History and Mission

History

Goodwill Industries of the Greater East Bay was founded in 1919 and incorporated as an independent nonprofit in 1936. Our Goodwill is part of an international movement with more than 200 affiliated nonprofits in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and 22 other countries.

The first Goodwill agency was founded in 1902 in Boston Massachusetts by Reverend Edgar J. Helms, a Methodist minister who hired those living in poverty and recent immigrants with limited language English skills to mend clothing and household goods and resell them to support the community programs. Independent Goodwill agencies, which are all members of Goodwill Industries International, were established throughout the United States in the years following this innovative model. While Goodwill Industries is no longer affilitated with the Methodist church and is a sectarian organization, Rev. Edgar Helm’s social justice legacy lives on through the workforce development programs Goodwill provides in local communities.

Mission

Goodwill Industries of the Greater East Bay provides free workforce development services to anyone in need in Alameda, Contra Costa, and Solano Counties and focuses on helping those who face signficant barriers to employment, such as limited education and English language skills, multi-generational poverty, limited work experience, history of incarceration, and physical, emotional, and psychological disabilities.