributions and work by many people. Important investors are the householders who lay aside their discarded materials for Goodwill to collect. Customers who buy in Goodwill stores make possible the material returns to the handicapped -- the wages of Goodwill.

Then come the leaders of Goodwill Industries. Each Goodwill Industries, by the way, is autonomous, incorporated under state charter. Local community leaders serve without pay on boards of directors, and the interest of these more than 2,000 men and women is a major investment. Each Industries has an executive or superintendent and staff members, whose diligent and unflagging efforts provide the direction necessary to keep the self-help program in operation.