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Goodwill Industries may help to develop increased public interest in service for the seriously disabled and more general recognition of their abilities. This may be accomplished, in part, through the regular publications of the local organizations which have a combined circulation of more than two million and which go into homes of families interested in helping the handicapped to help themselves.

Not all of this can be accomplished at once by every local Goodwill Industries. Nor is any local agency in the position to accept every disabled person immediately upon referral. But then it took 21 years of hard and earnest work and a global war to make Public Law 113 a reality. It will not take that long nor such a catastrophe to develop the enlarged services for the severely disabled in Goodwill Industries. It will take cooperation and understanding and the provision of all those resources which can be made available for service to handicapped persons through these enterprises.

Service Dependent On Resources

Volume and quality of service to be given very naturally depend on the resources of the agencies. Facilities must be expanded, additional leadership must be recruited, trained, and developed. Additional resources of material, market, job opportunity, and funds must be further developed.

A Prologue To What

The time has come in this statement to ask the question, "The past is the prologue to what in Goodwill Industries?", and then perhaps define that what and indicate how progress may be made toward its attainment.

It must, at once, be recognized that the past is the prologue to a greater need for more constructive service for the handicapped and disabled than has been the situation at any previous time in the history of the nation. It is estimated by leaders in the rehabilitation field, based on public health surveys, that there are nearly two million handicapped persons in our nation seriously enough disabled to require special rehabilitation services in order to help them attain their maximum physical, mental, and vocational development to qualify them for most effective placement in competitive industry.

Constant Service In Demand

It is further estimated that there are nearly 400,000 severely disabled persons in America not requiring institutional care, but who do require the rather constant service and employment opportunities in agencies such as Goodwill Industries if they are to attain their maximum usefulness and be given the opportunity to market their labor.

Thus, it is evident that in Goodwill Industries the achievements of the past, combined with the knowledge of greater need, should so clarify the vision of all Goodwill leaders that the prologue in the movement should be one to a more effective service for a larger number of handicapped and disabled persons.

This is especially true for severely disabled persons, so that instead of being confronted with the possibility of a life consisting only of pensions and doles, sympathy and pity, they may have the opportunity through the Goodwill Industries to live a useful and an abundant life. Then and then only will they be recognized for their own individual worth as they are employed at tasks for which they are qualified, and paid in accordance with the value and volume of goods and services they produce.

Techniques Must Be Perfected

To accomplish this, it means that all existing Goodwill Industries must rapidly perfect their techniques of service in the field of rehabilitation and personnel management, so that all individuals served by their agency may have the maximum opportunity for personal growth, vocational adjustment, and placement in that type of business, industrial, and professional activity in which they may make the greatest contribution toward their own economic development and the welfare of the community.

In many instances this will mean the addition of a vocational counselor, a training supervisor, a religious counselor, a psychiatric social worker, an occupational therapist, a physical therapist, medical directors, a registered nurse, a supervisor for recreational activities and others skilled in the art of human relations and services.

It will require recognition of the need to enlarge the physical and equipment facilities and resources for service to the handicapped persons, so that eventually all those persons within the promotional and service area of each autonomous Goodwill Industries who require the assistance of the agency may be served.

In general, this means that the program of service in Goodwill Industries must be so adjusted that it will; reach out through branch or outpost services into smaller communities, and, in turn, extend its service to severely handicapped persons even in the rural areas. A comity pattern, both for the promotion of resources and the development of the service program is now being developed by the National Association of Goodwill Industries.

Achievements Bring New Requirements

It will require the development of a selective promotion program which will bring to the Goodwill Industries the maximum quantity of usable discarded materials, which can be secured through the promotional area. Similarly, a selective production program of utilization of that material, which will provide a maximum of training and work opportunity at a minimum of operating expense, must be developed.