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Prologue In Goodwill: Self Help For The Handicapped
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"Everyone may and can live abundantly. The business of life is to live and live well and adequately and abundantly." | |
2 | APPRECIATION | |
3 | To the members of the boards of directors, the executives and staff members of local Goodwill Industries who have given most devoted service during the past year; and to all persons everywhere who have given of their means, their materials, their service and their interest toward the development of the Goodwill Industries way of helping handicapped and disabled persons to live usefully, adequately and abundantly, the National Association of Goodwill Industries extends its most sincere appreciation. | |
4 |
Oliver A. Friedman, | |
5 | Forty Years of Service... | |
6 | THE Past is the Prologue. This inscription on the Archives Building in the Nation's Capitol would be in place over the door of any enterprise. It could well be the last thought of every person at the close of each day. These five words have special meaning in Goodwill Industries as the service of the past year is reviewed in terms of statistics, financial reports, and operations generally. They have very special significance as developments of the past year and the forty years of Goodwill Industries' service prior to that time are related to current events and the challenging responsibilities facing these enterprises at this time. | |
7 | From Relief To Rehabilitation | |
8 | Goodwill Industries had their beginning when Dr. E. J. Helms, the pastor of Morgan Chapel in the south end of Boston, decided that if disadvantaged persons were to be inspired to live the Christian way of life, it was essential that they have the opportunity to make a living. As he developed the self-help service program, providing work and wages for disadvantaged persons, he never lost sight of the fact that the business of teaching men and women to make a living, while most important, was incidental to teaching them how to live. Not only how to live but how to live the Christian way of life -- a way of life that would result in the maximum of self-development, an appreciation of their responsibility to their fellowmen, and an understanding of the love of God. | |
9 | Since the early days, Goodwill Industries have been alert to the constantly changing economic and social conditions in their communities. Their emphasis in service has moved from relief for the destitute -- to work relief for those seeking "not charity, but a chance" -- to rehabilitation and a maximum opportunity for useful work for the handicapped and disabled. As the whole community, through tax-supported agencies, has accepted responsibility for meeting problems occasioned by economic maladjustment, as agencies in various fields of community service have enlarged their programs and perfected skills to more effectively serve disadvantaged persons. Goodwill Industries have increasingly directed their attention to the development of rehabilitation, self-help, and employment services for handicapped persons. | |
10 | Enterprises Increase Efficiency | |
11 | Through these same years, Goodwill Industries have increased the efficiency of their operations and have improved the quality of their products. They have woven the new skills and techniques in the fields of human engineering into the service programs of their enterprises, and through all of this have observed the primacy of human and spiritual values. | |
12 | These pages present certain statistics, service figures, and financial statements of local enterprises. But this report is more than a record of tangible evidence of intangible service to thousands of handicapped persons. It is a statement directed to the members of the boards of directors, the executives, and staff members of local Goodwill Industries, and to leaders in the fields of religion, rehabilitation, and social service, who believe in the Goodwill way of helping handicapped and disabled persons to help themselves. It is, in a real sense, a reflection of the experience of the years in the Goodwill movement as a whole. | |
13 | Adopt New Policies And Goals | |
14 | The various paragraphs represent adopted policies and goals. They record activities to be found in some Goodwill Industries which should be extended to all, and activities found in all Goodwill Industries which should be enlarged so as to make self-help opportunities available to larger numbers of handicapped persons in their communities. | |
15 | It will be well for every person interested in Goodwill Industries to review activities of the particular local Goodwill with which he is affiliated or acquainted against this composite pattern, and then assist that enterprise in its larger development. | |
16 | Goodwill Industries are locally autonomous philanthropic organizations conducted, not for profit, but for the purpose of providing remunerative employment, occupational training, rehabilitation service, and opportunities for personal growth for physically, mentally, and socially handicapped persons. They are incorporated under the laws of their respective states and are governed by boards of directors composed of representative citizens of the local communities. Page 2: | |
17 | The enterprises conduct their operations and service within a framework of purpose, policies, procedures and standards established by the National Association of Goodwill Industries. They are recognized as sheltered workshops by the Wage and Hour Division of the United States Department of Labor. | |
