The mission of Dress for Success is to promote the economic independence of disadvantaged women by providing professional attire, a network of support and the career development tools to help women thrive in work and in life.
Some of our goals and objectives for Dress for Success Worldwide in 2010 are:
- Goal 1: To increase the number of low-income women, seeking employment and self-sufficiency, served by Dress for Success Worldwide.
- Objective a) To serve at least 44,000 women worldwide.
- Objective b) To provide these women with professional attire, career development services, and ongoing employment retention programs.
- Goal 2: To increase the number of clients participating in the Professional Women’s Group (PWG).
- Objective a) Recruit at least 1,500 new PWG members worldwide.
- Objective b) Activate PWG members' leadership skills by niviting them to become mentors, speakers, and more.
- Goal 3: To increase the employment retention rate of our clients around the world.
- Objective a) Achieve a worldwide employment retention rate of at least 75% for clients who have remained involved with Dress for Success through the PWG for more than one year.
- Objective b) Increase the number of clients returning to school, enrolled in vocational or degree programs, or taking advantage of scholarship programs by at least 10%.
- Goal 4: To launch new programs and services for our clients.
- Objective a) Launch our PWG Health and Wellness INitiative with 50 affiliates.
- Objective b) Roll out our Financial Literacy Program to 13 affiliates.
- Objective c) Incorporate non-traditional workforce opportunities such as construction, IT, and green jobs into our programs.
- Goal 5: To increase public awarness of Dress for Success, as well as general issues regarding the economic independence of women.
- Objective a) Maintain a volunteer base of 6,000 worldwide.
In the same year that Dress for Success was founded, the welfare overhaul set time restrictions for public assistance recipients, which in turn quickly forced heads of households into low wage jobs. Because of the rapid increase in the number of poor working women, they became an underserved segment of society and many lacked the skills and support to retain their employment. Dress for Success has responded to the needs of the women that we serve by providing professional attire, career development tools, and a network of support to help women succeed in work and in life.
Over the past 13 years, Dress for Success has grown into a thriving international not-for-profit organization that has supported more than 500,000 disadvantaged women at over 100 affiliates worldwide. Our organization serves more than 40,000 clients each year throughout the United States, Australia, Canada, Jamaica, Mexico, Poland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Scotland, and the United Kingdom.
Dress for Success serves clients referred to us through our network of partner agencies, each of which has a job training component. These agencies include a variety of educational institutions, reentry programs for the formerly incarcerated, homeless and domestic violence shelters, rehabilitation programs, job training programs, and more. More than 3,000 partner agencies around the world refer women to Dress for Success for professional apparel, career development services, and ongoing employment retention programs. A prerequisite of being referred to Dress for Success is that each woman must have already secured a job interview. On the first visit to Dress for Success, volunteers help our clients to pick out a suit and accessories for their interview. Once a client has secured employment, she is invited to return to our offices to receive up to a week’s worth of office-appropriate clothing. After the initial suiting process, clients are invited to utilize our other employment retention programs and services.
How This Organization is Funded