About - Goodwill Industries of New Jersey and Philadelphia

Our Mission

Most people know Goodwill as the place to donate unwanted items or to shop for treasures. But our core mission is really about changing lives. As a nonprofit, community-based leader, Goodwill provides education, job training and career services that help individuals faced with barriers to become competitively employed. Goodwill is about giving a hand up, not a hand out. We believe everybody should have the opportunity to achieve independence through the power of work, no matter what barrier one might be facing.

History of Goodwill

Goodwill was founded in Boston in 1902 by Edgar J. Helms, a Methodist minister and early social innovator. Helms collected gently used clothing and other items from residents living in wealthy neighborhoods and then trained and hired impoverished individuals to mend and repair the used goods. Items were then resold to pay the workers’ wages. The system worked! Recycling was born. And the Goodwill philosophy of “a hand up, not a hand out” was born.

Since its founding in Camden, NJ in 1948, Goodwill Industries of Southern NJ & Philadelphia has empowered thousands of local residents with special needs with the marketable job skills needed to succeed in the workplace. One job at a time, we are making a difference-strengthening both families and communities through the power of work.