About Goodwill

Headquartered in Astoria, Queens, the community-based agency serves roughly 160,000 persons a year. How? Well, to start with, we helped 14,000 people find employment in 2010 alone. In fact, at GoodwillNyNj, we place 7 people in jobs every hour of every business day. With our 68 programs located in 32 sites, we serve people living in the 5 boroughs of New York City, Northern New Jersey, Long Island and the Hudson Valley. In 2010, our 18 different youth programs Goodwill’s  served more than 14,600 children and families, and we placed over 600 youths in summer jobs.

Chances are you know Goodwill through our retail stores – these stores fund approximately 1/3 of our annual operating budget and offer on-the-job training and employment experience to almost 2,200 persons with disabilities. In addition, these stores play an active role in supporting our environmental programs, too, keeping 48 million pounds of usable clothing and household goods out of landfills in 2010.

Founded in Brooklyn in 1915, Goodwill is one of New York metropolitan area’s original recyclers. We partner with nonprofit and for-profit organizations, government agencies and retailers on area recycling programs. These programs bring the “power of work” to our clients while helping the communities we serve to become more environmentally-friendly.

We work with children and youth, mature and unskilled workers, persons with disabilities, people moving from welfare to work, refugees and recent immigrants, ex-offenders, and other persons with barriers to employment, Our agency’s five divisions provide “a hand up, not a handout” to populations with limited opportunities, and we’re delighted to have you visit us here at our blog and would love to have you check us out on our Facebook Fan Page, follow us on Twitter or check out our website. Hope to see you ’round!