ABOUT GOODWILL INDUSTRIES OF MIDDLE GEORGIA AND THE CSRA
Our Mission and History
We build lives, families and communities one career at a time by helping people develop their God-given gifts through education, work and career services.
Goodwill Industries was founded in 1902 by Boston minister Edgar J. Helms. To alleviate the extreme poverty affecting the immigrant residents of his parish neighborhoods, Dr. Helms established a trade school in partnership with the business community and trained the unemployed to repair and mend used goods and clothing collected from the city’s wealthier homes. The reconditioned items were sold to fund more training programs and pay participants a living wage while they mastered skills of a trade that would make them employable and self-reliant.
Dr. Helms was an early innovator of social service enterprise who recognized education and training to be the primary building blocks for a successful life. His guiding philosophy – that people wanted a hand up, not a hand out – is the core principle of today’s Goodwill Industries International (GII), a federation of autonomous member organizations that generate self-sustaining revenue to fund community-based employment services. Each year, this time tested, proven model gives hundreds of thousands of people nationwide a career pathway out of poverty and the pride and dignity of earning a paycheck.
Our Values
- Service – I will practice hospitality.
- Ownership – I will go above and beyond with every job I do.
- Accountable – I will keep my commitments.
- Respect – I will base my interactions with
others on honesty and integrity
Serving Middle Georgia & the CSRA Since 1975
Goodwill Industries of Middle Georgia and the CSRA (Goodwill) was founded in Macon in 1975 to serve individuals with disabilities and other special needs. In 1995, we opened our first Job Connection career center, where anyone with a barrier to employment could receive career counseling and job placement assistance. Today, our Goodwill organization operates 8 regional career centers, serving residents of 31 counties in Georgia and four in South Carolina.
We continue to adapt Dr. Helms’ original vision relevant to today’s workforce climate, offering a uniquely holistic service model that goes beyond conventional workforce development programs. With a focus on long- and short-term upskilling, reskilling and higher education opportunities, our innovative service model combines real-world work opportunities, mentoring, workplace readiness and placement services with our own Helms College and Helms Career Education companion post-secondary programs and Edgar’s Hospitality Group. We’re the only Goodwill in the world operating a college and hospitality venues to serve the mission.