This holiday season, make your good go further by thrifting at one of Morgan Memorial Goodwill Industries’ 14 stores. Here every purchase supports the community’s most vulnerable residents. With the resolve of more than 125 years of community service, Goodwill has evolved with a single purpose in mind – to empower people to achieve independence and dignity through work.
How does Goodwill help people achieve independence?
Goodwill offers a number of job training and career service programs to individuals with barriers to employment. We’re constantly reinvesting in communities with the greatest need. In June 2022, for example, we opened the state-of-the-art Pioneer Valley Job Training and Operations Center in Springfield. The center has computer labs, classrooms, and work spaces, as well as a distribution center that provides training and employment for participants.
Who does my purchase at Goodwill help?
People in your community! For example:
- Previously incarcerated individuals who need the career services and training necessary to succeed in the workforce.
- Under-skilled, unemployed workers requiring the knowledge necessary to better close the digital divide.
- A person living with a developmental disability ready to learn the daily habits critical to retaining a job, such as time management, navigating public transportation, and social skills.
It’s tough to say what amazing opportunity that thrift find might create, but we can promise one thing – shopping at Goodwill always magnifies the good your purchase does, every time.
What are some of the progams and services?
Behind the bright retail stores with their rows of color-matched clothing and tidy shelves covered with all manner of knickknacks, household items, and unclaimed treasures is a hive of activity. One program at Goodwill is the School to Work Program, which gives work experience to high school students with disabilities. Later, as they age out of school, they can transition to Goodwill’s Employment Supports Program to continue their training. For example, Ricky Washington, a recent graduate of the program, attained his forklift operator certificate that now allows him a multitude of job opportunities.
In 2023, Goodwill assisted 307 individuals with developmental disabilities in moving towards independence.
Here’s one way Goodwill partners with business
Each year, Goodwill works with more than 90 companies seeking pre-screened individuals to bridge the employee gap. In 2023, more than 4,600 individuals benefited from MassHire Career Center, the one-stop career center Goodwill operates. Here, career counselors and case managers help individuals practice interview skills, learn job search techniques, and assess skills to determine how they can benefit from additional training.
Goodwill partnerships resulted in approximately 100 onsite and virtual recruitment events where job seekers from all walks of life got a chance to make a great impression.
It seems remarkable, doesn’t it? That donating gently used clothing might help determined adults create a resume, learn Excel, and then land a career-level job?
But it happens every day – in your neighborhood. Thrifting at Goodwill does more than make a cash register ring. It magnifies the community it serves and emboldens vulnerable individuals. That seems like a heavy calling for a gently used household item, doesn’t it? After all, we’re just talking about a trip to a thrift store. But shopping at a Goodwill is so much more than that.
Goodwill’s Commitment to Community
Each year at this time, Goodwill celebrates the season by helping those in need, including the participants it serves and others in the community. In 2022, its Thanksgiving in a Basket event provided more than 800 meals. At its Youth Holiday Celebration, Goodwill donated nearly 1,200 new toys to families.
The best part about choosing to thrift at Goodwill this holiday season? Knowing giving is a two-way street. Just as those wide aisles invite a lingering glance and a tempting purchase, Goodwill keeps its eye on the mission – to be excellent stewards of your generosity while empowering Massachusetts residents to achieve independence though the dignity of work.
Discover the Season of Giving, the Goodwill way. And make your donation go further than you ever imagined.
Morgan Memorial Goodwill Industries
Our mission is to help individuals with barriers to self-sufficiency to achieve independence and dignity through work. Not charity, but a chance. Goodwill’s mission services focus on helping people secure employment, which is critical for economic self-sufficiency.