About Goodwill

Our mission is to build pathways that help individuals pursue their goals through employment, career development, and community support programs.

Beyond The Store

When you hear “Goodwill,” you may think “thrift stores,” or you may picture our “Smiling G” logo. The truth is that Goodwill represents so much more.

While donations do stock the shelves at our seven stores throughout the Berkshires and Southern Vermont, they also represent an opportunity for others in our community. We don’t just take your donated goods and sell them. We turn those donations into life-changing opportunities for individuals with barriers to employment. Opportunities that help a person find success, hope, and dignity by learning to believe in themselves through the power of work.

Store sales help us employ 175 people and fund our mission services initiatives. Our Mission Services team helps those with barriers or challenges in finding and maintaining employment. We provide employment training programs, including employability workshops, customer service, and custodial training. These individuals include those who have disabilities, at-risk youth, and adults who are struggling due to domestic violence, addiction recovery, homelessness, recent incarceration, or other reasons.

We have two Career Centers where people can walk in and get personalized help with resumes, interview coaching, and applying for jobs. Our Soar for Success program provides interview-appropriate clothing to those who are job searching. Without your donations and purchases, and financial contributions, none of these programs would be possible.

We are proud of our community partnerships, including the Summer Program with MassHire for Youth Works. Many of our participants have either entered college or obtained employment. We celebrate their accomplishments and milestones.

Last but not least, each week we use a Goodwill truck and driver to pick up fresh fruit and vegetables, frozen meats and non-perishable foods from the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts in Chicopee to bring to northern Berkshire County, where it is distributed among three food pantries, a soup kitchen and a homeless shelter. Goodwill began transporting food to those who struggle with food insecurity during the COVID pandemic and continues to perform this important community service today.

History

“Friends of Goodwill, 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.”
— Dr. Edgar J. Helms, 1941

Goodwill champions the philosophy of community service through the power of work.

In 1902, the founder of this philosophy, Reverend Edgar J. Helms, a Methodist Minister, took burlap bags into Boston’s wealthier neighborhoods to collect donations of household goods and clothing. He invited community residents with disabilities and other disadvantages to help repair and sell the donations. The donations were then resold to make money to pay the workers 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.

The organization was formally incorporated in 1910. Known at the time as Morgan Memorial Cooperative Industries and Stores, Inc. (a reflection of its headquarters in Boston’s Morgan Memorial Chapel), it provided job skills training programs and even a rudimentary placement service. The name Goodwill Industries was later adopted after a Brooklyn, New York workshop coined the phrase. During the challenges of the Great Depression, Goodwill narrowed the focus of its services from unemployed people generally to a more manageable sector of the population that had long been neglected – America’s citizens with disabilities. Since then, Goodwill’s mission has grown into an international movement, improving the quality of life for people with disabilities everywhere. Today, Goodwill Industries has 158 autonomous member organizations in the U.S. and Canada and 22 other countries.

Goodwill of the Berkshires and Southern Vermont

Shortly after Goodwill’s successful Pittsfield launch, artist Norman Rockwell, who was then a resident of nearby Stockbridge, awarded the Pittsfield branch with a piece of his original work. Rockwell’s painting depicts a man in a wheelchair waving his first paycheck, embodying the perseverance and hardworking nature of Goodwill employees to this day.

In May 1956, Julie Parker, also referred to as “Mrs. Goodwill,” founded Goodwill Industries of the Berkshires in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. The organization advanced work opportunities for those with barriers to employment and established an affordable and useful shopping experience for those struggling financially. Shortly after Goodwill’s successful Pittsfield launch, artist Norman Rockwell, who was then a resident of nearby Stockbridge, awarded the Pittsfield branch with a piece of his original work. Rockwell’s painting depicts a man in a wheelchair waving his first paycheck, embodying the perseverance and hardworking nature of Goodwill employees to this day.

In 1966, Goodwill Industries of the Berkshires moved to a larger facility on Wahconah Street, thanks to funding from two major donors. Goodwill’s expanded headquarters provided work for more than 40 people with disabilities as well as multiple opportunities for the people of Berkshire County. The move was monumental in the history of the organization as it showed the importance the community placed on the well-being of handicapped people, though the director felt there was still more work to be done.

“There are many who don’t realize our purpose. We are not a junk depot. We want materials that can be salvaged and sold, and we want them mainly to give our help the experience. We need volunteer assistance,” said Monfette, former director of Goodwill Industries of the Berkshires.

Goodwill Industries of the Berkshires and Southern Vermont currently has ten donation centers located throughout the region. Goodwill reuses, repurposes, and recycles clothing, household goods and other materials in many ways, keeping thousands of items out of landfills. The expansiveness of facilities located in the Berkshires has opened a gateway to employment for those struggling with barriers that may affect their ability to acquire a job.

Job coaches work closely with program participants to evaluate and assist with job skills and behavior, assisting with the goal of a brighter future via employment training and coaching. It is Goodwill’s mission to instill success in program participants, no matter how challenging this task may be. Gaining work skills and experience is the objective, but participants also acquire important lessons beyond this goal. Learning how to dress professionally, maintain a healthy lifestyle, develop professional goals, and retain a balanced work ethic are all lessons taught by Goodwill supervisors.

Today, there are Goodwill retail stores throughout Berkshire County and Southern Vermont. Goodwill’s headquarters remain in Pittsfield on Tyler Street, where clothes are sorted and distributed to Goodwill locations in the Berkshires and Southern Vermont. The Tyler Street facility is also home to Goodwill employee training and where assistance is offered to those seeking work, with on-the-job training, job readiness/ work adjustment, and a career center that assists with job searches. Although Goodwill’s locations, employees, goods, and funding have changed, the focus remains the same: “Goodwill works to enhance the dignity and quality of life of individuals and families by strengthening communities, eliminating barriers to opportunity, and helping people in need reach their full potential through learning and the power of work.”