18 | Effective Service For The Disabled | |
19 | In varying degrees the organizations provide some or all of the following services for the handicapped and disabled: rehabilitation, occupational and employment training; occupational and work therapy; work adjustment and experience; employment, occupational advice, placement, social service, financial subsidies, medical supervision, and self-expression activities. | |
20 | The services of Goodwill Industries are available to: | |
21 | (a) the more able handicapped persons who require work experience, adjustment, and interim employment pending their placement in commercial industry. Such persons usually require only short-periods of service and when placed in industry are reasonably certain of continued employment; | |
22 | (b) the less able handicapped persons who may be placeable in commercial industry during times of full employment. Because of their lesser abilities, they may not be employed regularly in the commercial world and would thus require employment in Goodwill Industries from time to time during their periods of commercial unemployment. | |
23 | (c) the severely handicapped persons who are able to do certain work well but are unable to compete with their more fortunate fellows in commercial industry, or who, because of their physical condition, may be a hazard to themselves or their fellows in industry. These are employed for longer periods of time in Goodwill Industries or in supervised home employment. | |
24 | In serving persons in each of these groups, the ultimate aim is not only to help them develop to their fullest capacity within Goodwill Industries, but to help them to pass on into commercial pursuits. Even for severely disabled persons the Industries are vestibules through which these persons are passing to the larger room of such commercial industrial activity and such participation in community life as their more limited abilities will permit. | |
25 | Discards Afford Opportunities | |
26 | The historic, basic, industrial activity of Goodwill Industries, used to provide service for the handicapped, has been the skillful utilization of discarded material. The collection, reconditioning, and sale of material and the attendant promotion and office activities involved afford opportunities for the development of many skills, the teaching of some trades and millions of hours of productive employment as the material is converted into useful products. | |
27 | Incidentally, the use of this material also results in the payment of nearly four million dollars in wages to handicapped persons each year, and the conservation of millions of articles of wearing apparel, household goods, furniture and other merchandise which is started on a second round of usefulness through Goodwill stores. | |
28 | It is said that the reconditioning of an article requires as much or more skill and ingenuity than the making of a new article, especially in these days of assembly-line production. If this be so, workers in Goodwill Industries are having an experience denied persons employed in the performance of operation A on machine B for weeks and months at a time. Expertness in the reconditioning of furniture, household appliances, electrical and mechanical articles, clothing, shoes, and dolls leads to opportunities for self-employment and employment in service shops engaged in reconditioning and servicing various types of articles. | |
29 | New Work Projects Provided | |
30 | But Goodwill Industries do not limit their industrial activities to the use of discarded material. Many are engaged in the manufacture of new goods or contract work or so-called craft work. These activities provide repetitive operations required by certain of the more severely disabled persons. The craft work provides an outlet for artistic skills. | |
31 | Handicapped persons employed are paid wages in cash and for the most part on an hourly basis. In fixing wages the agencies are governed by the Fair Labor Standards Act, the wage requirements of the several States, the rates for similar work in commercial industry, and the relative productivity of the physically disabled person as compared to the productivity of the vocationally able worker in similar work. | |
32 | The approach of Goodwill Industries, in serving the handicapped and disabled, is from the point of view that the service should result in productive employment and a fuller development of personality. They see the disabled person as a whole person. They recognize that initial medical service has been given, that physical restoration is in process or has been completed, and academic vocational training may parallel service at Goodwill or may have been completed prior to the client's having been referred to the agency. | |
33 | Service of Goodwill may begin as soon as the client can be productively employed or given occupational training, even for short periods of time in the shop or in the home. It should continue through until a maximum schedule of employment is realized in the shop and finally to placement in commercial industry if this be possible. It should continue beyond placement, but that follow-up should not be a "crutch." Rather it should be for the purpose of making certain that the employee has made the proper adjustment to his new work and expressing interest in his continuing success. Goodwill Industries in 90 cities in 34 states and the District of Columbia provided employment and service for nearly 20,000 different persons last year. The average number employed daily approximated 6,000. Page 3: | |
