Mission and History
Serving 10 counties in the Alabama-Florida Gulf Coast region
Our mission is to empower people through lifelong learning and employment.
Goodwill Gulf Coast serves 10 counties in the Alabama-Florida Gulf Coast region (seven counties in Southwest Alabama; three counties in the Florida Panhandle), providing programs and services to empower individuals and families to overcome challenges due to disabilities and other barriers that impact economic well-being, self-sufficiency, and quality of life.
Our mission is to help people, in whatever shape they are in – needing a job, their GED, or literacy skills, help with parenting a special needs child, or a place for their family member who can’t stay home alone. They may need help preparing their children for entering school, or getting free medical equipment. Whatever the need, Goodwill Gulf Coast is here for them.
If you have donated a bag of clothing or bought an item in our stores, thank you for helping us make a person’s life brighter, a future more secure, a family more confident. You have helped us strengthen our communities, one child, one parent, one person at a time.
Our history was forged by a Methodist minister and early social innovator.
Goodwill Industries was founded in 1902 in Boston, MA by Reverend Edgar J. Helms, a Methodist minister. Helms collected used household goods and clothing in wealthier areas of the city, then trained and hired those who were poor 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.
Dr. Helms’ vision set an early course for what today has become a $5 billion nonprofit organization worldwide. Helms described Goodwill Industries as an “industrial program as well as a social service enterprise… a provider of employment, training and rehabilitation for people of limited employability, and a source of temporary assistance for individuals whose resources were depleted.” Even today, his original description holds true of Goodwill.
Serving our local community since 1956, Goodwill Gulf Coast now operates ten (10) retail store/donation centers, ten (10) attended donation centers, two (2) outlet (bin) stores, and five (5) opportunity centers in addition to our Gordon Smith Campus, which houses several programs and administration. Our locations reach ten (10) counties in Southwest Alabama and Northwest Florida. We have five (5) main areas of service: Employment Services, Education Services, Children and Family Services, Support Services, and Youth Services.