CHANGING LIVES
Goodwill is in the business of changing lives and invigorating communities. As a social enterprise, we create jobs and opportunity for the people in our communities who need them most, including the young and the old, new Canadians and disabled people.

The philosophy behind our innovative Goodwill REACH™ (Real Employment to Achieve Community Health) employment  initiative is that the best way to learn how to work is through “the power of work”. Treating people with dignity and respect and providing them with paid, on-the-job experience offers them hope for a better, more sustainable future.

ENABLING COMMUNITIES TO WORK
Goodwill provides both traditional employment and Goodwill REACH™ employment opportunities, allowing people to work and learn new skills through paid employment. The work Goodwill performs as a social enterprise on a day-to-day basis provides the platform where people - participants, volunteers and employees-can build confidence, develop skills and increase their capacity to assist themselves.

Goodwill knows that sustained employment is a process; not an event. For people with little or no work experience or marketable skills, Goodwill REACH™ serves as a first job; an opportunity to obtain experience and develop skills that would be useful in other jobs and learn how to function within a work environment.

DONATIONS AND RETAIL
Goodwill operates community retail stores and donation centres throughout Greater Toronto and Central and Eastern Ontario. Our stores assist the community by re-using a wide variety of donated goods and household items. The donated items get reused and the revenue raised from their sale go directly into creating jobs for people in our communities who need them most, among them the young, the old, new Canadians and people with disabilities.

In 2005, we made some major changes to the way we do business to enable us to do a better job of fulfilling our core mission of creating jobs for those who face employment barriers. You can see these changes at our community retail locations including our newest community store at Islington South Store. The new, spacious community store is cleaner and better organized, making it easier than ever before for people to find great bargains.

To support us in continuing to create jobs, we depend on the public and corporations to donate new and gently-used items. It’s easy to donate to Goodwill’s community stores and donation centres - particularly at our convenient drive-thru locations, such as 231 Richmond St. E., in downtown Toronto.

Click here to find out where to donate.

OTHER GOODWILL ENTERPRISES
Many people do not realize that Goodwill operates other business enterprises beyond collecting and re-selling donated goods. Our other Business Services include: Janitorial Services (contract cleaning and maintenance).

Goodwill provides these business services both internally to support our own operations as well as to some external clients from other non-profit, community or corporate environments. These operations provide a self-sustaining platform for employees to gain much needed work experience. Click here to learn more about our other Business Services.

Goodwill’s Community Employment Assessment Centres work in partnership with Employment Ontario to provide free employment counselling, career assessment and job search support for unemployed individuals.