34 | Handicaps Of Persons Employed | |
35 | A check of the last payroll period of 1944, indicated that of those employed at that time 4% were blind or had defective vision, 7% were deaf, hard of hearing, or had speech defects. Records further indicate that 35% were orthopedically disabled or had organic or health disabilities, 24% were employed because of age or infirmity, 15% were mentally, emotionally, or socially handicapped, and 15% were non-handicapped. These percentages indicate primary handicaps only. | |
36 | In addition to the basic program of employment, training and rehabilitation for the handicapped. Goodwill Industries in 20 cities conduct religious and social service activities to help meet unmet needs in the communities in which they are located. | |
37 | The statement of Purposes and Policies for the organization, operation, service, and development of Goodwill Industries, originally adopted in 1936, was revised in April of 1944. Copies are available, upon request, to any interested persons. This statement was adopted in democratic fashion by the executives of local organizations who have the responsibility of putting them into effect in their own enterprises. They are putting them into effect as rapidly as the necessary resources can be secured and other conditions permit. | |
38 | Standards Essential To Progress | |
39 | The statement of Purposes and Policies discusses purpose, defines terms, covers matters such as proper organization, incorporation, directing board, leadership qualifications; areas, fields, program, and means of service. It also discusses standards of operation, service and quality of work; buildings, equipment, working conditions, wages, hours, insurance; records; the use of earned operating income, handling of funds, depreciation reserves, credit, deficits, community relations, and trade practices. | |
40 | Goodwill Industries are not relief agencies. Their service is definitely one of self-help. There is no tinge of so-called charity attached to a person served by them. It is expected that each individual served will make the maximum contribution of effort and energy toward his own self-development and the welfare of the total group of which he is a part during the time he is at Goodwill Industries. | |
41 | Training. . .for Industry and Life | |
42 | LIFE is a whole. The primary interest of Goodwill Industries is that handicapped and disabled persons shall have a full and abundant and useful life. There are three general approaches to the rehabilitation of the disabled. | |
43 | First, the medical or physical, in which the end result is to help the rehabilitants to attain the fullest possible physical reconditioning and restoration, so that they may be physically able to be usefully employed and be socially acceptable. The second is the academic training in which the rehabilitants are given academic and vocational training in accordance with their aptitudes, and which training is designed to prepare them to make a living and be ready for their first job. The third is that of rather immediate employment training and employment which results in a sense of independence on the part of the rehabilitants, and leads as quickly as possible into permanent productive employment and integration into community life. | |
44 | All Rehabilitation Approaches Essential | |
45 | All three are essential to the full rehabilitation of most handicapped individuals. The third approach is that of Goodwill Industries. As a case working agency in the field of rehabilitation, they bring to the persons they serve community resources which are essential to their full rehabilitation. Through their own activities, they provide rehabilitants with employment, training, and other rehabilitation services in accordance with their needs and abilities during the period of rehabilitation. Goodwill Industries do also provide more permanent employment for the severely disabled who find difficulty in securing commercial employment. | |
46 | Service for the disabled is receiving attention now as never before in history. This is due to the dramatic appeal of the large number of battle casualties, and to the great increase in industrial accidents because of the speed-up occasioned by the war effort. It is further due to the manpower shortage, which has necessitated the employment of large numbers of persons formerly rejected because of physical disabilities. Finally, it is due to an enlightened public opinion which has begun to recognize that physical limitations need not be vocational or social limitations. | |
47 | Government Assistance Greater | |
48 | Federal and State Governments, through the Public Law No. 113, are now able to provide rehabilitation services for civilian handicapped beyond any which were possible under former Rehabilitation Acts. The Veterans Administration, through Public Law No. 16, is able to provide rehabilitation services for honorably discharged veterans to the extent that all who do not require permanent institutional care may be equipped for employment and other opportunities in accordance with their abilities. Page 4: | |
49 | In both of these instances, the end result of the rehabilitation service is to prepare the handicapped individuals for life and the making of a living. The actual business of making that living must come through employment in industry, business, government, self-employment, and for the more severely disabled through enterprises such as Goodwill Industries. | |
