SRU center hosting Dress for Success events
The Dress for Success boutique in the Holly Pointe Building saw five or six women come in every week to browse the racks in search of clothing to wear for job interviews or to supplement their current workplace wardrobes. That number was dwarfed by the 25 to 30 women who attend the mobile and pop-up clothing distribution events hosted by the organization.
Seeing that transportation and time was a barrier for these women, Butler Dress for Success closed its office in July in favor of increasing the already far more popular pop-up events.
According to Liz Mims, client services director for Dress for Success Pittsburgh, a problem for many women seeking employment is “how do you get clothing for a job when you don’t have the job yet?”
“We were seeing transportation as a barrier in Butler County,” she said. “So we decided we were going to meet women where they were — literally.”
Dress for Success provides business casual clothing and shoes, as well as amenities like lotion, shampoo, conditioner and other hygiene products, primarily for working women and women who are entering the workforce.
Although Dress for Success Pittsburgh closed its Butler office, Mims said the organization aims to increase its clientele in Butler County by 40 percent through pop-up and mobile events. The Slippery Rock University Center for Community Engagement, Empowerment and Development (SUCCEED) has hosted two pop-up clinics where women registered to pick out clothing and use the center’s technology.
The next registered distribution will be from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday at Butler SUCCEED, 150 N. Main St. in Butler.
Josette Skobieranda Dau, SUCCEED associate director, said she plans to host Dress for Success pop-up clinics twice a month.
“We started hearing concerns that they had closed, and I reached out to the local representative,” Skobieranda Dau said. “We're just starting to get the word out. At the last one we had five clients.”
Skobieranda Dau said the monthly distributions will require prior registration to get clothing, because Dress for Success now transports items from its Pittsburgh office.
“Because SUCCEED has limited space, we need to know in advance because they are bringing the clothes up from Pittsburgh,” Skobieranda Dau said. “The client is referred by a nonprofit agency. Anyone can complete a referral form, and it also asks for sizes of clothing so we know what they need.”
Skobieranda Dau said Butler SUCCEED will have referral forms on hand during Dress for Success distribution days.
Mims said that although clients have to be referred to get clothing, Dress for Success Pittsburgh does not have an income threshold for clients attending pop-up boutiques. She also said she is happy to have the partnership with SUCCEED.
“Any woman can see us,” Mims said. “Butler SUCCEED is ideal for us too, because it has computers and Wi-Fi, and we can do webinars for people.”
With Dress for Success preparing to help more women than ever in the Butler County area, Mims said the best way for people to help now is to volunteer, or make specific donations to the program.
“We rely on available volunteers to staff our distributions,” Mims said. “We put a hold on clothing donations through February 2023, but things like lotion, lip balm, conditioner — those are a luxury items for a lot of people and things we usually don’t get donated to us.”
Mims said people interested in volunteering or donating to Dress for Success Pittsburgh can contact her by email at elizabeth@dressforsuccesspittsburgh.org. For more information on the organization and its distributions, visit Dress for Success Pittsburgh’s website at pittsburgh.dressforsuccess.org.
