Goodwill Keystone Area

The vision of Goodwill Keystone Area continues to be empowering those we serve to reach their fullest potential as workers and as members of the broader community. We assist individuals in overcoming employment barriers, including welfare dependency, illiteracy, homelessness and disabilities, and introduce them to the power of earning a paycheck. Goodwill believes that work is, and will continue to be, a fundamental building block of community. Employment provides economic independence, as well as the secondary gains of preventing and minimizing other social problems. It empowers each person to develop a broader role within the community.

Rev. Edgar J. Helms, a Methodist minister, founded Goodwill in Boston, Massachusetts in 1902. As a pastor in the Boston community, Rev. Helms noticed that many individuals in the neighborhood were in desperate need of clothing and household goods. Many of these individuals were also unemployed due to language barriers and limited job skills. In response to this crisis, Rev. Helms asked the members of his congregation to collect used household goods and clothing from the wealthier areas of the city. Once the items were collected, he invited anyone in the community to come in the next week and take what they needed. But when Rev. Helms opened the doors, he was greeted with pushing and shoving as individuals desperately tried to take as many items as they could to help support their family. Rev. Helms decided that there must be a better way to help the community and so he again asked his congregation members to collect used household goods and clothing but this time he trained and hired the poor and immigrants to mend and repair the used goods. The goods were then resold or were given to the people who repaired them. The system worked, and the Goodwill philosophy of "a hand up, not a hand out" was born. As Rev. Helms had intended 100 years ago, the goal of Goodwill remains unchanged today: to help individuals find productive and competitive employment and contribute to our community?s economic vitality.