50 | Industry's Attitude Toward Disabled | |
51 | Business and industry are increasingly employing qualified handicapped persons. Many of the larger industries have established special rehabilitation services within their training and personnel departments. Here, again, there is limitation to the number of persons who may be employed. Industry is limited not only to the number of jobs available which can be performed by handicapped persons, but also to the employment of those handicapped persons who may be able to work the full schedule of hours required by the particular jobs or operations to which they are assigned. The more severely disabled persons, though they may be well qualified for certain operations within industry, may not be employed either because of the lack of jobs for which they are qualified, or because they cannot stand the strain of the full employment period required in the productive process. | |
52 | Many communities have established special committees for the purpose of better serving handicapped and disabled persons on a community basis. These committees. in order to serve the whole group of handicapped in their community, will require the services of agencies such as Goodwill Industries, especially to accommodate the more severely handicapped and provide interim employment for the less seriously handicapped. | |
53 | How Goodwill Industries Serve | |
54 | It is well to state here, specifically, how Goodwill Industries help the handicapped and disabled and how these agencies may be used by other organizations in such services. The services of the Goodwill Industries are available to handicapped and disabled persons, who can travel to the shop unassisted, those who require special transportation, and those confined to their homes. The amount of service per day or per week will be determined by the physical and other abilities of the rehabilitant. As rehabilitation centers, Goodwill Industries provide: | |
55 | (a) vocational training in skills and) industrial activities involved in the various operations of the agency. | |
56 | (b) employment training to help disabled persons gain experience in industrial operations. | |
57 | (c) work experience to help disabled persons develop work habits and become accustomed to regular production schedules. | |
58 | (d) occupational and work therapy to help disabled persons adjust physical strengths and mental attitudes so they may be advanced into a regular training program. | |
59 | (e) pre-training service for the less able severely disabled persons to determine whether they may be expected to qualify for regular industrial activities either in commercial industry or special workshops for the handicapped. | |
60 | (f) guidance, adjustment, social service, recreational services and self-expression opportunities to assist disabled persons to meet their social and other problems and help them realize a fuller development of their personalities. | |
61 | As employment centers Goodwill Industries provide: | |
62 | (a) temporary employment which will give work experience, earned income, and morale stabilization to disabled persons pending their placement in commercial industry. | |
63 | (b) longer periods of employment for disabled persons for whom commercial or self-employment is not immediately available but who may be placed in industry from time to time as jobs for which they are qualified are available. | |
64 | (c) rather regular employment for the more seriously disabled who do not appear to be placeable in commerce, industry, or self-employment, but who can be employed in the workshops or in their homes at tasks for which they are qualified, and for such periods of time as their physical and other abilities will permit. | |
65 | Open Door Employment Policy | |
66 | The Goodwill Industries may provide that short term employment for severely disabled persons may be made in commercial industry without impairing the employment status of those persons at Goodwill. Thus when they have completed the specific commercial job in which they were placed, they may return to Goodwill without interruption in employment. This arrangement encourages employees to go into competitive employment at every opportunity even for temporary periods. | |
67 | A New Challenge... | |
68 | THROUGH careful classification of all jobs in Goodwill Industries, the unskilled, the semi-skilled, the skilled, the clerical, the sales, and the professional persons may have constructive employment at tasks for which they are suited or for which they can be trained or retrained. The Goodwill Industries in local communities may develop curative workshops or special rehabilitation center activities in those cities where, it appears, the agencies should develop such services. | |
69 | Stimulate Public Interest Page 5: | |
70 | Goodwill Industries may help to develop increased public interest in service for the seriously disabled and more general recognition of their abilities. This may be accomplished, in part, through the regular publications of the local organizations which have a combined circulation of more than two million and which go into homes of families interested in helping the handicapped to help themselves. | |
71 | Not all of this can be accomplished at once by every local Goodwill Industries. Nor is any local agency in the position to accept every disabled person immediately upon referral. But then it took 21 years of hard and earnest work and a global war to make Public Law 113 a reality. It will not take that long nor such a catastrophe to develop the enlarged services for the severely disabled in Goodwill Industries. It will take cooperation and understanding and the provision of all those resources which can be made available for service to handicapped persons through these enterprises. | |
