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Foreword

Report of Goodwill Industries for 1943

By Oliver A. Friedman
Executive Secretary, National Association of Goodwill Industries Superintendent, Department of Goodwill Industries

Goodwill Industries provide employment, training, and rehabilitation for handicapped and disadvantaged persons helping them to attain the fullest physical, mental, emotional, moral, cultural, spiritual, vocational, and economic development of which they are capable in order that they may realize a useful and abundant life.

The reports here presented for 1943 give evidence of the way in which Goodwill Industries are meeting the challenge of increased need for service to handicapped persons in this time of great national stress.

In addition to meeting current needs, Goodwill Industries are giving attention to increasing facilities, developing leadership, and enlarging program, so that they may be better able to provide opportunities for self-help and service for the ever-increasing number of persons disabled in military service, war industry, by street and home accidents, and by disease.

In planning the development to meet post-war needs of the handicapped, leaders in Goodwill Industries are observing the exhortation of Dr. E. J. Helms, the Founder of the movement.

* Serve the handicapped and unfortunate regardless of race, creed, or nationality.

* Be dissatisfied with your work until every handicapped and unfortunate person in your community has an opportunity to develop to his fullest usefulness and enjoy a maximum of abundant living.

* Observe the highest standards and best methods in the operation of your enterprise and in services you render, always giving primacy to human and spiritual values.

* Assist in establishing Goodwill Industries in every community in our land, and then in the rest of the world.

* Be always mindful of the fact, through God's power and mercy, lives can be changed.

Oliver A. Friedman,
Executive Secretary.

. . .Mean Many Things. . .

AMONG America's traditions is a belief in good will toward men. It is a part of our democratic heritage that has special significance in a world flaming with war and witnessing race, class, and group discrimination.

This is a report of a group of enterprises known as Goodwill Industries -- enterprises which prove that good will toward men pays dividends. Goodwill Industries offer the handicapped and the aged an opportunity to help themselves attain useful lives. This American way stands out in marked contrast to the discrimination against the so-called "unfit" which exists in other parts of the world.

Goodwill Industries function in nearly 100 cities. In these communities, society has invested in extending good will to the handicapped. From small investments by the people of these communities have come rich dividends.

The story of the dividends of Goodwill are perhaps best told in just a few words by handicapped people. They say: "I'm happy because I'm doing something useful. I don't think I'd be as happy if I found a million dollars."

"I feel for the first time in my life that I've come into my own."

"It does something to one's self-respect."

"If you have something to occupy your mind, you can make something of yourself."

"Having something to do keeps me going."

But a complete story can't be told with a few quotations, especially if the story is a report covering a year's activities of nearly 100 organizations in a movement. No matter the occasion and no matter the purpose, the story must go back to the beginning.

The beginning of Goodwill dividends goes back forty years -- to the year 1902, when Edgar Helms was struggling with a problem of helping the destitute at South End Mission in Boston. To the young missionary there was a challenge in the suffering in Boston's South End.

From the challenge grew an idea -- an idea to collect discarded materials for use again by the needy. And the first investment of Boston's wealthy people who donated discarded articles has grown into dividends of millions of dollars in wages to handicapped people and the rehabilitation of thousands of lives.

First, Edgar Helms collected materials to give to the poor; but the demand was too great, so he charged a few pennies. Then, he decided more people could be helped if some collected materials and others reconditioned them for resale. That, fundamentally, is the plan of Goodwill Industries.

The magic of this simple idea spread. People became interested in investing their time and finances to make it grow. After the first World War, Goodwill Industries began to mushroom throughout the nation. By the time the depression of the Thirties hit, Goodwill was prepared not only to help the needy but to rehabilitate the handicapped who so often are turned away from the doors of industry with the words, "Sorry, we can't use you."

By the end of 1943, the date of this report, it can be conservatively estimated that over 200,000 handicapped people have been given the opportunity to help themselves to better lives through Goodwill since Edgar Helms Started this service of Applied Christianity in 1902. Nearly 25,000 were employed during the year. Nearly 10,000 were placed in outside jobs. The handicapped in Goodwill Industries earned nearly four million dollars in wages during 1943.