72 | Service Dependent On Resources | |
73 | Volume and quality of service to be given very naturally depend on the resources of the agencies. Facilities must be expanded, additional leadership must be recruited, trained, and developed. Additional resources of material, market, job opportunity, and funds must be further developed. | |
74 | A Prologue To What | |
75 | The time has come in this statement to ask the question, "The past is the prologue to what in Goodwill Industries?", and then perhaps define that what and indicate how progress may be made toward its attainment. | |
76 | It must, at once, be recognized that the past is the prologue to a greater need for more constructive service for the handicapped and disabled than has been the situation at any previous time in the history of the nation. It is estimated by leaders in the rehabilitation field, based on public health surveys, that there are nearly two million handicapped persons in our nation seriously enough disabled to require special rehabilitation services in order to help them attain their maximum physical, mental, and vocational development to qualify them for most effective placement in competitive industry. | |
77 | Constant Service In Demand | |
78 | It is further estimated that there are nearly 400,000 severely disabled persons in America not requiring institutional care, but who do require the rather constant service and employment opportunities in agencies such as Goodwill Industries if they are to attain their maximum usefulness and be given the opportunity to market their labor. | |
79 | Thus, it is evident that in Goodwill Industries the achievements of the past, combined with the knowledge of greater need, should so clarify the vision of all Goodwill leaders that the prologue in the movement should be one to a more effective service for a larger number of handicapped and disabled persons. | |
80 | This is especially true for severely disabled persons, so that instead of being confronted with the possibility of a life consisting only of pensions and doles, sympathy and pity, they may have the opportunity through the Goodwill Industries to live a useful and an abundant life. Then and then only will they be recognized for their own individual worth as they are employed at tasks for which they are qualified, and paid in accordance with the value and volume of goods and services they produce. | |
81 | Techniques Must Be Perfected | |
82 | To accomplish this, it means that all existing Goodwill Industries must rapidly perfect their techniques of service in the field of rehabilitation and personnel management, so that all individuals served by their agency may have the maximum opportunity for personal growth, vocational adjustment, and placement in that type of business, industrial, and professional activity in which they may make the greatest contribution toward their own economic development and the welfare of the community. | |
83 | In many instances this will mean the addition of a vocational counselor, a training supervisor, a religious counselor, a psychiatric social worker, an occupational therapist, a physical therapist, medical directors, a registered nurse, a supervisor for recreational activities and others skilled in the art of human relations and services. | |
84 | It will require recognition of the need to enlarge the physical and equipment facilities and resources for service to the handicapped persons, so that eventually all those persons within the promotional and service area of each autonomous Goodwill Industries who require the assistance of the agency may be served. | |
85 | In general, this means that the program of service in Goodwill Industries must be so adjusted that it will; reach out through branch or outpost services into smaller communities, and, in turn, extend its service to severely handicapped persons even in the rural areas. A comity pattern, both for the promotion of resources and the development of the service program is now being developed by the National Association of Goodwill Industries. | |
86 | Achievements Bring New Requirements | |
87 | It will require the development of a selective promotion program which will bring to the Goodwill Industries the maximum quantity of usable discarded materials, which can be secured through the promotional area. Similarly, a selective production program of utilization of that material, which will provide a maximum of training and work opportunity at a minimum of operating expense, must be developed. Page 6: | |
88 | It will require the development of an industrial and marketing program in the manufacture of new goods, and securing sub-contracts from industry. This is necessary to provide training opportunities at operations necessary to prepare handicapped persons for competitive employment, and will provide a maximum of repetitive operations, so that the more severely handicapped may be regularly and productively employed within the Goodwill Industries. | |
89 | It will require improvements in the techniques of management in Goodwill Industries, and an enlargement of public interest in the work of these enterprises, to the end that increased resources may be made available and the value of those resources multiplied in service to the handicapped. | |
90 | Establishing New Goodwills | |
91 | It means that new Goodwill Industries must be established in a number of additional centers throughout the United States, and that the specialized leadership required, both in the new Industries and in many staff positions in existing Industries, must be secured and given specialized orientation training in Goodwill Industries techniques. | |
92 | The purpose of the National Association of Goodwill Industries is to encourage the establishment and development in various centers of Goodwill Industries for the religious, cultural, educational, social, industrial, and economic welfare of the handicapped and disabled. | |
93 | To the end that this purpose may be realized, the Association establishes standards for the operation and service of local Goodwill Industries, assists them to attain and maintain standards, develops operating methods, techniques, and procedures, counsels local organizations in operation, trains leadership, conducts conferences and institutes, promotes the work of Goodwill Industries on a national basis, and represents local organizations and the movement in relation to and with other national agencies and groups. | |
94 | The Task Ahead. . . | |
95 | SINCE the inception of the Goodwill Industries movement, most of the service rendered by the national office has been through the use of local executives who served in the national program on a voluntary basis, with only expense allowance. During 1944, arrangements were made for the executive secretary to serve full-time and for the development of a full-time staff. Already some members of this staff have been secured and are at work. | |
96 | National Association At Work | |
97 | Specifically, services of the National Association include the general information, promotion, and public relation services on a national level; the recruiting and training of executive and staff leadership for local organizations; the development of cooperative purchasing, marketing and other services for local agencies; the counseling of local Goodwill Industries in problems of organization, management, rehabilitation, training, social work, spiritual guidance, promotion, industrial operation, merchandising, use of plant facilities, and other activities; extension of Goodwill Industries into new centers. | |
98 | The National Association has been of especial assistance to local Goodwill Industries, as it has represented them in relation to governmental and other agencies in the planning on the national level for campaigns of various kinds which might have an adverse effect upon resources of material available to them. It has also represented local organizations on a national level in the development of service programs for the handicapped so that as those programs reached the local level the way was paved for participation by local Goodwill Industries and the use of their services as part of the total community plan in serving the handicapped and disabled. | |
99 | The initial development of Goodwill Industries movement on a national scale was made possible through incentive appropriations in excess of one million dollars being made to local Goodwill Industries by the Board of Home Missions and Church Extension of the Methodist Church immediately following World War I. Through the years since that time this board has continued its interest and assistance. Goodwill Industries, in their development and expansion since that time, have commanded the interest, the respect, and the support of persons of all denominations. They minister to persons regardless of creed. In almost every city, members of several denominations share in the management of the local Industries through membership on its governing board. | |
100 | Appropriations Provided Incentive | |
101 | In connection with its present Crusade for Christ and the development of its reconstruction and postwar program, the Methodist Church has provided for substantial incentive appropriations to be made available to assist in the establishment of autonomous Goodwill Industries in at least fifteen new metropolitan centers in the United States. Close cooperation of this Department of Goodwill Industries of the Methodist Church with the National Association of Goodwill Industries will make it possible for those incentive appropriations to be so used as to accomplish a maximum of development in a minimum of time. Page 7: | |
102 | The past is, indeed, the prologue. It is the conviction of leaders in the Goodwill Industries movement that it is the prologue to finer, more extensive, and more complete service for the handicapped and disabled of the nation through the Goodwill Industries way of helping them to help themselves and attain the maximum development of which they are capable in the living of a useful and abundant life. | |
103 | NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF GOODWILL INDUSTRIES | |
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President, William J. Kurth ......................................Boston | |
105 | DEPARTMENT OF GOODWILL INDUSTRIES | |
106 | MEMBERS | |
107 |
Frank M Baker ........Cleveland | |
108 | EX OFFICIO MEMBERS | |
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Bishop Arthur J. Moore.. .Atlanta | |
110 | NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF WOMAN'S AUXILIARIES TO GOODWILL INDUSTRIES | |
111 |
President, Mrs. C. J. Cook .....................Jamaica Plains 30, Mass. Page 8: | |
112 | Goodwill Trucks serve more than 2,000 additional cities and towns in the collection of discarded materials. Branch Goodwill Stores are located in more than 100 additional cities. |